Matthew 16:1-24

The Demand for a Sign

16:1 Now when the Pharisees ¹  and Sadducees ²  came to test Jesus, ³  they asked him to show them a sign from heaven. ⁴  16:2 He ⁵  said, “When evening comes you say, ‘It will be fair weather, because the sky is red,’ 16:3 and in the morning, ‘It will be stormy today, because the sky is red and darkening.’ ⁶  You know how to judge correctly the appearance of the sky, ⁷  but you cannot evaluate the signs of the times. 16:4 A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.” Then ⁸  he left them and went away.

The Yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees

16:5 When the disciples went to the other side, they forgot to take bread. 16:6 “Watch out,” Jesus said to them, “beware of the yeast of the Pharisees ⁹  and Sadducees.” ¹⁰  16:7 So ¹¹  they began to discuss this among themselves, saying, “It is because we brought no bread.” 16:8 When Jesus learned of this, ¹²  he said, “You who have such little faith! ¹³  Why are you arguing ¹⁴  among yourselves about having no bread? 16:9 Do you still not understand? Don’t you remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets you took up? 16:10 Or the seven loaves for the four thousand and how many baskets you took up? 16:11 How could you not understand that I was not speaking to you about bread? But beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees!” 16:12 Then they understood that he had not told them to be on guard against the yeast in bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

Peter’s Confession

16:13 When ¹⁵  Jesus came to the area of Caesarea Philippi, ¹⁶  he asked his disciples, ¹⁷  “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 16:14 They answered, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, ¹⁸  and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 16:15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16:16 Simon Peter answered, ¹⁹  “You are the Christ, ²⁰  the Son of the living God.” 16:17 And Jesus answered him, ²¹  “You are blessed, Simon son of Jonah, because flesh and blood ²²  did not reveal this to you, but my Father in heaven! 16:18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades ²³  will not overpower it. 16:19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever you release on earth will have been released in heaven.” 16:20 Then he instructed his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ. ²⁴ 

First Prediction of Jesus’ Death and Resurrection

16:21 From that time on ²⁵  Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem ²⁶  and suffer ²⁷  many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests, and experts in the law, ²⁸  and be killed, and on the third day be raised. 16:22 So Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him: ²⁹  “God forbid, ³⁰  Lord! This must not happen to you!” 16:23 But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me, because you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but on man’s.” ³¹  16:24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone wants to become my follower, ³²  he must deny ³³  himself, take up his cross, ³⁴  and follow me.

[16:1]  ¹ sn See the note on Pharisees in 3:7.

[16:1]  ² sn See the note on Sadducees in 3:7.

[16:1]  ³ tn The object of the participle πειράζοντες (peirazontes) is not given in the Greek text but has been supplied here for clarity.

[16:1]  ⁴ sn What exactly this sign would have been, given what Jesus was already doing, is not clear. But here is where the fence-sitters reside, refusing to commit to him.

[16:2]  ⁵ tn Grk “But answering, he said to them.” The construction has been simplified in the translation and δέ (de) has not been translated.

[16:3]  ⁶ tn Or “red and gloomy” (L&N 14.56).

[16:3]  ⁷ tn Grk “The face of the sky you know how to discern.”

[16:4]  ⁸ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[16:6]  ⁹ sn See the note on Pharisees in 3:7.

[16:6]  ¹⁰ sn See the note on Sadducees in 3:7.

[16:7]  ¹¹ tn Here δέ (de) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of Jesus’ saying about the Pharisees and Sadducees.

[16:8]  ¹² tn Or “becoming aware of it.”

[16:8]  ¹³ tn Grk “Those of little faith.”

[16:8]  ¹⁴ tn Or “discussing.”

[16:13]  ¹⁵ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[16:13]  ¹⁶ map For location see Map1 C1; Map2 F4.

[16:13]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “he asked his disciples, saying.” The participle λέγων (legwn) is redundant and has been left untranslated.

[16:14]  ¹⁸ sn The appearance of Elijah would mean that the end time had come. According to 2 Kgs 2:11, Elijah was still alive. In Mal 4:5 it is said that Elijah would be the precursor of Messiah.

[16:16]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “And answering, Simon Peter said.”

[16:16]  ²⁰ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

[16:17]  ²¹ tn Grk “answering, Jesus said to him.” The participle ἀποκριθείς (apokriqeis) is redundant, but the syntax of this phrase has been modified for clarity.

[16:17]  ²² tn The expression “flesh and blood” could refer to “any human being” (so TEV, NLT; cf. NIV “man”), but it could also refer to Peter himself (i.e., his own intuition; cf. CEV “You didn’t discover this on your own”). Because of the ambiguity of the referent, the phrase “flesh and blood” has been retained in the translation.

[16:18]  ²³ tn Or “and the power of death” (taking the reference to the gates of Hades as a metonymy).

[16:20]  ²⁴ tc Most mss (א² C W Ï lat bo) have “Jesus, the Christ” (᾿Ιησοῦς ὁ Χριστός, Ihsou" Jo Cristo") here, while D has “Christ Jesus” (ὁ Χριστὸς ᾿Ιησοῦς). On the one hand, this is a much harder reading than the mere Χριστός, because the name Jesus was already well known for the disciples’ master – both to them and to others. Whether he was the Messiah is the real focus of the passage. But this is surely too hard a reading: There are no other texts in which the Lord tells his disciples not to disclose his personal name. Further, it is plainly a motivated reading in that scribes had the proclivity to add ᾿Ιησοῦς to Χριστός or to κύριος (kurio", “Lord”), regardless of whether such was appropriate to the context. In this instance it clearly is not, and it only reveals that scribes sometimes, if not often, did not think about the larger interpretive consequences of their alterations to the text. Further, the shorter reading is well supported by א* B L Δ Θ Ë^1,13 565 700 1424 al it sa.

[16:21]  ²⁵ tn Grk “From then.”

[16:21]  ²⁶ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[16:21]  ²⁷ sn The necessity that the Son of Man suffer is the particular point that needed emphasis since for many 1st century Jews the Messiah was a glorious and powerful figure, not a suffering one.

[16:21]  ²⁸ tn Or “and scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.

[16:22]  ²⁹ tn Grk “began to rebuke him, saying.” The participle λέγων (legwn) is redundant in English and has not been translated.

[16:22]  ³⁰ tn Grk “Merciful to you.” A highly elliptical expression: “May God be merciful to you in sparing you from having to undergo [some experience]” (L&N 88.78). A contemporary English equivalent is “God forbid!”

[16:23]  ³¹ tn Grk “people.”

[16:24]  ³² tn Grk “to come after me.”

[16:24]  ³³ tn This translation better expresses the force of the Greek third person imperative than the traditional “let him deny,” which could be understood as merely permissive.

[16:24]  ³⁴ sn To bear the cross means to accept the rejection of the world for turning to Jesus and following him. Discipleship involves a death that is like a crucifixion; see Gal 6:14.