Peter’s Declaration about Jesus- Matthew 16:13-20

¹³ Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi.  

He asked his disciples,

“Who do people say the Son of Man is?” 

¹⁴ And they said, “Some say John the Baptist,

but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

¹⁵ He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”  

¹⁶ Simon Peter answered,

“You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

¹⁷ And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah!

For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you,

but my Father in heaven.

¹⁸ And I tell you, you are Peter,

and on this rock I will build my church, and  

the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.

¹⁹ I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.

And whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven,

and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

20 Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

What to do with this educator’s commentary

This commentary invites you as a teacher to engage with and interpret the passage. Allow the text to speak first. The commentary suggests that you ask yourself various questions that will aid your interpretation. They will help you answer for yourself the question in the last words of the text: ‘what does this mean?’

This educator’s commentary is not a ‘finished package’. It is for your engagement with the text. You then go on to plan how you enable your students to work with the text.

Both you and your students are the agents of interpretation. The ‘Worlds of the Text’ offer a structure, a conversation between the worlds of the author and the setting of the text; the world of the text; and the world of reader. In your personal reflection and in your teaching all three worlds should be integrated as they rely on each other.

In your teaching you are encouraged to ask your students to engage with the text in a dialogical way, to explore and interpret it, to share their own interpretation and to listen to that of others before they engage with the way the text might relate to a topic or unit of work being studied.

Structure of the commentary:

The World Behind the Text

See general introduction to Matthew.  

The world of the text

Text & textual features

The text is in the third section, or ‘Book’ (some scholars divide the gospel of Matthew into five, like the first five books of the OT). This section is concerned with the building of the community, and the disciples coming to acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah.

The word used for the ‘community’ or ‘church’ is ekklesia, which literally means ‘called out’, and so ‘chosen’ (noted by MacKinnon – Gospel of Matthew). This is one of only two uses of this word (the other is in Mt 18:17).

Jesus formally asks the disciples (v. 13) the question of his identity. First, he hears what ‘the people’ have been saying: this elicits a variety of responses, mainly OT prophets – see below. Second, what do the disciples themselves think? They come up with the response that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God (v. 16). Being named as the ‘Son of the Living God’, shows their understanding of the unique filial relationship that Jesus has revealed he has with God.

The passage concludes with the special roles being conferred on Peter: ‘rock’ – foundation; and keeper of the ‘keys of the kingdom’. ‘Rock’ (‘Cephas’ in Aramaic) is not known as a proper Jewish name until this time. The wordplay is close in Greek – ‘Petros’/’Petra’ and in Aramaic ‘kepha’ serves for both the nickname and ‘rock’. Peter is Simon Peter, called from fishing on Lake Galilee. Jesus speaks of Peter’s role within this community. He would exercise the power of the key-bearer. The one with the keys was the one who exercised power within a community, either a kingdom or palace (MacKinnon, Matthew).

Characters & setting

Scholars generally regard this part of the gospel as the turning point. It is near the literal middle of the gospel – as it is in Mark 8:27-30 and Luke 9:18-21. A feature of each of these passages is the injunction of Jesus, ‘not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah’.

In the previous two chapters of this gospel, there are two significant feeding stories – one of four thousand and one of five thousand, interactions with the Pharisees and scribes, and the people. There were significant challenges coming from the Pharisees and Sadducees, to which Jesus responded quite strongly. Jesus went to the region of Tyre and Sidon (Mt 15:21), possibly to get away from the criticism, and then across to Caesarea Philippi. This is where we find him now.

Jesus and the disciples come to the district of Caesarea Philippi, located in the most northern region of Israel on the southern slopes of Mt Hermon, an area that is a major source of water for the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan River. This district is quite a distance from the Galilean region with which Jesus is most familiar.

Jesus’ question, ‘Who do people say the son of man is?’ is answered by Peter with reference to a cluster of important Jewish prophets.

• Elijah – a mystical prophet from the 9^th C BC, whose life (recounted in 1 Kings) contained various wondrous events – raising a boy to life, miraculous feeding in time of famine, bringing rain to a parched land, being fed by angels when in difficulties, and witnessing an appearance of God on Mt Horeb. Elijah was widely expected to return to earth before the coming of the Day of the Lord. In Mt 17:12 Jesus identifies John the Baptist as ‘Elijah’, and John had been killed by Herod. Elijah, too, had faced fierce opposition from the rulers in his time.
• Jeremiah – a prophet from the 7^th C BC, prepared to tell the truth when it was not popular or welcomed; he condemned Temple rites that were not connected to real belief (Jer 6:19-20), and spoke against idolatry and injustice (Jer 22:1-5; 44:1-3). He was ridiculed and imprisoned. Only in this gospel is there a comparison to the prophet Jeremiah.
• The prophets – those called to speak God’s word to the people – the main themes of their message, especially before the Assyrian conquest (721 BC) and the Babylonian captivity (586 BC) was warning – practice genuine worship, live justly and care for the poor. During and after the Babylonian captivity, the prophets’ message turned to comfort and hope. They spoke of God’s love and God’s not abandoning them – if the people repented of their sin. The Gospels essentially present Jesus as the quintessential prophet, speaking God’s truth with power and authority like no other prophet.

Ideas/phrases/concepts

Hades

Hades is the Greek word for the Hebrew, Sheol, the place of the dead.

Questions for the teacher:

The world in front of the text

Questions for the teacher:

Please reflect on these questions before reading this section and then use the material below to enrich your responsiveness to the text.

Meaning for today/challenges

While the image of fortifications and defensive language sound aggressive, Jesus had made clear that his power would only be used in non-violent love. Jesus can overcome both death and the demonic.

The community had experienced growth in numbers since the time of Jesus, which led to some differing opinions on how to live the teachings of Jesus. Pressure also came from the local synagogue and the imperial authorities. It was probably becoming clear that there was a need for organisation and lines of authority. The special responsibility given to Peter by Jesus would be a good model for their ongoing spreading of the good news.

Today, the Pope, the successor of St Peter, shares the same charism of leadership, a leadership of service. The Pope is the one who keeps us in unity of belief and practice.

The key question of this text is one of identity: as Peter and the disciples were asked, so is the Christian community, including the Catholic School, asked:– who do we say that Jesus is? Do we profess our faith in Jesus, and share that faith with others?