Thursday, August 24, 2017

Conversation Points for Matthew 16:13-20

Study Format:
1. Read passage aloud. What did you notice in the reading? What words or phrase caught your attention?
2. Read passage aloud a second time. What questions would you ask the text?
3. Read passage aloud a third time. What do you hear God calling you to do or be in response to this text?

Interesting Ideas to Consider:
• Matthew sets this exchange between Jesus and Peter at Caesarea Philippi. Mark had it on the road on the way to Caesarea Philippi and Luke dropped the location entirely, so we can assume that the location is once again more theological than geographical. Caesarea Philippi twenty miles north of the Sea of Galilee, was a city with rich nationalistic and religious associations, both Jewish and pagan. In ancient times, it was a site of a Baal cultic center. Under Grecian authority had been called Paneas because it housed a worship site for the Greek god Pan. Herod the Great renamed the city after he built a temple to Caesar Augustus there. After Herod the Great’s death, his son Philip enlarged the town and renamed it after Tiberius Caesar and himself, thus the name at the time of Jesus of Caesarea Philippi. During the Jewish-Roman war of 66-70 (when the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed), Caesarea was a recreation spot for the Roman general Vespasian (Vespasian began the siege of Jerusalem which led to the destruction of the Temple, then left his son Titus in charge after Vespasian became emperor). Caesarea remained a prime location for Titus, who returned there after the fall of Jerusalem, where according to the ancient historian Josephus, he had several Jewish revolutionaries thrown to wild animals. By setting the scene in Caesarea Philippi, Matthew places Jesus’ confession as the Messiah right in the heart of the Roman occupation.
• Jesus’ question to the disciples was not because he didn’t know what people thought of him, it was to make clear the difference between the disciples’ knowledge of Jesus and others’ knowledge of Jesus. Unlike in Mark, where Peter’s confession of Jesus as the Messiah is the first time Jesus was correctly identified, in Matthew, Jesus had already identified himself in Christological terms before. In Matthew, this scene serves to mark the separation between the new community of Jesus followers from the old community which reject him.
• However, it cannot be said based on these responses that the people had a low view of Jesus. The prophets listed—John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, etc.—were not just prophets, but very highly regarded prophets. Jesus called himself a prophet, so the problem is not identifying Jesus as a prophet, but that such identification does not go far enough.
• In v. 17, Jesus’ plural address to all the disciples focuses to a singular address just to Peter. Peter holds a unique role in Matthew’s Gospel as both the spokesperson for all the disciples and a representative of all Christians, but also as the founder of the new community. Peter’s role as founder is not based on his superior insight or achievements, but on what Jesus has revealed to him. Peter, with his strengths and weaknesses, is a representative of Christian faith.
• The name “Peter” comes from the Greek petros, meaning “stone” or “rock.” The English translation of v. 18, “you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church,” misses the word play in the sentence by inserting the common sounding name Peter. There is no evidence of Peter being a common name before this point. The Greek reads more like “you are Rocky (petros), and on this rock (petra) I will build my church.” It is unclear whether this nickname is new to Simon here, or if is given new importance. Up to this point, only the narrator had used it.
• Though Peter is the foundation, Jesus is still the builder. The word translated “build” (oikodomeo) also appears in relation to the Temple in 27:40 (‘You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.’)
• The word “church” (ekklesia) appears only here in v. 18 and in 18:17 (“If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax-collector”). In Greek, ekklesia was used in reference to the local political assembly. Matthew used it to mean the renewed people of God.
• Hades is the realm of the dead, not a place of punishment. The word translated “overcome” has the sense of “be stronger than.” So the point is partially that the church will never die. Hades may also refer to the underworld where evil came from. So there is also the sense that the church will never be destroyed by evil. The point is not triumphalistic, that the church is battering down the gates of Hades. The two kingdoms, the church and Hades, stand apart from each other and struggle between each other until Christ comes again, but evil will never prevail.
• The reference to Peter holding the keys in v. 19 is not the popular piety image of Peter as the guard to the gates of heaven. Peter’s role is not to decide who gets into heaven someday, it is a current task. The holder of the keys is the chief teacher, who loosens by teaching. The language of binding and loosing is rabbinic terminology for teaching, having the authority to interpret and apply scripture. Jesus gives this authority, to teach in his name and to apply those teachings, to Peter, and thus to the whole church.

Works Sourced:
Boring, M. Eugene. “The Gospel of Matthew.” The New Interpreter’s Bible Volume VIII. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1995.

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