[3646] This is the correct reading.
[3647] St. Luke ix. 18.
[3648] There could have been no anti-Petrine tendency in this, since it is equally omitted in the Petrine Gospel of St. Mark.
[3649] Ecclus, xiv. 18; xvii. 31.
[3650] 1 Cor. xv. 60; Gal. i. 16; Eph. vi. 12.
[3651] St. John i. 42.
[3652] Pesiqta, ed. Buber, p. 158 a, line 8 from bottom.
[3653] See the remarks on Matthew-Levi in vol. i. ch. xvii. p. 514 of this Book.
[3654] Thus, for example, Andrew was both 'Andras and {hebrew} (Anderai) manly,' brave.' A family Anderai is mentioned Jer. Kethub. 33 a.
[3655] Is. li 1.
[3656] Yalkut on Numb. xxiii. 9, vol. i. p.243, b, last 6 lines, and c, first 3 lines.
[3657] The same occurs in Shem. R. 15, only that there it is not only Abraham but the fathers' who are the Rocks' (the word used there is not Petra but Tsur) on whom the world is founded.
[3658] Erub.19 a, Ber. R. 48.
[3659] There was a strange idea about Jewish children who had died uncircumcised and the sinners in Israel exchanging their position in regard to circumcision. Could this, only spiritually understood and applied, have been present to the mind of St. Paul when he wrote Romans ii. 25, 26, last clauses?
[3660] See Appendix XVIII.
[3661] The reader will have no difficulty in recognizing a reference to the See of Rome, perhaps the Chair of St. Peter,' mixed up with the meaning of the name of Peter.
[3662] The other views of the words are (a) that Christ pointed to Himself as the Rock, (b) or to Peter as a person, (c) or to Peter's confession.
[3663] The other word is Edah. Comp. Bible Hist. vol. ii. p. 177, note.
[3664] Ecclus. xxiv. 2.
[3665] Comp. Acts vii. 38, and even St. Matt. xviii. 17.
[3666] It is important to notice that the word is Hades, and not Gehenna. Dean Plumptre calls attention to the wonderful character of such a prophecy at a time when all around seemed to foreshadow only failure.
[3667] Those who apply the words upon this Rock, &c.,' to Peter or to Christ must feel, that they introduce an abrupt and inelegant transition from one figure to another.
[3668] Acts xv. 7.
[3669] Acts x. 48.
[3670] Jer. Ber. 3 b; Jer. Meg. 71 a; Jer. Sanh. 30 a.
[3671] St. John xx. 23.
[3672] The word used by St. Matthew (diestelato) means charged;' that by St. Mark (petmesen) implies rebuke; while the expression employed by St. Luke (pitimsas atos parngeile) conveys both rebuke and command.
[3673] Otherwise they could not afterwards have been in such doubt about His Death and Resurrection.
[3674] It is very remarkable that the expression les soi literally have mercy on thee,' is the exact transcript of the Rabbinic Chas lecha ({hebrew}). See Levy, Neuhebr. Wörterb. vol. ii, p. 85. The commoner expression is Chas ve Shalom, mercy and peace,' viz. be to thee, and the meaning is, God forbid, or God avert, a thing or its continuance.
[3675] So the Greek literally.
[3676] In those days the extreme suffering which a man might expect from the hostile power (the Romans) was the literal cross; in ours, it is suffering not less acute, the greatest which the present hostile power can inflict: really, through perhaps not literally, a cross.
[3677] St. Matt. xvi. 24-27.
[3678] This is an exact translation of the phase {hebrew}, which is of such very frequent occurrence in Rabbinic writings. See our remarks on St. John viii. 52 in Book IV. ch. viii.
[3679] St. Matt. xvi. 28. __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________