Matthew 16
DODDMatthew 16:1-12
Parallels: Mark 8
The Pharisees again demand a sign, and Christ upbraids them with hypocrisy in doing it; and, having crossed the lake again, he cautions his disciples against their leaven, and that of the Sadducees. Mat. XVI. 1—12. Mark VIII. 11—21.
MAT. XVI. 1.
MAT. XVI. 1. THE Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, [and began to question with him,] and [tempting him] desired him that he would shew them a sign from heaven. [MARK VIII. 11.]
AND when Jesus was landed on the opposite shore of the sea of Galilee, in the coasts of Magdala, the Pharisees and Sadducees, notwithstanding the difference of their principles, and the alienation of their affections from each other, agreed to join in an attempt upon him: and accordingly they came, and began to examine him in a very crafty and ensnaring manner; and, to try him yet farther, desired him that he would shew them a sign from heaven;² pretending that they could not acquiesce merely
² Desired him that he would shew them a sign from heaven.] On the whole, I am ready to think the two things mentioned in note ² on Mat. xii. 38, p. 346, are to be united; and that what they here demanded was the very thing which Josephus tells us. (Bell. Jud. lib. ii. cap. 15 [al. 12,] § 4). Impostors of those times
promised they would shew them from God; under the character of æqueæ, signis of liberty, or some miraculous appearance from heaven, to assure them of deliverance from the Roman yoke. And on these principles they continued their demands in the apostles’ time (1 Cor. i. 22,) though so many signs from heaven:
M
No sign should be given them, but the sign of
in such miracles as he had wrought upon earth, where there was much more room for artifice and deceit, and evil spirits might have some greater influence than in the upper regions. (Compare Mat. xii. 38, sect. lxiii.)
But he, answering, said unto them, It is most apparent you ask this out of a desire to cavil, rather than to learn the Divine will; for in other cases you take up with degrees of evidence far short of those which you here reject; as for instance, you readily say in an evening, [It will be] fair weather tomorrow, because the sky is this evening of a bright and fiery red: And in the morning, [It will be] tempestuous weatherᵇ today, for the sky is red and lowring. O ye hypocrites, you know how to distinguish the face of the heavens, and to form from thence probable conjectures concerning the weather; and can you not [distinguish] the signs of the present times, and see by the various miracles which are daily performed among you, and the other tokens which attend mine appearance, that this is indeed the period which you profess to desire with so much eagerness, and which you might discern with much less sagacity?
And, sighing deeply, as being touched in his own spirit with a most compassionate sense of their guilt and misery, he said, Why does this generation seek after a farther sign? Verily, as I said once before on this occasion, (Mat. xii. 39, sect. lxiii.) I now say it again to you, This is an evil and adulterous generation which demands a sign, and no such sign as it requires shall be given it, unless it be the sign of the prophet Jonah, who lay three days and nights in the belly of the great fish, and then came out alive; to which a most remarkable resemblance will be quickly manifested in the resurrection of the Messiah on the third day, that will more-
had then been given in the voice from thence; in the preternatural darkness at our Lord’s crucifixion; in the descent of angels in repeated instances; and in that of the Holy Spirit, in a visible form, as well as in the most sensible effects. See Dr. Lardner’s Credib. book i. chap. 5, § 2, Vol. I. p. 291.
ᵇ Tempestuous weather.] So you properly signifies. Dr. Lightfoot justly observes that the Jews used to value themselves highly on their skill in prognosticating the weather. And Grotius has well observed, in his note on this place, what a variety of signs marked out that time for the arrival of the Messiah.
e cautioned against the leaven of the Pharisees.
be attended with the appearance of an ngel coming down from heaven.
And, having said this, he staid no longer to debate the matter with persons of so perverse and disingenuous a temper, but left them; and, intering again into the ship which brought him over the sea, he departed to the other side of the lake.
And when his disciples were come to the other side of the sea, they were concerned to find that they had forgotten to take any bread; and, having used all the fragments which they carried over with them in the baskets, they had now no more than one loaf with them in the ship.
And Jesus, willing to improve this circumstance, considering what had lately passed, gave them a solemn charge, saying, Be very cautiously on your guardᶜ against the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees, and particularly take heed of the leaven of Herodᵈ intending thereby to caution them against those corrupt mixtures which these sects had introduced, to the depraving of religion; which tended, like leaven, to overspread and sour, and puff up the mind, and so to prevent the efficacy of Divine instruction upon it.
But the slowness of their understanding shewed itself on this occasion, as it had done on many others; and they debated privately among themselves, saying, [It is] surely because we have taken no bread with us that our Lord thus cautions us against the leaven of these men, as if they polluted whatever they touched. [Which] when Jesus perceived, as he knew all the secret workings of their minds, he said unto them, O ye of little faith, why do you reason in this manner with yourselves? and why is it that you are under such concern because you have brought no bread? Do you not yet consider, after all that you have seen and heard, nor understand what has so lately passed before your eyes? [and] have you still your hearts so hardened, and your minds so stupified, as not
ᶜ Be very cautiously on your guard.] This sufficiently expresses the sense of the words ἐξῆλ καὶ ἀγαπηξῆλ, which are repeated in the original, to urge the caution with the greater force and emphasis.
ᵈ Leaven of Herod.] Those Sadducees who were also Herodians, might wit peculiar propriety be singled out by our Lord, to caution his disciples against them. See Grotius, in loc. and note to Mark iii. 6, 287.
By leaven was meant, not bread, but their do
to draw so easy a consequence from such repeated miracles, as to be free from any anxious concern on this account, because you have but one loaf? Are you like so many senseless images? Having eyes, do you not see with them? and, having ears, do you not hear? and, with those natural powers of memory and reflection, do ye not remember what you were witnesses to but a few days ago? Let me refresh your memories, and ask you, When I broke the five loaves, and you with your own hands distributed them among the five thousand men till they were all satisfied, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? They say unto him, We well remember that we took up twelve. And, added he, when in like manner [I divided] the seven [loaves] among the four thousand, and fed them to the full, how many baskets full of fragments did you then take up? And they said, Lord, we know we took up seven.
And he farther said to them, Since you remember these facts, how is it that you do not understand by them that I did not speak to you concerning bread, so as to blame you for having brought no more bread, but meant that you should be on your guard against the leaven of those erroneous notions and corrupt principles which are so common among the Pharisees, Herodians, and Sadducees?
Then they were sensible of their mistake, and understood that he did not charge them to beware of the leaven of bread; but that he intended to warn them of the evil doctrine and example of the Pharisees and Sadducees, against which so many of his discourses were most justly levelled.
How many baskets full of fragments did you take up? The learned Dr. Daniel Scott, on Mat. xvi. 10, with his usual accuracy has observed that two different words are used in this and the preceding verse for baskets, κοφιγους and στυριδος. The former signifies larger baskets; and therefore is translated paniers by the French: we have borrowed the word from them, and it seems from its etymology first to have been given them from their being used by bakers to carry about large quantities of bre. To seem to have
been smaller baskets with handles, and such as consequently might easily be carried on the arm. It is observable that our Lord did not affect to rise in the circumstances of the two miracles here mentioned. The latter, though in some particular inferior to the former, was equally a demonstration of the Divine power of Christ, and therefore equally to the purpose for which it is here mentioned; not to urge that it was of the two the more fresh in their memories.
Reflections on the perverseness of the scribes and Pharisees.
IMPROVEMENT.
So evident is it that the circumstances of a scripture story may be remembered, where the design of it is overlooked or forgot! It is much to be wished, that those which we have been surveying, may not increase the number of such instances.
In all those cases wherein the arm of the Lord has been made bare in our favour, let us seriously reflect on the Divine power and goodness, and learn from past experience to trust it for the time to come. Never let us fall into the perverse suspicions of the Israelites, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness? (Psal. lxxviii. 19.) But let us be strong in faith, giving glory to God, and cheerfully repose ourselves on his care, who can never want wisdom to judge aright of the necessities of his people, or power to relieve them, even in the greatest extremities.
We see a new instance of the perverseness of these scribes and Pharisees. They tempted Christ by unreasonable demands; and he justly suffered them to go away without the additional demonstration they sought. It is not for us to prescribe to God what degrees of evidence he shall give us. Let us impartially pursue and improve what we have; and be very careful that our sagacity, and openness to conviction, in other matters of much less importance, may not condemn our stupidity, or obstinacy, where the truths of God and the salvation of our souls are concerned.
It is our concern to beware of erroneous principles in religion, and of every corrupt leaven which might be ready to insinuate itself into our minds; especially of that, which, like the leaven of the Pharisees, would exalt our confidence in ourselves; or, like that of the Sadducees, would impair our persuasion of a future judgment, and our solicitous concern to live as in the views of it. May the oracles of Divine truth ever appear to our minds as the rule by which all doctrines are to be tried! and let us, in the spirit of love, contend earnestly for that faith which we believe to have been once delivered to the saints; that both our sentiments and actions may finally be found blameless, unto praise, and honour, and glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ! Amen.
Matthew 16:21
Parallels: Mark 8
Christ prophesies of his approaching sufferings; rebukes Peter for being offended at them; and exhorts his disciples to self-denial, and a readiness for martyrdom in his cause. Mat. XVI. 21, to the end. Mark VIII. 31, to the end; IX. 1. Luke IX. 22—27.
MAT. XVI. 21.
FROM that time forth began Jesus to [teach and] shew unto his disciples, how that he, [the Son of man,] must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things, [and be rejected] of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and [after three days] be raised again the third day. [MARK VIII. 31. LUKE IX. 22.]
MARK VIII. 32. And he spake that saying openly. And
MAT. XVI. 21.
NOW when Jesus had applauded the confession of Peter (as recorded above,) and thereby expressly declared to all the apostles that he was the Messiah, he from that time began more plainly than ever to teach [and] shew to his disciples, that he, the Son of man, who was indeed the Christ of God, must in a few months more go to Jerusalem; and there, instead of being owned under the royal character he bore, and submitted to by princes and people, must suffer many most injurious things, and be disdainfully rejected by the elders, and chief priests, and scribes of their nation, and be killed in a most cruel and outrageous manner: but he went on and added, to encourage them under this gloomy prospect, That after having lain part of three days under the power of death, he should be raised again on the third day.
And, as he now spake that saying plainly and freely, whereas he had before only given dis-
lxxxix Mat. xvi. 21
a Plainly and freely.] So [crossed out] in our version (compare John x. 24, and evidently signifies, and is often rendered xi. 14.) and in this sense it is opposed to
He rebukes Peter for the offence he took at her
tant and obscure hints of it, they were exceedingly surprised and troubled: and Peter, elevated with what our Lord had before been saying, and unable to reconcile it with what he now heard, took him [by the hand,b] and began, with a mixture of tenderness and surprise, to chide him for this melancholy discourse, saying, God, in his infinite mercy, forbid,c that thou, O Lord, shouldst ever be thus treated! This injury and violence, I persuade myself, shall not by any means be done unto thee.
But [Jesus,] when he had turned about, and looked round him on his other disciples, whose sentiments he knew to be much the same, rebuked Peter with an unusual severity; and said to him, Get thee behind me, Satan,d for thou actest the part of a devil, rather than a friend; and art a scandal to me, in thus endeavouring to obstruct the great end of mine appearance in the world;
speaking in proverbs: John xvi. 25, 29. Christ had before given obscure hints of this, John ii. 19; iii. 14; vi. 51; Mat. x. 38; xii. 40; and elsewhere.
b Took him by the hand.] So I render the word ἀρχιπλοκομία. Compare Rom. xv. 7, Gr. which may help to illustrate the sense of it.
c God, in his infinite mercy, forbid! Dr. Fuller supposes that Ἰλλις σοι should be rendered, May God have compassion upon thee! (See Fuller’s Miscel. Sver. lib. ii. cap. 2.) Heinsius, Grotius, and Le Clerc, give the same interpretation; which is also asserted at large by the learned Mr. Wasse. (Biblioth. Liter. Vol. I. p. 30.) And the accurate Dr. Scott renders it, Mercy on thee! which is more literal than any of the rest. I think the phrase, as used by the seventy, generally signifies, God forbid; or, as we render it, Far be it from thee! (See 1 Sam. xiv. 45; 2 Sam. xx. 20; 1 Kings xxi. 3; 1 Chron. xi. 19; and compare 1 Mac. ii. 21.) But as the accurate critics I have mentioned above suppose there is a particular tenderness in their interpretation, I have endeavoured to preserve it in the paraphrase. Some would render it, Have compassion on thyself; but I cannot recollect any place where it has that sense; though 2 Sam. xxiii. 17, and Gen. xliii. 23, Septuag. have been especially alledged as instances of it. See E’sner. Observ. Vol. I. p. 81.
d Get thee behind me, Satan.] Compare Luke iv. 8, p. 120. The word Satan, which is originally Hebrews, and has from thence been taken into several languages, is often used in the Old Testament to signify an adversary (see Numb. xxii. 32; 2 Sam. xix. 22; 1 Kings v. 4, and xi. 14;) and the expression has appeared so harsh to some, as coming from the mouth of Christ to one of his apostles, that they have rather chosen to translate it, O mine adversary. But as the evangelists have both made use of the word Σαβριά, which must be owned to have a sound as odious in the Greek as it has now with us, we may conclude that it was used by Christ, or his rebuke to Peter would have been otherwise expressed by some Greek word that signifies an adversary. Nor can the word appear at all too harsh, when we consider that the tendency of Peter’s saying, though it was spoken out of a singular affection to his Master, was to obstruct the great design for which he came into the world, and none but Satan could desire to prevent what he was ready to submit to for the salvation of lost sinners. Dr. Young (in his Sermons, Vol. II. p. 137) rendering Ἰλλις σοι, Favour thyself, supposes that our Lord calls Peter, Satan, because he now fell on that advice which Satan uses the most successfully of all his artifices to undo men; that of selfindulgence: and so makes this scripture an introduction to his discourse on selfdenial.
for by this it plainly appears, that thou dost not regard and relish the things of God, but those of men, and losest thy zeal for the Divine glory, and the salvation of souls, in a mean solicitude for the enjoyments of this temporal life, and the grandeurs of an earthly kingdom, of which thou art vainly dreaming. Then having called the multitude, with his disciples, to him, he said unto them all, You must not only expect to see me suffer, but to share with me in my afflictions and sorrows, if ever you would hope to obtain a part in the glories of my kingdom: if any one therefore is willing to come after me, and to attend me as a faithful servant and disciple, let him learn to deny himself in the dearest pleasures and interests of this present life, and habituate himself daily to take up his cross: let him submit to whatsoever trial Providence may lay before him, and be ready to follow me, even to crucifixion itself; for till he is taught a readiness to meet death, even in that dreadful form, for my sake, he has attended my other instructions in vain. (Compare Mat. x. 38, p. 420.) And it is well worth your while to submit: even to this: for whosoever will attempt to save his life from persecution, by forsaking me and my gospel, shall find he has taken the surest way to lose it; as he will another day incur the sentence of the second death, and meet a far more dreadful punishment from God, as an apostate, than he could have borne from men as my servant: but whosoever shall lose or expose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, shall find it with far greater advantage in the future state, [and] so shall have reason to acknowledge that he took the truest method to save it. (Compare Mat. x. 39, p. 420.) And therefore, on these principles, it will be certainly your highest wisdom to forego the greatest advantages, or to bear the utmost extremities, rather than to forsake me: for it gard and relish the o relish, or savour, is t I did not think it such a version; for signifies to fix: a gov- erning regard on any thing, so as to m: the chief object of our pursuit; v seems the plain sense of it here. i: par Rom. viii. 5; Phil. iii. 19; and iii. 2.
To gain all the world is no amends for the loss of
is a kind of proverb among you, What would it profit a man, if he should gain the whole world, and be punished with the loss of his life? and so may I say, what would all that gain, added to his present security, signify, if he thereby bring a sentence of death on his soul, [and] so lose himself, or be finally cast away? Or what shall a man give as a ransom for his life? What gains would he not be willing to resign, to quit himself of that foolish bargain by which he had sold it? Yet in this case, what would be accepted as an equivalent for it? “Its redemption is precious, and it ceaseth for ever.” (Psal. xlix. 8.)
Now assure yourselves that this thought may with the utmost propriety be applied to the case before us: for whosoever is ashamed of me and of my words, in this adulterous and sinful generation, shall find, to his cost, that of him also will the Son of man be ashamed, and him will he with scorn disown, and with inexorable justice condemn, when he comes in his own glory, (that is, in all the pomp and grandeur in which he was of old represented to the prophets,) and shall appear upon his throne invested with the glory of his Father, as commissioned by him, to be the great executor of his judgment, as well as the
If he should gain the whole world, and be punished with the loss of his life? καὶ ζημιαθῆ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ.] Though the force of this maxim, taken by itself, appears best by rendering ψυχὴν, soul, which it does undoubtedly on the whole signify here; yet is the same word had been rendered life, ver. 35, and its meaning is sufficiently plain from what follows, I thought it better to retain the same version here likewise; which, taken in its connection, has (as Dr. Tillotson observes, Vol. III. p. 528. 529) an additional spirit, which consists in the application of a proverb relating to the worth of life (compare Job ii. 4;) to the soul, which is in the highest sense the life of the man, or the man himself. (Luke ix. 25.)—Τὴν ψυχὴν ζημιαθῆναι does not merely signify to lose the life, which might be applied to a man who accidentally met death in the pursuit of gain (as a merchant who should be lost in his voyage;) but it properly imports undergoing a capital execution, which is an idea of much greater terror, as well as of much stricter propriet in
the present case: and would to God it might seriously be considered in this awful view! See Raphel. Annot. ex Herod, p. 171. As a ransom for his life.] So the word ἀγίαλλιμ properly signifies; and in this connection leads us to reflect how willing a condemned malefactor would be to give all he had got by his crimes to buy his pardon, and how vain the attempt would in this case be.
In his own glory, and the glory of his Father.] How these are distinguished it is not easy to say. Mr. Bragge explains it of the lustre of his own glorified body, surrounded with such a circle of fire as that in which (according to him) God the Father had appeared, particularly on Mount Sinai. (Bragge on the Parables, Vol. II. p. 181.) I think it sufficient to say that, besides the glory which the human nature of Christ habitually wears in heaven, some additional splendor shall now be given to him by the Father, when he sends him with his commission on so august an occasion as the universal judgment
em should live till Christ came in his king om.
dispenser of his grace, attended with the bright retinue of the holy angels, who shall wait on him as his servants to grace the solemnity of that awful day. For you may certainly depend upon it, that howsoever he be now despised and rejected of men, there is a day appointed, when the Son of man shall thus come in his Father’s glory, and be encircled in the most pompoous manner with his holy angels; and then shall he convene the whole world before him, that he may determine the final happiness or misery of each, and recompense every man according to his actions.
And he said farther to them, Verily I tell it you as a most certain truth, that there are some of them who stand here among us that shall live to see a most awful emblem of this important day: for some that now hear me shall not taste of death, that is, they shall not die, till they have seen the kingdom of God come to be established far and near, with a divinely efficacious power; [and] have beheld so eminent an appearance of Providence to promote the triumphs of my gospel, and to avenge the cruel injuries I shall receive from this ungrateful nation, that they may be said even to see the Son of man coming in his kingdom,¹ and leading on his victorious armies against those who would not admit him to reign over them.
IMPROVEMENT.
ALAS! how prone are our foolish souls to relish and regard the Mark things of men rather than those of God! How justly do we deserve the rebuke of our Lord, who, while he speaks to Peter with such abhorrence, after all the encomiums he had just been giving
¹ The son of man coming in his kingdom.] Raphelius (Annot. ex Polyb. in loc.) and Albert (Observ. p. 113, 114) have indeed proved that the son is sometimes used for the king, and is for us (compare John v. 4.) and therefore they, with some other critics, would render this text, Some here present shall not die, till they see the Son of man going into his kingdom, that is, ascending to heaven, which the apostles did (see Acts i. 9.) But it increaseth the difficulty to suppose both these uncommon senses of the words in question to occur together; nor will Luke xxiii. 4? be allowed as an exact parallel. I choose therefore to adhere to our received version, which may include a reference to the giving the spirit, and propagating the gospel, but chiefly refers to that providential appearance of Christ for the destruction of Jerusalem, so often called the coming of the Son of man (Mat xxiv. 3. 27, 30, 37.) and the day in which he shall be revealed (Luke xvii. 24, 26, 30.) This sense is the more natural here, especially as our Lord’s manner of speaking intimates that most of the company should be dead before the event referred to; yet his ascension has ended in a few months after this.
Reflections on a readiness to suffer for Christ.
вест. him, shews us with what indignation we should reject every motion that would lead us to prefer our own ease or temporal interest, to the glory of God and the happiness of man.
Verse 36 We shall never act so mean a part, if we cordially digest the lessons which Christ hath here taught us, and consider of how much greater importance the salvation of the soul is, than the gain of the whole world when opposed to it. Let us steadily pursue this maxim of Divine wisdom, and with cheerfulness sacrifice every other interest to the views of an eternal felicity.
Does Jesus call us to deny ourselves for him? What difficulties should we not be ready to submit to, what pleasures should we not renounce for him, who pleased not himself, that he might shew his love to us; and took upon him the form of a servant, that he might make us kings and priests unto God! Does he require us to take up our cross and follow him? What sufferings should we not be willing to endure for him; and whither should we not consent to follow him, who has borne the cross for us, and willingly expired on it for our sakes!
A sense of gratitude for past favours might bear us triumphantly through all the opposition we might be called to encounter in his cause; how much more then may we be animated by the pleasing hope that we shall another day be confessed by Christ in the presence of his Father and of his holy angels. Let us represent to ourselves that august presence, that awful day, whenever a regard to an adulterous and sinful generation would lead us to be ashamed of Christ and of his words. So shall we certainly be brought to see the kingdom of God in its glory; and if it opens to us in the visions of the future state, we shall have no reason to be anxiously solicitous, though death should remove us from these lower regions before the gospel hath that universal triumph which the word of God encourages his church to expect.
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