CHAPTER 16. SIGN SEEKERS: CAESAREA PHILIPPI. Again a dramatically impressive juxtaposition of events. First an ominous encounter with ill-affected men professedly in quest of a sign, then in a place of retreat a first announcement in startlingly plain terms of an approaching tragic crisis.... [ Continue Reading ]
προσελθόντες : one of Mt.'s oft-recurring descriptive words. φαρ. καὶ Σαδδ.: a new combination, with sinister purpose, of classes of the community not accustomed to act together; wide apart, indeed, in social position and religious tendency, but made allies _pro tem_, by common dislike to the moveme... [ Continue Reading ]
_Demand for a sign_ (Mark 8:11-21).... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 16:2-3, hough not in [95] and bracketed by W. H [96], may be regarded as part of the text. Somewhat similar is Luke 12:54-56. On some occasion Jesus must have contrasted the shrewd observation of His contemporaries in the natural sphere with their spiritual obtuseness. [95] Codex Vaticanus... [ Continue Reading ]
_Reply of Jesus_.... [ Continue Reading ]
χειμών, a storm to-day; sign the same, a ruddy sky in the _morning_. στυγνάζων, late but expressive = _triste coelum_. No special meteorological skill indicated thereby, only the average power of observation based on experience, which is common to man kind. Lightfoot credits the Jews with special in... [ Continue Reading ]
_ide_ chap. Matthew 12:39.... [ Continue Reading ]
The one important thing in this section is the reflection of Jesus on what had just taken place. The historical setting is not clear. Jesus left the sign seekers after giving them their answer. The disciples cross the lake; in which direction? With or without their Master? They forget to take bread.... [ Continue Reading ]
ὁρᾶτε καὶ προσέχετε : an abrupt, urgent admonition to look out for, in order to take heed of, a phenomenon of very sinister import; in Scottish idiom “see and beware of”. More impressive still in Mk.: ὁρᾶτε, βλέπετε, a duality giving emphasis to the command (ἀναδίπλωσις, ἐμφαίνουσα ἐπίτασιν τῆς παρα... [ Continue Reading ]
ἐν ἑαυτοῖς : either each man in his own mind (Weiss), or among themselves, apart from the Master (Meyer). ὅτι may be recitative or = “because”. He gives this warning because, etc.; sense the same. They take the Master to mean: do not buy bread from persons belonging to the obnoxious sects! or rather... [ Continue Reading ]
ὀλιγόπιστοι : always thinking about _bread, bread_, instead of the kingdom and its fortunes, with which alone the Master was occupied.... [ Continue Reading ]
nd with so little excuse in view of quite recent experiences, of which the vivid details are given as if to heighten the reproach.... [ Continue Reading ]
προσέχετε, etc.: warning repeated without further explanation, as the meaning would now be self-evident.... [ Continue Reading ]
συνῆκαν, they now understood, at least to the extent of seeing that it was a question not of loaves but of something spiritual. One could wish that they had understood that from the first, and that they had asked their Master to explain more precisely the nature of the evil influences for their and... [ Continue Reading ]
Ἐλθὼν : here again this verb may mean not arriving at, but setting out for, or on the way: _unterwegs_, Schanz. So Grotius: _cum proficisceretur, non cum venissct_. Fritzsche dissents and renders: _postquam venerat_. Mk. has ἐν τῂ ὁδῷ to indicate where the conversation began. On the whole both expre... [ Continue Reading ]
_At Caesarea Philippi_ (Mark 8:27 to Mark 9:1; Luke 9:18-27). The crossing of the lake (Matthew 16:5) proved to be the prelude to a second long excursion northwards, similar to that mentioned in Matthew 15:21; like it following close on an encounter with ill-affected persons, and originating in a ki... [ Continue Reading ]
_Reply of disciples_ : the general effect being: opinions of the people, favourable but crude, without religious definiteness and depth, with no promise of future outcome. Ἰωάν., Ἠλίαν., Ἱερεμ. Historic characters, recent or more ancient, _redivivi_ that the utmost possible: unable to rise to the id... [ Continue Reading ]
ὑμεῖς δὲ, and you? might have stood alone, perhaps did originally. Jesus invites the Twelve to give Him their own view. The first question was really only introductory to this. Jesus desires to make sure that He, otherwise without reliable following, has in His disciples at least the nucleus of a co... [ Continue Reading ]
_New question and answer_.... [ Continue Reading ]
Σίμων Πέτρος : now as always spokesman for the Twelve. There may be deeper natures among them (John?), but he is the most energetic and outspoken, though withal emotional rather than intellectual; strong, as passionate character is, rather than with the strength of thought, or of a will steadily con... [ Continue Reading ]
μακάριος : weighty word chosen to express a rare and high condition, virtue, or experience (“hoc vocabulo non solum beata, sed etiam rara simul conditio significatur,” Beng.). It implies satisfaction with the quality of Peter's faith. Jesus was not easily satisfied as to that. He wanted no man to ca... [ Continue Reading ]
_Solemn address of Jesus to Peter_, peculiar to Mt., and of doubtful authenticity in the view of many modern critics, including Wendt (_Die Lehre Jesu_, i., p. 181), either an addendum by the evangelist or introduced at a later date by a reviser. This question cannot be fully discussed here. It must... [ Continue Reading ]
κἀγὼ : emphatic, something very important about to be said to Peter and about him. πέτρος, τέτρᾳ, a happy play of words. Both are appellatives to be translated “thou art a rock and on this rock,” the two being represented by the same word in Aramaean (כֵיפָא). Elsewhere in the Gospels Πέτρος is a pr... [ Continue Reading ]
διεστείλατο (T. R.), “charged” (A. V [97]) not necessarily with any special emphasis = _graviter interdicere_, but = _monuit_ (Loesner and Fritzsche). _Cf._ Hebrews 12:20, where a stronger sense seems required. For ἐπετίμησε in [98] [99] here and in Mk. Euthy. gives κατησφαλίσατο = to make sure by i... [ Continue Reading ]
ἀπὸ τότε ἤρξατο (_vide_ Matthew 4:17) marks pointedly a new departure in the form of explicit intimation of an approaching final and fatal crisis. Time suitable. Disciples could now bear it, it could not be much longer delayed. Jesus could now face the crisis with composure, having been satisfied by... [ Continue Reading ]
_Announcement of the Passion with relative conversation_ (Mark 8:31 to Mark 9:1; Luke 9:22-27).... [ Continue Reading ]
Peter here appears in a new character; a minute ago speaking under inspiration from heaven, now under inspiration from the opposite quarter. ἤρξατο, began to chide or admonish. He did not get far. As soon as his meaning became apparent he encountered prompt, abrupt, peremptory contradiction. ἶλεώς σ... [ Continue Reading ]
ὕπαγε ὀ. μ. Σ.: tremendous crushing reply of the Master, showing how much He felt the temptation; calm on the surface, deep down in the soul a very real struggle. Some of the Fathers (Origen, Jerome) strive to soften the severity of the utterance by taking _Satanas_ as an appellative = ἀντικείμενος,... [ Continue Reading ]
εἶπε τοῖς μαθ.: in calm, self-collected, didactic tone Jesus proceeds to give the disciples, in a body, a lesson arising out of the situation. εἴ τις θέλει : _wishes_, no compulsion; οὐ βιάζομαι, Chrys., who remarks on the wisdom of Jesus in leaving every man free, and trusting to the attraction of... [ Continue Reading ]
_General instruction on the subject of the two interests_.... [ Continue Reading ]
_ide_ Matthew 10:39. The Caesarea crisis was the most appropriate occasion for the first promulgation of this great ethical principle. It was Christ's first contribution towards unfolding the significance of His suffering, setting it forth as the result of a fidelity to righteousness incumbent on al... [ Continue Reading ]
This and the following verses suggest aids to practice of the philosophy of “dying to live”. The statement in this verse is self-evident in the sphere of the lower life. It profits not to gain the whole world if you lose your life, for you cannot enjoy your possession; a life lost cannot be recovere... [ Continue Reading ]
μέλλει points to something near and certain; note the emphatic position. ἔρχεσθαι ἐν τ. δ., the counterpart experience to the passion; stated objectively in reference to the _Son of Man_, the passion spoken of in the second person (Matthew 16:21). In Mk. both are objectively put; but the disciples t... [ Continue Reading ]
_crux interpretum_, supposed by some to refer to the Transfiguration (Hilary, Chrys., Euthy., Theophy., etc.); by others to the destruction of Jerusalem (Wetstein, etc.); by others again to the origins of the Church (Calvin, Grotius, etc.). The general meaning can be inferred with certainty from the... [ Continue Reading ]