Matthew 16:13-17

Aug 22, 2012 05:39 AM v 17 DONE

<a href="http://bible.cc/matthew/16-13.htm" >13</a> When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?

Guzic

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Barnes Notes..

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Clarke's Commentary on the Bible

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<li>Caesarea Philippi - A city, in the tribe of Naphtali, near to Mount Libanus, in the province of Iturea. Its ancient name was Dan, Genesis 14:14; afterwards it was called Lais, Judges 18:7. But Philip the tetrarch, having rebuilt and beautified it, gave it the name of Caesarea,</li>

<li>By this and other passages we learn, that the Pharisaic doctrine of the Metempsychosis, or transmigration of souls, was pretty general; for it was upon this ground that they believed that the soul of the Baptist, or of Elijah, Jeremiah, or some of the prophets, had come to a new life in the body of Jesus.</li>

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Geneva Study Bible

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<li>There are many judgments and opinions of Christ, nevertheless he is known by his followers alone.</li>

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People's New Testament

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�W�e�s�l�e�y�'�s� �N�o�t�e�s�

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

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<li>It was originally called Panium (from a cavern in its neighborhood dedicated to the god Pan) and Paneas.</li>

<li>This quiet and distant retreat Jesus appears to have sought with the view of talking over with the Twelve the fruit of His past labors, and breaking to them for the first time the sad intelligence of His approaching death.</li>

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Matthew Henry's Whole Commentary

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<a href="http://bible.cc/matthew/16-14.htm" >14</a> And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.

Guzic

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<li>Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets: People who thought that Jesus was John the Baptist didn’t know much about Him, and they didn’t know that Jesus and John had ministered at the same time. Yet John, Elijah, and Jeremiah (along with other prophets) were national reformers who stood up to the corrupt rulers of their day.

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<li>Some thought Jesus was a herald of national repentance, like John the Baptist and some thought Jesus was a famous worker of miracles, like Elijah. Some thought Jesus was someone who spoke the words of God, like Jeremiah and the prophets.</li>

<li>The general tendency in all these answers was to underestimate Jesus; to give Him a measure of respect and honor, but to fall far short of honoring Him for who He really is.</li>

<li>“Christ is sometimes up in the market, and sometimes down in the market; but, mark you, he is not in the market at all. He can neither be bought nor sold. They say well of him one day, they speak ill of him another day: what matters it what they say? He needs no honor from them, and he fears not their dishonor. Unless they will believe in him as Lord and Savior, it is of no importance what they think of him.” (Spurgeon</li>

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Gill

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<li>Some Elias; the Tishbite, because an extraordinary person was prophesied of by Malachi, under the name of Elias; and who was to come in his power and spirit before the great day of the Lord; and it being a prevailing notion with the Jews, that Elias was to come before the Messiah; See Gill on Matthew 11:14 they concluded that he was now come:</li>

<li>and others Jeremias; this is omitted both by Mark and Luke; the reason why he is mentioned, is not because of what is said of him, in Jeremiah 1:5 but because the Jews thought he was that prophet spoken of, in Deuteronomy 18:15 that should be raised up from among them, like unto Moses: and this is the sense of some of their writers (g): and in their very ancient writings a parallel is run between Moses and Jeremy (h).</li>

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People's New Testament

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<li>16:14 Some say that thou art John the Baptist. Who had been killed by Herod a few months before. That was one popular notion regarding him, circulating, no doubt, chiefly among those who had never seen him. Herod Antipas entertained it (<a href="brain://LJZQwlH8hFu2hyzB7NWG5g/Matthew1412" class="thought-link">Matthew 14:1, 2</a>).</li>

<li>Elijah. It was very generally expected that Elijah was to return to the earth in connection with the Messiah's advent (Mal 4:5).</li>

<li>One of the prophets. The Jews believed that at the coming of the Messiah the prophets were to rise again.</li>

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Matthew Henry Whole

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<li>those that were not willing to own him to be the Christ, wandered in endless mazes, and followed the chase of every uncertain guess and wild hypothesis.</li>

<li>They are honourable opinions, and bespeak the respect they had for him, according to the best of their judgment. These were not the sentiments of his enemies, but the sober thoughts of those that followed him with love and wonder. Note, It is possible for men to have good thoughts of Christ, and yet not right ones, a high opinion of him, and yet not high enough.</li>

<li>They are all false opinions, built upon mistakes, and wilful mistakes. Christ's doctrines and miracles bespoke him to be an extraordinary Person; but because of the meanness of his appearance, so different from what they expected, they would not own him to be the Messiah, but will grant him to be any thing rather than that.</li>

<li>[2.] Some Elias; taking occasion, no doubt, from the prophecy of Malachi (ch. 4:5), Behold, I will send you Elijah. And the rather, because Elijah (as Christ) did many miracles, and was himself, in his translation, the greatest miracle of all.</li>

<li>[3.] Others Jeremias: they fasten upon him, either because he was the weeping prophet, and Christ was often in tears; or because God had set him over the kingdoms and nations (Jer. 1:10), which they thought agreed with their notion of the Messiah.</li>

<li>[4.] Or, one of the prophets. This shows what an honourable idea they entertained of the prophets; and yet they were the children of them that persecuted and slew them, ch. 23:29. Rather than they would allow Jesus of Nazareth, one of their own country, to be such an extraordinary Person as his works bespoke him to be, they would say, "It was not he, but one of the old prophets."</li>

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<a href="http://bible.cc/matthew/16-15.htm" >15</a>He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?

Guzic

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<li>If we really believe Jesus is who He says He is, it will affect the way that we live.</li>

<li>“Our Lord presupposes that his disciples would not have the same thoughts as ‘men’ had. They would not follow the spirit of age, and shape their views by those of the ‘cultured’ persons of the period.” (Spurgeon)</li>

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<a href="http://bible.cc/matthew/16-16.htm" >16</a>And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Guzic

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<li>Peter understood that Jesus was not only God’s Messiah, but also God Himself. The Jews properly thought that to receive the title “the Son of the living God,” in a unique sense, was to make a claim to deity itself.</li>

<li>“The adjective living may perhaps have been included to contrast the one true God with the local deities (Caesarea Philippi was a centre of the worship of Pan).”</li>

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People's New Testament

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<li>The confession of Peter is the one Christian confession of the New Testament and of the apostolic age,</li>

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

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<li>He does not say, "Scribes and Pharisees, rulers and people, are all perplexed; and shall we, unlettered fishermen, presume to decide?"</li>

<li>But feeling the light of his Master's glory shining in his soul, he breaks forth-not in a tame, prosaic acknowledgment, "I believe that Thou art," &c.-but in the language of adoration-such as one uses in worship, "Thou Art the Christ, the Son of the Living God!"</li>

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Matthew Henry Whole

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<li>Peter was such a one: yet we find other of the apostles sometimes speaking as the mouth of the rest; as John (Mk. 9:38), Thomas, Philip, and Jude, Jn. 14:5, 8, 22. So that this is far from being a proof of such primacy and superiority of Peter above the rest of the apostles, as the church of Rome ascribes to him.</li>

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<a href="http://bible.cc/matthew/16-17.htm" >17</a>And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.

Guzic

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a. Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven: Jesus reveals to Peter that he spoke by divine inspiration, even if he didn’t even know it at the time. In this, Peter was genuinely blessed – both by the insight itself and how it came to him.

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<li>i. We too often expect God to speak in strange and unnatural ways. Here God spoke through Peter so naturally that he didn’t even realize it was the Father who is in heaven that revealed it to him.</li>

<li>ii. This also speaks to us of our need for a supernatural revelation of Jesus. “If you know no more of Jesus than flesh and blood has revealed to you, it has brought you no more blessing than the conjectures of their age brought to the Pharisees and Sadducees, who remained an adulterous and unbelieving generation.” (Spurgeon)</li>

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Barnes' Notes on the Bible

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<li>And Jesus answered, Blessed art thou ... - Simon Bar-jona is the same as Simon son of Jona. Bar is a Syriac word signifying son. The father of Peter, therefore, was Jona, or Jonas, <a href="brain://ll0iDOKxcVyKhOU6ELNRIQ/John142" class="thought-link">John 1:42</a>; John 21:16-17.</li>

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Gill

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<li>For flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee: nothing is more frequent to be met with in Jewish writings, than the phrase of "flesh and blood", as designing men in distinction from God: so the first man is said (l) to be

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<li>"the workmanship of the blessed God, and not the workmanship , "of flesh and blood".''</li>

<li>"flesh and blood", who knows not the times and seasons, &c. but the holy, blessed God, who knows the times and seasons, &c. Instances of this way of speaking are almost without number: accordingly,</li>

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<li>...particularly the deity, sonship, and Messiahship of Christ, are doctrines of pure revelation:</li>

<li>that he has a Son of the same nature with him, and equal to him, who is the Messiah, and the Saviour of lost sinners, this could never have been found out by flesh and blood:</li>

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