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20. Τότε διεστείλατο}
τοῖς μαθηταῖς αὐτοῦ 3 ἵνα μηδενὶ εἴπωσιν, ὅτι αὐτός ἐστιν ᾿Ιησοῦς»δ ὁ
Χριστός.
21. ''᾿Απὸ τότε ἠρξατο ὁ ᾿Ιησοῦς δεικνύειν τοῖς μαθηταῖς αὐτοῦ, mCh. iv.17;
XXVi. 16.
ὅτι δεῖ αὐτὸν ἀπελθεῖν eis Ἱεροσόλυμα,ὃ καὶ πολλὰ παθεῖν ἀπὸ τῶν Lk. xvi. 16. πρεσβυτέρων καὶ ἀρχιερέων καὶ Ὑραμμµατέων, καὶ ἀποκτανθῆναι, καὶ
1 επετιµησεν in BD. W.H. place it in text with διεστειλατο in margin.
Mk.
has επετιµησεν in the corresponding place. 2 KSBCD omit αντου, which so often stands in T. R. where the best texts want it.
> SSBLXIA omit Inoovs.
4 For ο Ingovs $B, Cop. have Ίησους Χριστος; D Inoovs without the art.
Vide below.
δεις |. before απελθειν in ${BD cursives.
and the building is to be of a piece with the foundation. Observe the emphatic position of pov. The ἐκκλησία is Christ’s; confessing Him as Christ in Peter’s sense and spirit = being Christian. (2) The new society is to be = the kingdom realised on earth. This is the import of ver. I9, clause 1. The keys are the symbol of this identity. They are the keys of the gate without, not of the doors within. Peter is the gate-keeper, not the οἰκονόμος with a bunch of keys that open all doors in his hands (against Weiss) ---κλειδούχου ἔργον τὸ εἰσάγειν, Euthy. Observe it is not the keys of the church but of the kingdom. The mean- ing is: Peter-like faith in Jesus as the Christ admits into the Kingdom of Heaven. A society of men so believing = the kingdom realised. (3) In the new society the righteousness of the kingdom will find approximate embodiment. This is the import of ver. 19, second clause. Binding and loosing, in Rabbinical dialect, meant forbidding and permitting to be done. The judgment of the Rabbis was mostly wrong: the reverse of the righteousness of the kingdom. The judgment of the new society as to conduct would bein accordance with the truth of things, therefore valid in heaven. That is what Jesus meant to say. Note the perfect participles δεδεµένον, λελυμένον = shall be a thing bound or loosed once for all. The truth of all three statements is conditional on the Christ spirit continuing to rule in the new society. Only on that condition is the statement about the πύλαι adov, ver. 18, clause 2, valid. What precisely the verbal meaning of the statement is— whether that the gates of Hades shall not prevail in conflict against it, as
15
ordinarily understood; or merely that the gates, etc., shall not be stronger than it, without thought of a conflict (Weiss), is of minor moment; the point is that it is not an absolute promise. The ἐκκλησία will be strong, enduring, only so long as the faith in the Father and in Christ the Son, and the sfirit of the Father and the Son, reign in it. When the Christ spirit is weak the Church will be weak, and neither creeds nor governments, nor keys, nor ecclesi- astical dignities will be of much help to her.
Ver. 20. διεστείλατο (T.R.), “charged” (A. V.) not necessarily with any special emphasis = graviter interdicere, but = monuit (Loesner and Fritzsche). Cf. Heb. xii. 20, where a stronger sense seems required. For ἐπετίμησε in BD here and in Mk. Euthy. gives κατη- σφαλίσατο = to make sure by injunc- Ποπ.---τοῖς μαθηταῖς: all the disciples are, supposed to say amen to Peter’s confession, thinking of God and of Jesus as he thought, though possibly not with equal emphasis of conviction.—tva . . . 6 Χριστός: no desire to multiply hastily recruits for the new community, supreme regard to quality. Jesus wanted no man to call Him Christ till he knew what he was saying: no hearsay or echoed con- fession of any value in His eyes.—airés, the same concerning whom current opinions have just been reported (ver. 14). It was hardly necessary to take pains to prevent the faith in His Messiah- ship from spreading prematurely in a crude form. Few would cail such an one as ¥esus Christ, save by the Holy Ghost. The one temptation thereto lay: in the generous heneficence of Jesus. Vv. 21-28. Announcement of the