Mateus 16

Mateus 16

Lenski - Some think that Jesus “turned” his back on Peter in disgust because of his words; others, that he turned away from Peter and faced the other disciples. But to turn and to speak to a person—note that the two actions go together—means that Jesus faced Peter squarely. If Jesus had turned his back on Peter he would himself have placed Peter “behind” him, whereas he tells Peter, “Get thee behind me!” Compare Luke 9:55, where no commentator lets στραφείς mean, “having turned his back.” So also, “get thee behind me,” means, “Get out of my sight!” With a Peter who speaks as he does Jesus will have nothing whatever to do. This peremptory word with the address, “Satan,” is identical with the one with which Jesus ordered the devil out of his sight after the third temptation (4:10). For this reason here, too, “Satan” is the archfiend. Unwittingly and though moved by the best intentions Peter had made himself an agent of Satan. What a warning to watch our love, our good intentions, our best acts, lest, perhaps after all, they agree with Satan and not with Christ. Broadus - The ardent disciple was playing the tempter’s part, in fact repeating Satan’s temptation, in trying to restrain the Son of God (comp. Mt 16:16 with Mt 4:3, 6) from going forward in his appropriate and appointed path. So a few months earlier (John 6:70 f.), our Lord had called Judas Iscariot a ‘devil’ (diabolos), i. e., a Satan. (See Mt 4:1.) To translate Satan by ‘adversary’ as the meaning here (Mald.), is forbidden by the fact that in New Test. it is always a proper name.—Alas! the rock, Cephas, has become a stone of stumbling; he who had just made the divinely-taught confession (Mt 16:17), is now Satan, tempting him whom he had confessed.