Matthew 16:20-28

16:20 Then he instructed his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ. ¹ 

First Prediction of Jesus’ Death and Resurrection

16:21 From that time on ²  Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem ³  and suffer ⁴  many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests, and experts in the law, ⁵  and be killed, and on the third day be raised. 16:22 So Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him: ⁶  “God forbid, ⁷  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.” ⁸  16:24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone wants to become my follower, ⁹  he must deny ¹⁰  himself, take up his cross, ¹¹  and follow me. 16:25 For whoever wants to save his life ¹²  will lose it, ¹³  but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 16:26 For what does it benefit a person ¹⁴  if he gains the whole world but forfeits his life? Or what can a person give in exchange for his life? 16:27 For the Son of Man will come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done. ¹⁵  16:28 I tell you the truth, ¹⁶  there are some standing here who will not ¹⁷  experience ¹⁸  death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” ¹⁹ 

[16:20]  ¹ 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]  ² tn Grk “From then.”

[16:21]  ³ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[16:21]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ tn Or “and scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.

[16:22]  ⁶ tn Grk “began to rebuke him, saying.” The participle λέγων (legwn) is redundant in English and has not been translated.

[16:22]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ tn Grk “people.”

[16:24]  ⁹ tn Grk “to come after me.”

[16:24]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ 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.

[16:25]  ¹² tn Or “soul” (throughout vv. 25-26).

[16:25]  ¹³ sn The point of the saying whoever wants to save his life will lose it is that if one comes to Jesus then rejection by many will certainly follow. If self-protection is a key motivation, then one will not respond to Jesus and will not be saved. One who is willing to risk rejection will respond and find true life.

[16:26]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “a man,” but ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo") is used in a generic sense here to refer to both men and women.

[16:27]  ¹⁵ sn An allusion to Pss 28:4; 62:12; cf. Prov 24:12.

[16:28]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.”

[16:28]  ¹⁷ tn The Greek negative here (οὐ μή, ou mh) is the strongest possible.

[16:28]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “will not taste.” Here the Greek verb does not mean “sample a small amount” (as a typical English reader might infer from the word “taste”), but “experience something cognitively or emotionally; come to know something” (cf. BDAG 195 s.v. γεύομαι 2).

[16:28]  ¹⁹ sn Several suggestions have been made as to the referent for the phrase the Son of Man coming in his kingdom: (1) the transfiguration itself, which immediately follows in the narrative; (2) Jesus’ resurrection and ascension; (3) the coming of the Spirit; (4) Christ’s role in the Church; (5) the destruction of Jerusalem; (6) Jesus’ second coming and the establishment of the kingdom. The reference to six days later in 17:1 seems to indicate that Matthew had the transfiguration in mind insofar as it was a substantial prefiguring of the consummation of the kingdom (although this interpretation is not without its problems). As such, the transfiguration would be a tremendous confirmation to the disciples that even though Jesus had just finished speaking of his death (in vv. 21-23), he was nonetheless the promised Messiah and things were proceeding according to God’s plan.