Matthew 16:21

ἀπὸ τότε. An important note of time. Now that the disciples have learned to acknowledge Jesus to be the Messiah, He is able to instruct them in the true nature of the Kingdom.

δεῖ conveys the idea of duty, of a course of life not led haphazard, but determined by principle, of the divine plan which rules the life and work of Christ from first to last. This thought is specially prominent in the third gospel:—in His childhood, ἐν τοῖς τοῦ πατρός μου δεῖ εἶναί με. Luke 2:49 : in His preaching, καὶ ταῖς ἑτέραις πόλεσιν εὐαγγελίσασθαί με δεῖ τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ θεοῦ ὅτι ἐπὶ τοῦτο�. Luke 4:43, in the fulfilment of the prophecies of His sufferings and death and exaltation, οὐχὶ ταῦτα ἔδει παθεῖν τὸν Χριστόν, καὶ εἰσελθεῖν εἰς τὴν δόξαν αὐτοῦ, Matthew 24:26. Cp. Acts 17:3. The same thought is applied to St Paul’s life and work in the Acts 18:21; Acts 23:11, and in other passages. It was felt to be the motive of noble lives before the gospel: οὗ ἄν τις ἑαυτὸν τάξῃ ἥ ἡγησάμενος βέλτιον εἶναι ἥ ὑπʼ ἄρχοντος ταχθῇ, ἐνταῦθα δεῖ, ὡς ἐμοὶ δοκεῖ, μένοντα κινδυνεύειν, μηδὲν ὑπολογιζόμενον μήτε θάνατον μήτε ἄλλο μηδὲν πρὸ τοῦ αἰσχροῦ, Plato, Apol. Socr. p. 28.

πολλὰ παθεῖν. πάσχειν strictly means to ‘feel,’ or ‘experience,’ without any thought of pain or suffering. The history of the word is a melancholy comment on the experience of mankind. To feel was to suffer. In the language of Christianity πάσχειν is used specially of the sufferings and death of Christ, as here, and Luke 22:15, πρὸ τοῦ με παθεῖν. 1 Peter 2:21, Χριστὸς ἔπαθεν ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν. Hence through the Vulgate, ‘passion’ has passed with this technical sense into English as in ‘Passion-tide,’ ‘Passion-week.’

τῶν πρεσβ. καὶ�. καὶ γραμ. = the Sanhedrin. See ch. Matthew 2:4, and Matthew 26:3.

ἀποκτανθῆναι. As yet there is no mention of the Roman judge or of the death upon the cross; this truth is broken gradually, see Matthew 16:24.

ἀποκτανθῆναι. A rare late form. The Attic writers as a rule used θνήσκω and its compounds to supply the passive of κτείνω. Veitch cites ἐκτείνοντο, Thuc. III. 81, as the one known exception. In Homer the passive forms occur; e.g. aor. 1 ἐκτάθην, Od. IV. 537. Also rarely in late authors ἀπεκτάνθαι, Polyb. 7. 7, and in LXX. and N.T. (Veitch, sub voc. κτείνω).

τῇ τρίτῃ ἡμέρᾳ ἐγερθῆναι. How can the plainness of this intimation be reconciled with the slowness of the disciples to believe in the Resurrection? Not by supposing that obscure hints of the Passion were afterwards put into this explicit form; but rather (1) partly by the blindness of those who will not see; (2) partly by the constant use of metaphor by Jesus. “Might not,” they would argue, “this ‘death and rising again’ be a symbol of a glorious visible kingdom about to issue from our present debasement?”