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Mat 16:23. Ὕπαγε, depart) It is not your place to take hold of and rebuke Me. By how much the more He had declared Peter blessed, by so much the more does He now reprove him who was previously prepared by faith to digest the reproof, in order that He may both correct him and preserve the other disciples; see Mat 16:24.-ὀπίσω Μου, behind Me[761]) out of My sight. He had commanded Satan to do the same; see ch. Mat 4:10.-Σατανᾶ, Satan) an appellative. Cf. Joh 6:70, where our Lord says, concerning Judas Iscariot, καὶ ἐξ ὑμῶν εἷς διάβολός ἐστιν, and one of you is a devil.-But cf. Gnomon on Rev 12:9.-Peter thought himself very kind when he said ἵλεως, κ.τ.λ., but yet he is called Satan for so doing. Cf. 2Sa 19:22, where שטן signifies one who puts himself in the way as a hinderance.[762]-σκάνδαλόν Μου, My stumbling-block[763]) i.e. thou dost not only stumble or take offence at My words, but, if it were possible, thou wouldst furnish Me with a hurtful stumbling-block by thy words. This is said with the utmost force, and declares the reason of our Lord’s swift severity towards Peter.[764] If anything could have been able to touch the soul of Jesus, the words of the disciple would have been more dangerous than the assaults of the tempter, mentioned in the fourth chapter of this Gospel. Cf. Gnomon on Heb 4:15.-Rock and stumbling-block (LAPIS offensionis, lit. stumbling STONE) are put antithetically. Our Lord sends away behind Him the stumbling-block placed before His feet.-τὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ, the things of God) sc. the precious word of the Cross. The perception of Jesus is always divine.[765]-τῶν ἀνθρώπων of men) the same as flesh and blood in Mat 16:17.
[761] It becomes thee not to be My adviser, but My follower [ὀπίσω Μου].-V. g.
[762] Where David so calls the sons of Zeruiah.-(I. B.)
[763] E. V. “An offence unto Me.”-(I. B.)
[764] In this way the Saviour repelled, at the very moment of their approach, all things whatever might have been a stumbling-block or offence, just as fire repels water which approaches very close to it, but which cannot possibly mix with it.-V. g.
[765] The Cross is a stumbling-block to the world: the things which are opposed to the Cross were a stumbling-block (offence) to Christ. This feeling and perception concerning the ‘suffering’ of Christ, and of those who belong to Christ, and concerning the ‘glory’ which follows thereupon [1Pe 1:11], Peter cherished at a subsequent time, as his own first Epistle abundantly testifies.-V. g.