THE PHARISEES AND SADDUCEES (ο Φαρισαιο κα Σαδδουκαιο). The first time that we have this combination of the two parties who disliked each other exceedingly. Hate makes strange bedfellows. They hated Jesus more than they did each other. Their hostility has not decreased during the absence of Jesus... [ Continue Reading ]
FAIR WEATHER (ευδια). An old poetic word from ευ and Ζευς as the ruler of the air and giver of fair weather. So men today say "when the sky is red at sunset." It occurs on the Rosetta Stone and in a fourth century A.D. Oxyr. papyrus for "calm weather" that made it impossible to sail the boat. Ale... [ Continue Reading ]
LOWRING (στυγναζων). A sky covered with clouds. Used also of a gloomy countenance as of the rich young ruler in Mark 10:22. Nowhere else in the New Testament. This very sign of a rainy day we use today. The word for "foul weather" (χειμων) is the common one for winter and a storm.THE SIGNS OF THE... [ Continue Reading ]
Same words in Matthew 12:39 except του προφητου, a real doublet.... [ Continue Reading ]
CAME (ελθοντες). Probably= "went" as in Luke 15:20 (ιρε, not ςενιρε). So in Mark 8:13 απηλθεν.FORGOT (επελαθοντο). Perhaps in the hurry to leave Galilee, probably in the same boat by which they came across from Decapolis.... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY REASONED (διελογιζοντο). It was pathetic, the almost jejune inability of the disciples to understand the parabolic warning against "the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees" (verse Matthew 16:6) after the collision of Christ just before with both parties in Magadan. They kept it up, imperfe... [ Continue Reading ]
Jesus asks four pungent questions about the intellectual dulness, refers to the feeding of the five thousand and uses the word κοφινους (Matthew 14:20) for it and σφυριδας for the four thousand (Matthew 15:37), and repeats his warning (Matthew 16:11). Every teacher understands this strain upon the p... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN UNDERSTOOD THEY (τοτε συνηκαν). First aorist active indicative of συνιημ, to grasp, to comprehend. They saw the point after this elaborate rebuke and explanation that by "leaven" Jesus meant "teaching.... [ Continue Reading ]
CAESAREA PHILIPPI (Καισαριας της Φιλιππου). Up on a spur of Mt. Hermon under the rule of Herod Philip.HE ASKED (ηρωτα). Began to question, inchoative imperfect tense. He was giving them a test or examination. The first was for the opinion of men about the Son of Man.... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THEY SAID (ο δε ειπαν). They were ready to respond for they knew that popular opinion was divided on that point (Matthew 14:1). They give four different opinions. It is always a risky thing for a pastor to ask for people's opinions of him. But Jesus was not much concerned by their answers to... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT WHO SAY YE THAT I AM? (υμεις δε τινα με λεγετε ειναι?). This is what matters and what Jesus wanted to hear. Note emphatic position ofHMEIS , "But _you_, who say ye that I am?... [ Continue Reading ]
Peter is the spokesman now: "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Συ ε ο Χριστος ο υιος του θεου του ζωντος). It was a noble confession, but not a new claim by Jesus. Peter had made it before (John 6:69) when the multitude deserted Jesus in Capernaum. Since the early ministry (John 4) Je... [ Continue Reading ]
BLESSED ART THOU (μακαριος ε). A beatitude for Peter. Jesus accepts the confession as true. Thereby Jesus on this solemn occasion solemnly claims to be the Messiah, the Son of the living God, his deity in other words. The disciples express positive conviction in the Messiahship or Christhood of J... [ Continue Reading ]
AND I ALSO SAY UNTO THEE (κ'αγω δε σο λεγω). "The emphasis is not on 'Thou art Peter' over against 'Thou art the Christ,' but on Καγω: 'The Father hath revealed to thee one truth, and I also tell you another" (McNeile). Jesus calls Peter here by the name that he had said he would have (John 1:42)... [ Continue Reading ]
THE KEYS OF THE KINGDOM (τας κλειδας της βασιλειας). Here again we have the figure of a building with keys to open from the outside. The question is raised at once if Jesus does not here mean the same thing by "kingdom" that he did by "church" in verse Matthew 16:18. In Revelation 1:18; Revelation... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT THEY SHOULD TELL NO MAN (ινα μηδεν ειπωσιν). Why? For the very reason that he had himself avoided this claim in public. He was the Messiah (ο Χριστος), but the people would inevitably take it in a political sense. Jesus was plainly profoundly moved by Peter's great confession on behalf of th... [ Continue Reading ]
FROM THAT TIME BEGAN (απο τοτε ηρξατο). It was a suitable time for the disclosure of the greatest secret of his death. It is now just a little over six months before the cross. They must know it now to be ready then. The great confession of Peter made this seem an appropriate time. He will repeat... [ Continue Reading ]
PETER TOOK HIM (προσλαβομενος αυτον ο Πετρος). Middle voice, "taking to himself," aside and apart, "as if by a right of his own. He acted with greater familiarity after the token of acknowledgment had been given. Jesus, however, reduces him to his level" (Bengel). "Peter here appears in a new cha... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT HE TURNED (ο δε στραφεις). Second aorist passive participle, quick ingressive action, away from Peter in revulsion, and toward the other disciples (Mark 8:33 has επιστραφεις and ιδων τους μαθητας αυτου).GET THEE BEHIND ME, SATAN (Hυπαγε οπισω μου, Σατανα). Just before Peter played the part... [ Continue Reading ]
TAKE UP HIS CROSS (αρατω τον σταυρον αυτου). Pick up at once, aorist tense. This same saying in Matthew 10:38, which see. But pertinent here also in explanation of Christ's rebuke to Peter. Christ's own cross faces him. Peter had dared to pull Christ away from his destiny. He would do better to f... [ Continue Reading ]
SAVE HIS LIFE (την ψυχην αυτου σωσα). Paradoxical play on word "life" or "soul," using it in two senses. So about "saving" and "losing" (απολεσε).... [ Continue Reading ]
GAIN (κερδηση) andPROFIT (ζημιωθη). Both aorist subjunctives (one active, the other passive) and so punctiliar action, condition of third class, undetermined, but with prospect of determination. Just a supposed case. The verb for "forfeit" occurs in the sense of being fined or mulcted of money.... [ Continue Reading ]
SOME OF THEM THAT STAND HERE (τινες των οδε εστωτων). A _crux interpretum_ in reality. Does Jesus refer to the Transfiguration, the Resurrection of Jesus, the great Day of Pentecost, the Destruction of Jerusalem, the Second Coming and Judgment? We do not know, only that Jesus was certain of his f... [ Continue Reading ]