3. The Opinions of the People, and Peter’s Confession. Pre-announcement of His Sufferings. The Presumption of Peter. Christ’s Teaching concerning Cross-bearing.Mar_8:27 to Mar_9:1
(Parallels: Mat_16:13-28; Luk_9:18-27)
27And Jesus went out and his disciples into the towns of Cæsarea Philippi: and by the way he asked his disciples, saying unto them, Whom do men say that I am? 28And they answered, John the Baptist: but some say, Elias; and others, One of the 29prophets. And he said unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Peter answer eth and saith unto him, Thou art the Christ. 30And he charged them that they should tell no man of [respecting] him. 31And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of [by] the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32And he spake that saying openly. And Peter took him, and began to rebuke him. 33But when he had turned about, and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying, Get thee behind me, Satan: for thou savourest [mindest] not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men. 34And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. 35For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the Gospel’s, the same shall save it. 36For what shall 37it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange [as a ransom] for his soul? 38Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me, and of my words, in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father, with the holy angels.
1And he said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
See on Matthew and Luke.—In respect to time, this is another section which stands in strict internal connection with the preceding crises. There are some important peculiarities in Mark. Matthew mentions the district of Cæsarea Philippi, Mark the villages which surrounded it, as the first goal at which our Lord aimed; and the latter transfers the question to the way thither. Among the people’s thoughts and verdicts concerning Jesus, he omits the mention of Jeremiah. It is observable that he leaves out the benediction of Peter, and the special prerogative assigned to him after his confession. Luke also omits these, while Matthew details them all in full. Here, as elsewhere, Peter, Mark’s informant and voucher, omitted or kept in reserve points which tended to his own honor. On the other hand, Mark states prominently that the Lord’s prediction of His passion was part of the instruction which He openly gave; he also quotes the Saviour’s rebuking word to Peter, “Satan,” without any of the definite explanatory particulars which Matthew gives, and without Christ’s “Thou art to Me a
óêÜíäáëïí
.” Mark speaks of the people as also called by Jesus to hear the statement of the universal law of suffering in the kingdom of God. He alone has the emphatic word, that he who is ashamed of the Lord is ashamed of Him (in a disgraceful manner) in an adulterous and sinful generation. In conclusion, Mark represents the coming of Christ more expressly than the other two Evangelists as a coming in power (majesty); while Luke speaks of His kingdom, and Matthew of His appearing in that kingdom.
Mar_8:31. After three days.—General and popular way of speaking, instead of “on the third day,” which afterwards is used as the more definite statement.
Mar_8:34. And when He had called the people unto Him.—This scarcely requires us to understand great multitudes. But Christ makes the people who were present sharers in this part of His instruction, in order to impress it the more upon His disciples that the way of suffering was absolutely imperative, and in order to lay down the fundamental laws of self-denial and holy suffering in all their universality of application.
Mar_8:37. In exchange for: ransom-price.—The
ἀíôÜëëáãìá
is the counter-price antithetic to the price,
ἄëëáãìá
. The price which the earthly-minded gives for the world, the
ἄëëáãìá
, is his soul. But, after having laid that down as the price, what has he for an
ἀíôÜëëáãìá
, to buy the soul back again?
Mar_9:1. There be some of them that stand here.—See on Matthew.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. See on the parallels of Matthew and Luke.
2. According to Mark, Jesus first called and collected the Twelve in the villages outside of Nazareth (Mar_6:6-7); then, in the villages of Cæsarea Philippi, again gathering them together and confirming them. Solitude and sequestered probation, a condition of establishment and confirmation in the spiritual office.
3. It is of great significance that Peter does not, in his own Gospel, once mention the word of Christ concerning his own personal priority among the Apostles, least of all as the institution of an official primacy.
4. So it is to be observed how strictly, according to Mark, the confession of Christ is conjoined with the announcement of His passion, and with the requirement of following Him in the way of the Cross.
5. Let him take up his cross.—An obscure intimation of His own approaching suffering upon the cross, which, even in its general terms, gave a definite meaning. Let him hold himself ready to follow Me, regarded as the vilest malefactor, and exposed to the deepest shame and the most cruel death. The cross of Christ, as such, is not a kind of suffering which is the natural consequence of sin, but which crosses the views of an ideal or newly awakened higher life.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
See on Matthew; and compare Luke’s parallel.—The question of Christ: “Whom say the people that I am?” a means of exciting a definite Christian consciousness, in opposition to the uncertain notions of the world.—The answer of the disciples in all its significance: 1. No man says, and no man could say without madness, that Christ was nothing, or a person of no importance. 2. The scorners and slanderers of Christ are not regarded or alluded to. 3. The testimonies or opinions: a. John the Baptist (according to Herod, returned from the dead): thus Christianity was something ghostly and preternatural. b. Elias (in the sense of Malachi): thus they were not able to distinguish Elias from Christ. Christianity seemed to them as a power exerted after the manner of Elias; thus in a spiritual sense as something legal. c. One of the prophets: something indefinite, a spiritual power, which none could clearly understand.—The question was not, what the people said concerning Christ, but what the Apostles said concerning Him.—Christ could be preached as the Christ of all the world, only after the fulfilment of His passion as the Crucified and the Risen. The confession of His people was to the Lord no sign that He would escape from suffering, but a certain sign that He would suffer.—What it means, that the Lord announces His sufferings to the disciples without any restraint: 1. In reference to Himself, 2. to the disciples, 3. to the world.—Only after we have known the person of our Lord in His word and work, can we understand and bear the knowledge of Christ’s work in His passion.—The true confession of Christ must be confirmed by a readiness to follow Him.—The suffering of Christ is a divine sympathy: 1. As suffering through and for the world, it sprang from His sympathy with the world; 2. it establishes a divine sympathy in the world, as suffering on its own account and with Christ.—Self-renunciation of the believer is the soul of the confession of Christ.—The fundamentals of the Christian fellowship: I. Its fundamental laws: 1. The true denier (of himself) is the true confessor; 2. the true cross-bearer is the true knight of the cross; 3. the true follower (after Christ in obedience) is the true conqueror. II. Its grounds: 1. He who will save his life in self-seeking, shall lose it; he who loses it in devotion to Christ, shall gain it. 2. He who lays down his soul to win the world, loses with his soul the world also; he who has gained his soul, has with his soul gained the world also. 3. To seek honor in the world while ashamed of Christ, leads to infamy before the throne of Christ; but shame in the world leads to honor with Him. 4. Readiness to die with Christ leads through death to the day of eternal glory.—It is in self-denial that we first find our true selves, recovering our personality again.—True self-denial is the raising of our buried personality out of the grave of self-deceptions.—The false and the true self.—How shameful to be ashamed of Christ in an adulterous and sinful generation: 1. As the deification of a vanishing honor, which is eternal shame; 2. as the refusal of a vanishing shame, which is eternal honor.—How Christ detects the thoughts of men in His communion.
Starke:—Canstein:—We may lawfully ask what others hold us for, if the question does not spring from pride, but from a desire to do ourselves or others good.—Hedinger:—It is not wrong to be jealous of one’s public repute. But Christ remains ever what He is, despite all the various opinions concerning Him.—Quesnel:—The true knowledge of the secret mysteries of Christ is attained only by scholars of truth and light.—Here is a catechetical lesson given by Christ Himself.—All truths have a set time for their full revelation: we should be always careful that we do not prematurely speak, or anticipate that time, Ecc_3:7; we must suffer with willing heart, be rejected of the world, and be crucified with Christ, if we would be raised with Him, Rom_6:6-8.—The ungodly can do nothing against us but what the wise decree of God has already determined.—Bibl. Wirt.:—Flesh and blood always look rather at external danger and damage, han at the solemnity and claims of the call (Rom_8:6-8; 1Jn_2:15-17; 1Pe_2:11; 1Pe_2:20-21; Gal_5:21.)—You must not watch Christ, but follow Him; you must not boast about Him, but act like Him.—Nova Bibl. Tub.:—World gained, nothing gained; soul lost, all lost.—The greatest good is not to be met with in the transitory world, nor in the debauchery of the flesh: he whose soul is united with God has found it.—If thou art ashamed of Christ in His humble and lowly state, thou wilt have no part in His exalted and glorified state.—To die before one has seen the kingdom of God, is a wretched end.
Braune:—The kingdom of God is, in a certain sense, near at all times: there is no season when its beginnings are not manifest.—Gerlach:—(Peter), rash and impetuous, spoke only, as he was wont to do, in the name of all the rest.
Gossner:—He who opposes himself to the cross of Christ and its doctrine, is a Satan, even though his name were Peter.—In the kingdom of God, all the world is inverted.—Losing is there called gaining, and gaining is there called losing.—Bauer. on Mar_9:35 :—The beginning towards eternal life.
Footnotes:
Mar_8:28.—According to B., C.*, D., L., A., [Vulgate, Itala,] Lachmann, and Tischendorf add
áὐôῷ ëÝãïíôåò
. [Superfluous, and therefore more likely to be omitted than added. (Mayer.)]
Mar_8:29.—’
Åðçñþôá áὐôïὺò
, instead of
ëÝãåé áὐôïῖò
, after B., C., D., is the reading of Lachmann, Tischendorf, [and Mayer.]
Ver.34.—B., C.*, D., L.,
Ä
., [Vulgate, Itala, Lachmann, Tischendorf,] read
åἴ ôéò
instead of
ὅóôéò
A., B., Lachmann, Tischendorf have
ἐëèåῖí
instead of
ἀêïëïõèåῖ
.
Mar_8:35.—
Ôὴí øõ÷ὴí áὐôïῦ
, Codd. A., D., Lachmann. (
Ôὴí ἑáõôïῦ øõ÷Þí
, Griesbach, Scholz, Tischendorf.)
Mar_8:37.—Tischendorf,
ôß ãÜñ
, instead of
ἥ ôß
, after B., L.,
Ä
.; he also omits
äþóåé ἄíèñùðïò
.
