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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Matthew 16:23 - 16:23
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
23. ὕπαγε ὀπίσω μου, σατανᾶ. Peter takes the place of the tempter, and argues for the false kingdom instead of for the true (see notes ch. Mat 4:8-10).
σκάνδαλον ἐμοῦ, i.e. a snare to allure me, as tempting me to forsake the divine plan of self-denial and sacrifice.
οὐ φρονεῖς τὰ τοῦ θεοῦ ἀλλὰ τὰ τῶν ἀνθρώπων. ‘Thou mindest not the things of God but the things of men,’ i.e. thine are not God’s thoughts but man’s thoughts. Cp. τὰ τῆς σαρκὸς φρονοῦσιν (have a carnal mind), Rom 8:5; τὰ ἄνω φρονεῖτε, Col 3:2. In the classics φρονεῖν is used of political partisanship: φρονεῖν τὰ Φιλίππου, or τὰ τοῦ δήμου (Dem.), ‘to be on the side of Philip or on the side of the people.’ μήτʼ ἐμοὶ παρέστιος | γένοιτο μήτʼ ἴσον φρονῶν (i.e. of the same party in the state) ὅς τάδʼ ἔρδοι, Soph. Ant. 374. Thus the expression in the text = ‘thou art not on God’s side but on man’s, and therefore a Satanas or διάβολος, an adversary of God thwarting his plan of humility’.
With the exception of the parallel passage in Mark, and Act 28:22, φρονεῖν is confined in N.T. to St Paul’s epistles where it is frequent, especially in Romans and Philippians.