Matthew 16:21-28
16:21 From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.
16:22 And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.”
16:23 But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”
16:24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
16:25 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.
16:26 For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?
16:27 “For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done.
16:28 Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”
21 Ἀπὸ τότε ἤρξατο ὁ Ἰησοῦς δεικνύειν τοῖς μαθηταῖς αὐτοῦ ὅτι δεῖ αὐτὸν ἀπελθεῖν εἰς Ἱεροσόλυμα καὶ πολλὰ παθεῖν ἀπὸ τῶν πρεσβυτέρων καὶ ἀρχιερέων καὶ γραμματέων καὶ ἀποκτανθῆναι, καὶ τῇ τρίτῃ ἡμέρᾳ ἐγερθῆναι.
22 Καὶ προσλαβόμενος αὐτὸν ὁ Πέτρος ἤρξατο ἐπιτιμᾶν αὐτῷ λέγων· ἵλεώς σοι, Κύριε· οὐ μὴ ἔσται σοι τοῦτο.
23 Ὁ δὲ στραφεὶς εἶπε τῷ Πέτρῳ· ὕπαγε ὀπίσω μου, σατανᾶ· σκάνδαλόν μου εἶ· ὅτι οὐ φρονεῖς τὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἀλλὰ τὰ τῶν ἀνθρώπων.
24 Τότε ὁ Ἰησοῦς εἶπε τοῖς μαθηταῖς αὐτοῦ· εἴ τις θέλει ὀπίσω μου ἐλθεῖν,
ἀπαρνησάσθω ἑαυτὸν καὶ ἀράτω τὸν σταυρὸν αὐτοῦ καὶ ἀκολουθείτω μοι.
25 Ὅς γὰρ ἂν θέλῃ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ σῶσαι, ἀπολέσει αὐτήν· ὃς δ᾿ ἂν ἀπολέσῃ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ ἕνεκεν ἐμοῦ, εὑρήσει αὐτήν.
26 Τί γὰρ ὠφελεῖται ἄνθρωπος ἐὰν τὸν κόσμον ὅλον κερδήσῃ, τὴν δὲ ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ ζημιωθῇ; ἢ τί δώσει ἄνθρωπος ἀντάλλαγμα τῆς ψυχῆς αὐτοῦ;
27 Μέλλει γὰρ ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἔρχεσθαι ἐν τῇ δόξῃ τοῦ πατρὸς αὐτοῦ μετὰ τῶν ἀγγέλων αὐτοῦ, καὶ τότε ἀποδώσει ἑκάστῳ κατὰ τὴν πρᾶξιν αὐτοῦ.
28 Ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν, εἰσί τινες τῶν ὧδε ἑστηκότων, οἵτινες οὐ μὴ γεύσωνται θανάτου ἕως ἂν ἴδωσι τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἐρχόμενον ἐν τῇ βασιλείᾳ αὐτοῦ.
Comments
The vocabulary is largely (and predictably) classical with an admixture of koine forms. Jesus’ prediction is met by a statement from Peter which begins with a wish or blessing.
[21] δεικνύειν: pres. inf. construed with ἤρξατο, aor., ’he began’. δεικνύω and its alternative form δείκνυμι = ‘show, point’ (LSJ); cf. Engl. in-dicate. The vb here means ‘explain, clarify’ (EDNT, s.v. δείκνυμι, δεικνύω, 3, p. 280).
δεῖ: the impers. vb., ’it is necessary’ (i.e. ‘must’) governs the four infinitives that follow. What necessity is is a theological question.
πολλὰ παθεῖν: παθεῖν is the aor. inf. of πάσχω, ‘I suffer, undergo’ in a positive or negative sense; here in a negative sense, of course. πολλὰ (sc. πάθη, ‘sufferings’) is an implied cognate (or internal) acc. obj. The Orthodox Nicene Creed refers to Christ as παθόντα καὶ ταφέντα, ‘he suffered, and was buried’. Cf. Engl. pathos.
ἀποκτανθῆναι: pass., 1st aor. inf. < ἀποκτείνω, lit. ‘I kill off’, the prefix ἀπο– intensifying κτείνω, ‘I kill, slay’. (ἀποκτανθῆναι is a late—koine– form of the aor.)
ἐγερθῆναι: pass. aor. inf.; the active form being ἐγείρω, trans., ‘I waken, raise’ someone (LSJ). In Hellenistic Greek the pass. aor. ἠγέρθη, which corresponds to ἐγερθῆναι, often has the sense of the middle voice, hence δεῖ … ἐγερθῆναι means ‘it was necessary for him to wake, to get up’. (Further, EDNT, s.v. ἐγείρω, pp. 374-5.)
[22] προσλαβόμενος αὐτὸν: προσλαμβάνομαι, mid. voice, is construed with an. acc. obj. in koine Greek; it means ‘I take aside’. In cl. Gr. the vb takes a gen. and means ‘ I take hold of’. One can imagine Peter taking Jesus by the arm in order to have a word with him.
ἤρξατο ἐπιτιμᾶν: ἐπιτιμῶ (άω) c. dat. (or acc.) in cl. Gr. = ‘I censure’.
ἵλεώς σοι, Κύριε· οὐ μὴ ἔσται σοι τοῦτο: the adj. ἵλεως, ‘the only NT instance of the so-called Attic second declension’ (EDNT s.v., p. 186), means ‘gracious, benevolent’. God is implied as subject (ellipsis) of a positive wish, ‘God be gracious to you, Lord’ (EDNT, ibid.), in effect ‘God protect you!
οὐ μὴ ἔσται σοι τοῦτο: the negativesοὐ μὴ + fut. ind. (as here) or aor. subj. express a strong denial or rejection of a future event, hence amount to ‘in no way, by no means will…’ Peter’s forecast vehemently rules out Jesus’ forecast; Peter’s future may be close to a potential future, ‘this most certainly CANNOT be.’ Cf. v. 28 below. Archbishop Averky (Taushev), in The Four Gospels, commentary on the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament, vol. I, Jordanville, NY, 2015, p. 367 interprets the verse thus:
‘“Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You,” meaning something along these lines: “God forbid! It cannot be that this will happen to You!”’
But the gloss ‘God forbid!’ should be adjusted, for the first half of Peter’s statement is actually a Septuagintal idiom that is not negative but a positive wish or a form of blessing — to wit, ‘God bless and protect you.’ One is tempted to supply a connection between Peter’s wish and his future formulation: ‘God bless you and protect you <so that> this will not in any way happen!’
[23] ὕπαγε ὀπίσω μου, σατανᾶ· σκάνδαλόν μου εἶ: ὕπαγε, 2nd pers. sg., pres. imperative of ὑπάγω, intr., which in cl. Gr. means ‘I go away’, but only becomes standard in the sense ‘I go’ in Hellenistic Greek. From Hellenistic ὑπάγω, attested in our pericope, is derived the modern Greek πηγαίνω, πάω, ‘I go’. Jesus is speaking colloquial Greek: ‘Go behind me!’ The context (‘Satan!’) and the vb may suggest undertones of an exorcism.
σκάνδαλόν μου: σκάνδαλον is cl. Gk, although it is first exampled in LXX. The derived form σκανδάληθρον is cl. Gk, meaning ‘lever or pin which shuts a trap; fig. trap’ (Montanari); -ηθρον is a ‘suffix of instrument’ (Chantraine s.v. σκάνδαλον). Σκάνδαλον also means ‘trap, snare’ used in hunting. The basic notion behind σκάνδαλον is that of a trap activated by a lever which captures the quarry by the feet. Hence a ‘scandal’ is fig. a ‘stumbling block’, a ‘trap’, and ‘offence’. Jesus calls Peter ‘my scandal’, a striking example of applying the figurative term to a person. In Aristophanes’ comedy Acharnians 687 someone is said to ask σκανδάληθρα, snares, i.e. ‘ensnaring questions’.
[24] τὸν σταυρὸν αὐτοῦ: σταυρός occurs in Homer, e.g. Odyssey 14. 11, where it is the pole or stake of a fence. That is what the ‘cross’ (in Latin crux) was: a vertical beam used for impalement on a raised platform or scaffolding. The term ‘cross’/ crux might also denote a device that included a horizontal beam, the patibulum (in Latin). Christ’s ‘cross’ prob. was T-shaped if we correlate a description in Lucian’s satire ‘Prometheus or Caucasus’ (mid to late 2nd century AD) with graffiti from ca AD 200. The vb σταυρῶ (όω) ‘I crucify’, is unattested in cl. Gr., although ἀνα-σταυρῶ, suggesting suspension during impalement, is.
[27] Μέλλει γὰρ ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἔρχεσθαι: in cl. Gr. μέλλω + present or future inf. is a periphrastic future; in NT Greek the future inf. is rarely used (see EDNT s.v., pp. 403ff.). The periphrasis is comparable with Engl. I will + inf. But in cl. Gr. as in koine, the construction can express an action that will necessarily, naturally, or certainly happen.
[28] οὐ μὴ γεύσωνται θανάτου: another emphatic future introduced by οὐ μὴ but this time with the aor. subj.
γεύομαι (related to Latin gustus and French & Engl. degustation) is middle voice. Already exampled in Homer, it is used figuratively, as here, in the sense ‘to have a taste of, try, experience’ + gen. obj. Sometimes the obj. is something negative, e.g. pains (in Pindar). ‘Have a taste of’ embraces the notion of ‘suffering’ (πάσχειν) and being killed (ἀποκτανθῆναι) in v. 21.
Insights into Biblical Greek Grammar and Syntax 