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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Mark 8:32 - 8:32
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32. παρρησίᾳ, palam. Here only in Mk, nowhere in Mt. or Lk., nine times in Jn, and four in 1 Jn. Mk makes it clear that the disciples’ misapprehension of the prediction, esp. as regards the Resurrection, was their own fault. Jesus Himself spoke quite clearly and without reserve. Originally παρρησίᾳ was used of unreserved or fearless speech; but this distinction is not always observed (Joh 7:4; Joh 11:54). “With openness” or “clearness” is the meaning here. On this occasion He used no metaphor or parable, such as He employed Mar 2:20. See on 1Jn 2:28; 1Jn 5:14, where Vulg. has fiducia.
ἐλάλει. He dwelt on this subject for some time. Neither Mk nor Mt. implies that directly Christ mentioned His sufferings and death Peter interposed; he had time to consider the matter, and he acted after some deliberation. There may have been impulsiveness, but not such as blurts out an objection on the spur of the moment. Hence Christ’s severe condemnation of him. There seems to have been a reading λαλεῖν or ἐκλαλεῖν, for k has resurgere et cum fiducia sermonem loqui. See A. S. Lewis, Light on the Four Gospels from the Sinai Palimpsest, p. 67.
προσλαβόμενος. Peter can bear it no longer. From his purely human point of view (Mar 8:33), a rejected and murdered Messiah seems to him a monstrous contradiction. He thinks that the Master is making a grave mistake; and so he takes Him aside to remonstrate with Him privately. As in the petition of the Syrophoenician woman, Mt. gives the words of the remonstrance, and Syr-Sin. inserts them here. “Then Simon Cepha, as though he pitied Him, said to Him, Be it far from Thee,” where in the Syriac there is assonance between “he pitied” and “be it far.” There is affection in it, but the affection is altogether misdirected and exhibited in a wrong way. Peter’s rather patronizing presumption is at first sight surprising, because he had just led the way in confessing that Jesus was the Messiah; but it is “exquisitely natural” (Lagrange).