Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Matthew 16:13-28, The rock, the keys and the cross
At Caesarea Philippi Peter confesses Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of the living God, and is called the rock and given the keys. When Jesus speaks of his death, Peter rebukes him and is called Satan.
Matthew 16:13-28, in every translation this tool compares.
Far north at Caesarea Philippi, Jesus asks his disciples who he is, and Peter declares him the Messiah and God's Son. Jesus blesses him, plays on his name as a rock on which he will build his community, and gives him the keys of the kingdom; what the rock means is disputed. When Jesus then explains that he must suffer and die in Jerusalem, Peter objects and is sharply rebuked. Following Jesus, he tells them, means taking up a cross.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/gentile-lands\/","n":"Gentile territory","s":"Across the lake and to the north lay Greek-run cities with pagan temples and pig herds. Jesus crossed into them more than once.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/messiah\/","n":"The Messiah, son of David","s":"The anointed king most Jews expected from David's line, who would free Israel from its enemies. Nobody expected him to be killed.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/binding-and-loosing\/","n":"Keys, binding and loosing","s":"In a king's house a senior official carried the keys and decided who came in. Teachers spoke of binding and loosing for forbidding and permitting, and a court bound or loosed when it condemned or released.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/following-a-teacher\/","n":"Following a teacher","s":"A disciple walked behind his teacher, lived with him, learned his ways and carried his reputation. Jesus chose his own, which only radical teachers did.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/crucifixion\/","n":"Crucifixion","s":"Rome's public, shaming death for rebels, after flogging, with the charge posted for passers-by to read.","r":""}
Wright notes that Caesarea Philippi lay well outside Herod Antipas's territory, a wise place to raise a question that drew the authorities' hostility. Herod the Great had built a white marble temple to Augustus near the grotto of Pan at the Jordan's source, and Philip made the town his capital (Wilkins; the Zondervan Bible Dictionary). Son of the living God fits the king of David's line, whom God calls his son (2 Samuel 7:14; Psalm 2:7), as a Qumran commentary also saw (Keener; the cultural backgrounds notes). Peter and rock are the same word in Aramaic and were used interchangeably in Greek (Keener), and church translates the Greek Bible's word for Israel's assembly. The sources disagree about the rock: the ESV Study Bible favors Peter himself; Keener and the cultural backgrounds notes read Peter in his role as the one who confessed Jesus; the CSB Study Bible points to Peter and the apostles' preaching; Heiser reads a double meaning with the rocky mountain of Hermon above them. Peter then breaks what Keener calls one of the first rules of discipleship: "Never criticize the teacher, especially publicly."
- N. T. Wright, Matthew for Everyone, Part Two, comment on Matthew 16:13-20
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Matthew 16:13, 16:15-16, 16:18, 16:19, 16:22 and 16:24
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Matthew 16:16, 16:18, 16:22, 16:23 and 16:24
- ESV Study Bible, study note on Matthew 16:18
- CSB Study Bible, notes on Matthew 16:13 and 16:17-18
- Michael S. Heiser, The Unseen Realm, ch. 32, Preeminent Domain
- Michael J. Wilkins, Matthew, in Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary, ed. Clinton E. Arnold, sidebar Herod Philip the Tetrarch and Caesarea Philippi
- J. D. Douglas and Merrill C. Tenney, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary, entry Caesarea Philippi
