Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Matthew 16:23

ὕπαγε ὀ. μ. Σ.: tremendous crushing reply of the Master, showing how much He felt the temptation; calm on the surface, deep down in the soul a very real struggle. Some of the Fathers (Origen, Jerome) strive to soften the severity of the utterance by taking Satanas as an appellative = ἀντικείμενος, adversarius, contrarius, and pointing out that in the Temptation in the wilderness Jesus says to Satan simply ὔπαγε = depart, but to Peter ὔπ. ὀπίσω μου = take thy place behind me and be follower, not leader. But these refinements only weaken the effect of a word which shows that Jesus recognises here His old enemy in a new and even more dangerous form. For none are more formidable instruments of temptation than well-meaning friends, who care more for our comfort than for our character. σκάνδαλον : not “offensive to me,” but “a temptation to me to offend,” to do wrong; a virtual apology for using the strong word Σατανᾶ. οὐ φρονεῖς τὰ, etc., indicates the point of temptation = non stas a Dei partibus (Wolf), or φρονεῖν, etc. = studere rebus, etc. (Kypke), to be on God's side, or to study the Divine interest instead of the human. The important question is: What precisely are the two interests? They must be so conceived as not entirely to cancel the eulogium on Peter's faith, which was declared to be not of man but of God. Meyer's comment on τὰ τ. ἀ. concerned about having for Messiah a mere earthly hero and prince (so Weiss also) is too wide. We must restrict the phrase to the instinct of self-preservation = save your life at all hazards. From Christ's point of view that was the import of Peter's suggestion; preference of natural life to duty = God's interest. Peter himself did not see that these were the alternatives; he thought the two opposite interests compatible, and both attainable.

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Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Matthew 16:23

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