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Mat_16:16. As was to be expected from his impetuous character, his personal superiority, as well as from the future standing already assigned him in Joh_1:43, Peter ( τὸ στόμα τῶν ἀποστόλων , Chrysostom) assumes the part of spokesman, and in a decided and solemn manner (hence: ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ τοῦ ξῶντος , the higher, and not, as in Mat_14:33, the merely theocratic meaning of which the apostle could as yet but dimly apprehend, it being impossible for him to understand it in all its clearness till after the resurrection, comp. note on Rom_1:4) declares Jesus to be the Messiah ( ὁ Χριστός ), the Son of the living God ( τοῦ ζῶντος , in contrast to the dead idols of the heathen). Both elements combined, the work and the person constituted then, as they do always, the sum of the Christian confession. Comp. Mat_26:63; Joh_11:27; Joh_20:31; Php_2:11; 1Jn_2:22 f. Observe the climax at the same time; “nam cognitio de Jesu, ut est filius Dei, sublimior est quam de eodem, ut est Christus,” Bengel.