Matthew 16
Rejecting the Demand for a Sign 1–4
Warning Against the Leaven of the Leaders 5–12
Peter's Confession of Christ 13–20
Jesus Predicts His Passion 21–23
The Cost of Discipleship 24–28
Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain
Study Notes for Matthew 16
Verse 1
a sign from heaven — Peirazo, ‘tempting’, is the word for the tempter’s work in 4:1–3. The Pharisees had asked for a sign ‘from thee’ in 12:38; now the Sadducees join them and the request is for one ‘from heaven’. The two parties are named together in 3:7 and again here, though the Sadducees ‘say that there is no resurrection’ (22:23) and the Pharisees confess it (Acts 23:8).
Verse 3
the signs of the times — ‘Times’ is kairos, an appointed season, and ‘discern’ is diakrino, to judge between. The signs were already given: ‘The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed’ (11:5). Luke has the same rebuke (Luke 12:56), and Issachar’s sons are praised as ‘men that had understanding of the times’ (1 Chr 12:32).
Verse 4
the sign of the prophet Jonas — This is the answer of 12:39 repeated; ‘wicked’ here and ‘evil’ there are the same Greek word, poneros. The explanation of 12:40, ‘three days and three nights’, is not repeated. Christ ‘left them, and departed’, where kataleipo is the verb of leaving behind.
Verse 6
the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees — Zume, leaven, was put away from the house at Passover (Ex 12:15) and kept out of the meat offering (Lev 2:11). Paul says ‘A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump’ (Gal 5:9). Matthew explains this leaven as ‘doctrine’ (v.12), Luke as ‘hypocrisy’ (Luke 12:1), and Mark joins Herod to the Pharisees (Mark 8:15).
Verse 7
It is because we have taken no bread — ‘Reasoned’ is dialogizomai, to argue it through. The disciples hear ‘leaven’ and think of ‘bread’ (artos), which they had forgotten to bring (v.5). The two are linked by the word, and Christ has to ask in vv.9–10 whether they remember the loaves already multiplied.
Verse 8
O ye of little faith — Oligopistos is used in Matthew only at 6:30, 8:26, 14:31 and here. In vv.9–10 he names the five loaves and the seven loaves and asks how many baskets were taken up, twelve in 14:20 and seven in 15:37, and the Greek uses a different word for ‘basket’ each time, kophinos and spyris.
Verse 12
the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees — ‘Doctrine’ is didache, teaching. The Pharisees were charged with ‘teaching for doctrines the commandments of men’ (15:9), and the Sadducees were those who ‘say that there is no resurrection’ (22:23). Two opposed schools are put under the one word ‘leaven’. ‘Understood’ is syniemi, to put together.
Verse 13
Caesarea Philippi — Named for Caesar and for Philip, ‘tetrarch of Ituraea’ (Luke 3:1), to tell it from the Caesarea of Cornelius (Acts 10:1). Matthew says Jesus came into its ‘coasts’, the district around it. ‘The Son of man’ is his own title, from Dan 7:13, ‘one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven’.
Verse 14
John the Baptist… Elias… Jeremias — Herod had already said ‘This is John the Baptist; he is risen from the dead’ (14:2). ‘Elias’ is Elijah, whom Mal 4:5 promised, and ‘Jeremias’ is Jeremiah, which Matthew writes ‘Jeremy’ at 2:17. The answers all name a prophet, and none names the Christ.
Verse 16
the Christ, the Son of the living God — Christos is the Anointed, in Hebrew Messiah: ‘We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ’ (John 1:41). ‘The living God’ is a title used in Ps 42:2 and Hos 1:10, and set against idols in Jer 10:10 and 1 Thess 1:9. The disciples in the boat had said ‘Of a truth thou art the Son of God’ (14:33); Peter adds ‘the living God’.
Verse 17
flesh and blood hath not revealed it — ‘Revealed’ is apokalypto. The same word is used of the Father and Son: ‘no man knoweth the Son, but the Father… he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him’ (11:27). Paul uses the phrase of himself: ‘I conferred not with flesh and blood’ (Gal 1:16). ‘Barjona’ is ‘son of Jona’ (John 1:42).
Verse 18
upon this rock I will build my church — ‘Peter’ (Petros) and ‘rock’ (petra) are two forms of one word. Readers have taken the rock as Peter, his confession, or Christ. For Peter: the keys follow in v.19, and the church stands ‘upon the foundation of the apostles’ (Eph 2:20). For Christ: ‘a chief corner stone’ (1 Pet 2:6) and the one foundation (1 Cor 3:11).
Verse 19
the keys of the kingdom of heaven — Isa 22:22 gives the key of the house of David, which opens and none shuts; Christ himself holds ‘the key of David’ (Rev 3:7). ‘Shall be bound’ and ‘shall be loosed’ are perfect forms, ‘shall already have been bound’. The words are given to all the disciples in 18:18, and John 20:23 speaks of sins remitted and retained.
Verse 21
From that time forth began Jesus — Matthew uses this formula twice: at 4:17, ‘From that time Jesus began to preach’, and here, where the subject is his death. ‘Must’ is dei, a necessity Scripture states: ‘Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day’ (Luke 24:46). The same three groups meet in 26:3.
Verse 22
Be it far from thee, Lord — Hileos soi, found only here and in Heb 8:12, where it is ‘merciful’: it is a wish, ‘God be gracious to thee’. Peter ‘took him’ aside and ‘began to rebuke’ (epitimao), the verb Christ uses of winds and demons. ‘This shall not be unto thee’ is a strong denial, a double negative in the Greek.
Verse 23
Get thee behind me, Satan — In 4:10 the words were ‘Get thee hence, Satan’; here ‘behind me’ (opiso) is added, the place of a follower, and v.24 uses the same word in ‘come after me’. ‘Offence’ is skandalon, a trap or stumblingblock. ‘Savourest’ is phroneo, to set the mind on, the verb of Rom 8:5, ‘mind the things of the flesh’.
Verse 24
let him deny himself — Aparneomai, the verb of Peter’s own denial: ‘thou shalt deny me thrice’ (26:34, 35, 75). ‘Come after me’ uses opiso, the word of ‘behind me’ in v.23. Luke adds ‘daily’ to the taking up of the cross (Luke 9:23), and the saying is given earlier in 10:38.
Verse 25
whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it — ‘Life’ is psyche, the same word translated ‘soul’ in v.26. The saying is given earlier at 10:39 and in John 12:25 with the ending ‘keep it unto life eternal’. Both verbs of the first half, ‘save’ and ‘lose’, are set against ‘find’ in the second.
Verse 26
what is a man profited — ‘Lose’ here is zemioo, to suffer forfeit, not the ‘lose’ (apollymi) of v.25. ‘Exchange’ is antallagma, a price paid, found only here and in Mark 8:37. Ps 49:7–8 states why no price exists: ‘None of them can by any means redeem his brother… the redemption of their soul is precious’.
Verse 27
he shall reward every man according to his works — ‘Reward’ is apodidomi, to give back, the ‘render’ of Ps 62:12 and Rom 2:6, ‘Who will render to every man according to his deeds’. The Son of man comes ‘in the glory of his Father with his angels’, as in Dan 7:13 and Matt 25:31.
Verse 28
some standing here, which shall not taste of death — Mark has ‘till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power’ (Mark 9:1). The next event is ‘after six days’ (17:1), the transfiguration, when his face ‘did shine as the sun’ (17:2); Peter later writes ‘we… were eyewitnesses of his majesty’ (2 Pet 1:16). Others take it of the resurrection, Pentecost or the fall of Jerusalem.