Bible Study series: Mark 8:27-30. This is his confession of faith.
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Scripture: Mark 8:27-30
27 Then Jesus and his disciples went to the village of Caesarea Philippi. Along the way he asked his disciples, saying: “Whom do people say that I am?” 28 They told him, saying, “John the Baptist; and others say Elijah. And others say one of the prophets.” 29 Then he asked them, “You—whom do you say that I am?” In reply, Peter said, “You are the Christ.” 30 He sternly warned them that they must not tell anyone about him. (Mark 8:27-30)
Comments:
The Father affirmed his Son’s sonship and Messiahship (1:11), which was also acknowledged by demons (1:24: 3:11). Now what about those closest to him? This pericope answers that question.
27:
Caesarea Philippi is way up north, near Mt. Hermon. It was earlier named Paneas, after the god Pan, but was renamed after Caesar and Herod Philip early in the first century. In ancient times, Baal worship was practiced there. When Peter confessed that Jesus is the Messiah, the Anointed One, the Son of the living God, he was declaring that the gods of the past and present (and future) are defeated through Christ (BTSB, comment on Matt. 16:13).
France writes of the city:
The former city of Paneas or Panion, in a well-watered area in the foothills of Mount Hermon within the tetrarchy of Trachonitis, had recently been enlarged by the local ruler Herod Philip and renamed Caesarea in honour of Augustus, by whose gift it had passed into the control of his father, Herod the Great. Its original name derived from the local worship of Pan (which succeeded an earlier Canaanite Baal cult), and the little we know of its history suggests that, despite the ‘Jewish’ identity of its ruler, it was essentially a Hellenistic and pagan city.
So apparently Jesus went up there to do battle with the forces of darkness, but the battleground is in the hearts of people. He did not speak out to demonic forces in the atmosphere.
See my posts about the title Messiah and the Son of God:
3. Titles of Jesus: The Son of David and the Messiah
6. Titles of Jesus: The Son of God
No, Jesus is not asking this question because he is insecure and wants to find out how popular he is. He’s asking this question to draw out of his disciples their knowledge of him.
“disciples”: see v. 1 for more comments.
28:
John the Baptist and Elijah. Jesus quotes this verse from Malachi in Matt. 11:10: “This is the one of whom it has been written: ‘Look! I send my messenger before you, who prepares your road before you’ (Mal. 3:1). The common rumors speak of Messianic expectation, and the people believed in the resurrection from the dead and were expecting Elijah to return, as Malachi predicted (Mal. 4:5-6). Judaism at this time commonly believed that a former prophet would reappear, like Moses, Jeremiah, or Isaiah.
29:
“You”: In Greek this is fronted for emphasis. Jesus wants to know what their opinion was.
“Christ”: it could be translated as Messiah.
3. Titles of Jesus: The Son of David and the Messiah
Here is the real test, and Peter’s answer surpasses those of the crowds. Jesus was identified correctly. Matthew’s version shows Jesus proclaiming that Peter received this knowledge from the Father in heaven (Matt. 16:13-20), so the Father was breaking though in the disciples’ minds, or at least Peter’s mind. I get the impression that Peter spoke for all of them. I can easily imagine that the others verbally expressed or nodded their agreement. Matthew’s version says that Peter added, “the Son of the living God” (16:16). This is the fullest statement in their cultural context at this time. Later revelation, after Pentecost (Acts 2), will show the church that he was equal with God, as Phil. 2:5-11 reveals. “Although he was in the form of God, he did not consider equality with God something to be grasped” (v. 6). In other words, progressive revelation is a fact of the Bible. He reveals who he is by their historical context and what their mind can grasp, little by little. John’s Gospel shows Jesus slamming home his true identity as God in the flesh, and only the few and the insightful could grasp it. His fullest revelation was for a later time, after the birth of the church at Pentecost, and John’s Gospel reflects the later times—or was written for them long after the birth.
30:
Once again, why would Jesus not want it bandied around that he was the Messiah? People have to discover things little by little. Also, he did not intend for them to impose their version of the Messiah on himself. He was in charge of his identity; they were not. They expected a conquering Messiah who would wipe out the Romans and ride into Jerusalem and keep it by God’s mighty power. Instead, by coming into Jerusalem riding on a colt-donkey (Mark 11:7-8), he would perplex the high and mighty, like Herod and the Jerusalem establishment, but the little people, like Peter the fisherman, would understand the Messiah’s mission more clearly, though not perfectly clearly, yet. So in this pericope or section of Scripture, we see the Great Reversal. Herod was perplexed (vv. 7-9), while Peter figured it out (vv. 18-19). But it takes more than just educated, popular guesses, so the crowds were the little people, but they could not figure it out. So what was important was to spend time with Jesus.
GrowApp for Mark 8:27-30
1. How and when did you come to know Jesus as he really is: Savior and Lord?
RELATED
10. Eyewitness Testimony in Mark’s Gospel
2. Church Fathers and Mark’s Gospel
2. Archaeology and the Synoptic Gospels
14. Similarities among John’s Gospel and the Synoptic Gospels
1. The Historical Reliability of the Gospels: Introduction to Series
SOURCES
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