Matthew 16:21

From that time began (ἀπὸ τότε ἤρξατο) He had not shown it to them before. Must (δεῖ) It was necessary in fulfilment of the divine purpose. See Matthew 26:54; Hebrews 8:3; Luke 24:26. Suffer This first announcement mentions his passion and death generally; the second (Matthew 17:22, Matthew 17:23), adds his betrayal into the hands of sinners; the third (Matthew 20:17-19), at length expresses his stripes, cross, etc. Elders and chief priests and scribes A circumstantial way of designating the Sanhedrim, or supreme council of the Jewish nation.

21 . From that time forth ] An important note of time. Now that the disciples have learned to acknowledge Jesus to be the Messiah, He is able to instruct them in the true nature of the Kingdom. elders and chief priests and scribes ]=the Sanhedrin. See ch. Matthew 2:4 , and Matthew 26:3 . be killed ] As yet there is no mention of the Roman judge or of the death upon the cross; this truth is broken gradually, see Matthew 16:24 . be raised again the third day ] How can the plainness of this intimation be reconciled with the slowness of the disciples to believe in the Resurrection? Not by supposing that obscure hints of the Passion were afterwards put into this explicit form; but rather (1) partly by the blindness of those who will not see; (2) partly by the constant use of metaphor by Jesus. “Might not,” they would argue, “this ‘death and rising again’ be a symbol of a glorious visible kingdom about to issue from our present debasement?” 21–23 . The Passion is foretold Mark 8:31-33 ; Luke 9:22 . St Luke omits the rebuke to Peter

{8} From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the {p} elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day. (8) The minds of men are at this time to be prepared and made ready against the stumbling block of persecution. (p) It was a name of dignity and not of age: and it is used for those who were the judges, whom the Hebrews call the Sanhedrin.

Matthew 16:21 . From that time forth — When they had made that full confession of Christ that he was the Messiah, the Son of God; began Jesus to show unto his disciples — Another most important point, namely, that he must suffer and be put to death, as a malefactor. If they had not been well grounded in their belief of Christ’s being the Son of God, it would have been a great shock to their faith to be informed that he must suffer and die. Some hints, indeed, our Lord had already given of his sufferings, as when he said, Destroy this temple, and spoke of the Son of man being lifted up, and of eating his flesh and drinking his blood; but hitherto he had not spoken plainly and expressly of the subject, because the disciples were weak, and could not have borne the notice of a thing so very strange and so very melancholy. But now, as they were more advanced in knowledge and stronger in faith, he began to reveal this to them: for he declares his mind to his people gradually, and lets in light as they can bear it, and are prepared to receive it. How that he must go unto Jerusalem — The holy city, the royal city, and suffer there. Though he had lived most of his time in Galilee, he must die at Jerusalem; there all the sacrifices were offered; and there, therefore, He must die who was to be the great sacrifice.

Thither he was to go within the short space of a few months, this declaration being made in the last year of his life: and instead of being owned, under the royal character he bore, and submitted to by the princes and people, must suffer many things from the elders — The most honourable and experienced men; from the chief priests — Accounted the most religious, and the scribes — The most learned body of men in the nation. These made up the great sanhedrim, which sat at Jerusalem, and was had in veneration by the people: and these one would have expected to have been the very first to receive him. But instead of this, they were the most bitter in persecuting him! Strange, indeed, that men of knowledge in the Scriptures, who professed to expect the Messiah’s coming, and sustained a sacred character, should use him with such contumely and cruelty when he came! It was the Roman power, indeed, that condemned and crucified Christ; but the principal share of the guilt of the whole business lies at the door of the chief priests and scribes, who were the first and principal movers in it. From them he suffered many things, things which manifested their insatiable malice, and his invincible patience, and in the issue was killed: for nothing short of his death would either satisfy the malice of his enemies, or render him a proper sacrifice for the sins of mankind.

(21) From that time forth began Jesus. —The prominence given to the prediction shows that it came upon the minds of the disciples as something altogether new. They had failed to understand the mysterious hints of the future which we find in, “Destroy this temple” ( John 2:19 ), in the Son of Man being “lifted up” ( John 3:14 ), in the sign of the prophet “Jonas” ( Matthew 12:39 ; Matthew 16:4 ). Now the veil is uplifted, and the order of events is plainly foretold—the entry into Jerusalem, the rejection, the condemnation, the death, the resurrection. It is obvious that if we accept the record as true the prediction is one which implies a foreknowledge that is at least supernatural, and is so far evidence of a divine mission, if not also of a divine nature in the speaker. And it may well be urged that in this case the incidents which surround the prediction—as, e.g., Peter’s protest, and the rebuke addressed to him in such striking contrast with the previous promise—have a character of originality and unexpectedness which negatives the hypothesis of its being a prophecy after the event. On the other hand, the fact that the disciples did not take in the meaning of the prediction as to His rising from the dead may, in its turn, be pleaded in bar of the assumption that the prophecy lingered in men’s minds, and suggested the belief in a mythical, in the absence of a real, fulfilment.

21. From that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples—that is, with an explicitness and frequency He had never observed before. how that he must go unto Jerusalem and suffer many things—"and be rejected," (Mr 8:31; Lu 9:22). of the elders and chief priests and scribes—not as before, merely by not receiving Him, but by formal deeds. and be killed, and be raised again the third day—Mark (Mr 8:32) adds, that "He spake that saying openly"—"explicitly," or "without disguise."

Matthew 16:21 . Ἀπὸ τότε , at that time and thenceforward — ἤρξατο , κ . τ . λ ., began , etc.) It is clear, therefore, that He had not shown it them before.[755] The Gospel may be divided into two parts, from which the Divine plan of Jesus shines forth. The first proposition is, Jesus is the Christ ; the second, Christ must suffer, die, and rise again (cf. John 16:30-32 ), or more briefly, Christ by death will enter into glory . Jesus first convinced His disciples of the first proposition (de subjecto):[756] in consequence of which they were bound to believe Him concerning the second (de prædicato), even before His passion. After His ascension, the people first learnt the second proposition (prædicatum), and thence were convinced of the first (de subjecto); see Acts 17:3 . As soon as Jesus had persuaded His disciples of the first proposition ( Matthew 16:16 ), He added the second.[757] Afterwards He led them to the mountain of Transfiguration.[758] The order of the evangelic harmony is of great importance with regard to the observing of these things. Men frequently teach all things at once: Divine wisdom acts far otherwise.— δεικνύειν , to show), i.e. openly.— ὅτι δεῖ Αὐτὸν ἀπελθεῖν , that He must go ) and at the same time relinquish that mode of living to which the disciples had become habituated.— παθεῖν , to suffer ) When aught of glory accrued to Jesus, as in this instance by the confession of Peter, then He was especially wont to make mention of His approaching passion

. This first announcement mentions His passion and death generally; the second, in ch. Matthew 17:22-23 , adds His being betrayed into the hands of sinners; the third, in ch. Matthew 20:17-19 , at length expresses His stripes, cross, etc. The first was nearer in point of time to the second, than the second to the third.— πρεσβυτέρων , ἀρχιερέων , γραμματέων , elders—chief priests—scribes ) Three classes of those who ought to have led the people to the Messiah; corresponding nearly to the Council of Justice, the Consistory, and the Theological Faculty of modern times.— ἐγερθῆναι , to be raised ) He adds nothing yet of His ascension. By degrees, all further and later particulars are disclosed; see Matthew 16:27 . [755] Except in covert [enigmatical] words.—V. g. [756] “De subjecto,” “de prædicato,” lit. “of the subject,” “of the prædicate.” I have ventured to render the passage in language more generally intelligible.—(I.