Mat 16:15-20 | RWP | e4.org | 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 of hmeis , "But you , who say ye that I am?"

‏ Matthew 16:15-20

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 of

hmeis, "But you, who say ye that I am?"

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 (Joh 6:69) when the multitude deserted Jesus in Capernaum. Since the early ministry (John 4) Jesus had avoided the word Messiah because of its political meaning to the people. But now Peter plainly calls Jesus the Anointed One, the Messiah, the Son of the God the living one (note the four Greek articles). This great confession of Peter means that he and the other disciples believe in Jesus as the Messiah and are still true to him in spite of the defection of the Galilean populace (John 6).

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 Jesus as opposed to the divided opinions of the populace. "The terms in which Jesus speaks of Peter are characteristic--warm, generous, unstinted. The style is not that of an ecclesiastical editor laying the foundation for church power, and prelatic pretentions, but of a noble-minded Master eulogizing in impassioned terms a loyal disciple" (Bruce). The Father had helped Peter get this spiritual insight into the Master's Person and Work.

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 (Joh 1:42). Peter ( Πετρος ) is simply the Greek word for Cephas (Aramaic). Then it was prophecy, now it is fact. In verse 17 Jesus addresses him as "Simon Bar-Jonah," his full patronymic (Aramaic) name. But Jesus has a purpose now in using his nickname "Peter" which he had himself given him. Jesus makes a remarkable play on Peter's name, a pun in fact, that has caused volumes of controversy and endless theological strife.

On this rock ( επ ταυτη τη πετρα ) Jesus says, a ledge or cliff of rock like that in 7:24 on which the wise man built his house. Πετρος is usually a smaller detachment of the massive ledge. But too much must not be made of this point since Jesus probably spoke Aramaic to Peter which draws no such distinction ( Κηφα ). What did Jesus mean by this word-play?

I will build my church ( οικοδομησω μου την εκκλησιαν ). It is the figure of a building and he uses the word εκκλησιαν which occurs in the New Testament usually of a local organization, but sometimes in a more general sense. What is the sense here in which Jesus uses it? The word originally meant "assembly" (Ac 19:39), but it came to be applied to an "unassembled assembly" as in Ac 8:3 for the Christians persecuted by Saul from house to house. "And the name for the new Israel, εκκλησια, in His mouth is not an anachronism. It is an old familiar name for the congregation of Israel found in Deut. (De 18:26; 23:2) and Psalms (Ps 22:36), both books well known to Jesus" (Bruce). It is interesting to observe that in Ps 89 most of the important words employed by Jesus on this occasion occur in the LXX text. So οικοδομησω in Ps 89:5; εκκλησια in Ps 89:6; κατισχυω in Ps 89:22; Χριστος in Ps 89:39, 52; αιδης in Ps 89:49 ( εκ χειρος αιδου ). If one is puzzled over the use of "building" with the word εκκλησια it will be helpful to turn to 1Pe 2:5. Peter, the very one to whom Jesus is here speaking, writing to the Christians in the five Roman provinces in Asia (1Pe 1:1), says: "You are built a spiritual house" ( οικοδομεισθε οικος πνευματικος ). It is difficult to resist the impression that Peter recalls the words of Jesus to him on this memorable occasion. Further on (1Pe 2:9) he speaks of them as an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, showing beyond controversy that Peter's use of building a spiritual house is general, not local. This is undoubtedly the picture in the mind of Christ here in 16:18. It is a great spiritual house, Christ's Israel, not the Jewish nation, which he describes. What is the rock on which Christ will build his vast temple? Not on Peter alone or mainly or primarily. Peter by his confession was furnished with the illustration for the rock on which His church will rest. It is the same kind of faith that Peter has just confessed. The perpetuity of this church general is guaranteed.

The gates of Hades ( πυλα αιδου )

shall not prevail against it ( ου κατισχυσουσιν αυτης ). Each word here creates difficulty. Hades is technically the unseen world, the Hebrew Sheol, the land of the departed, that is death. Paul uses θανατε in 1Co 15:55 in quoting Ho 13:14 for αιδη. It is not common in the papyri, but it is common on tombstones in Asia Minor, "doubtless a survival of its use in the old Greek religion" (Moulton and Milligan, Vocabulary). The ancient pagans divided Hades ( α privative and ιδειν, to see, abode of the unseen) into Elysium and Tartarus as the Jews put both Abraham's bosom and Gehenna in Sheol or Hades (cf. Lu 16:25). Christ was in Hades (Ac 2:27, 31), not in Gehenna. We have here the figure of two buildings, the Church of Christ on the Rock, the House of Death (Hades). "In the Old Testament the 'gates of Hades' (Sheol) never bears any other meaning (Isa 38:10; Wisd. 16:3; 3Macc. 5:51) than death," McNeile claims. See also Ps 9:13; 107:18; Job 38:17 ( πυλα θανατου πυλωρο αιδου ). It is not the picture of Hades attacking Christ's church, but of death's possible victory over the church. "The εκκλησια is built upon the Messiahship of her master, and death, the gates of Hades, will not prevail against her by keeping Him imprisoned. It was a mysterious truth, which He will soon tell them in plain words (verse 21); it is echoed in Ac 2:24, 31" (McNeile). Christ's church will prevail and survive because He will burst the gates of Hades and come forth conqueror. He will ever live and be the guarantor of the perpetuity of His people or church. The verb κατισχυω (literally have strength against, ισχυω from ισχυς and κατ- ) occurs also in Lu 21:36; 23:23. It appears in the ancient Greek, the LXX, and in the papyri with the accusative and is used in the modern Greek with the sense of gaining the mastery over. The wealth of imagery in Mt 16:18 makes it difficult to decide each detail, but the main point is clear. The εκκλησια which consists of those confessing Christ as Peter has just done will not cease. The gates of Hades or bars of Sheol will not close down on it. Christ will rise and will keep his church alive. Sublime Porte used to be the title of Turkish power in Constantinople.

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 18. In Re 1:18; 3:7 Christ the Risen Lord has "the keys of death and of Hades." He has also "the keys of the kingdom of heaven" which he here hands over to Peter as "gatekeeper" or "steward" ( οικονομος ) provided we do not understand it as a special and peculiar prerogative belonging to Peter. The same power here given to Peter belongs to every disciple of Jesus in all the ages. Advocates of papal supremacy insist on the primacy of Peter here and the power of Peter to pass on this supposed sovereignty to others. But this is all quite beside the mark. We shall soon see the disciples actually disputing again (Mt 18:1) as to which of them is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven as they will again (20:21) and even on the night before Christ's death. Clearly neither Peter nor the rest understood Jesus to say here that Peter was to have supreme authority. What is added shows that Peter held the keys precisely as every preacher and teacher does. To "bind" ( δησηις ) in rabbinical language is to forbid, to "loose" ( λυσηις ) is to permit. Peter would be like a rabbi who passes on many points. Rabbis of the school of Hillel "loosed" many things that the school of Schammai "bound." The teaching of Jesus is the standard for Peter and for all preachers of Christ. Note the future perfect indicative ( εστα δεδεμενον, εστα λελυμενον ), a state of completion. All this assumes, of course, that Peter's use of the keys will be in accord with the teaching and mind of Christ. The binding and loosing is repeated by Jesus to all the disciples (18:18). Later after the Resurrection Christ will use this same language to all the disciples (Joh 20:23), showing that it was not a special prerogative of Peter. He is simply first among equals, primus inter pares, because on this occasion he was spokesman for the faith of all. It is a violent leap in logic to claim power to forgive sins, to pronounce absolution, by reason of the technical rabbinical language that Jesus employed about binding and loosing. Every preacher uses the keys of the kingdom when he proclaims the terms of salvation in Christ. The proclamation of these terms when accepted by faith in Christ has the sanction and approval of God the Father. The more personal we make these great words the nearer we come to the mind of Christ. The more ecclesiastical we make them the further we drift away from him.

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 the disciples. He was grateful and confident of the final outcome. But he foresaw peril to all. Peter had confessed him as the Messiah and on this rock of faith thus confessed he would build his church or kingdom. They will all have and use the keys to this greatest of all buildings, but for the present they must be silent.