Bible Study series: Mark 8:31-33. Peter had just declared that Jesus is the Messiah. Then he speaks for Satan and his cause.
Friendly greetings and a warm welcome to this Bible study! I write to learn, so let’s learn together how to apply these truths to our lives.
I also translate to learn. The translations are mine, unless otherwise noted. If you would like to see many others, please click here:
If you would like to see the original Greek, please click here:
At that link, I also offer more commentary and a Summary and Conclusion, geared towards discipleship. Scroll down to the bottom and check it out!
Let’s begin.
Scripture: Mark 8:31-33
31 He began to teach them that the Son of Man was destined to suffer many things and to be rejected by the elders and chief priests and teachers of the law and to be killed, and after three days rise again. 32 He spoke this message plainly. Peter, taking him aside, began to rebuke him. 33 But Jesus wheeled around, and seeing his disciples, rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan, because you don’t set your mind on the things of God, but on the things of people!” (Mark 8:31-33)
Comments:
31:
Here we round a corner in the mission of Jesus. He is headed toward Jerusalem to die without saying the name of the Holy City. We know that he is referring to it, however, by the three classes of rulers.
“Son of Man”: This is both human (many uses in Ezekiel) and divine (Dan. 7:13-14). It can also be translated as “Son of Humanity.”
4. Titles of Jesus: The Son of Man
Jesus was called by the Father to die for the sin of the world, and the Father reinforced this calling during his prayer time. But the good news is that Jesus would rise from the dead on the third day. It makes me wonder how God would call us to die. That’s the topic of the next verses.
“elders”:
“chief priests”:
“teachers of the law” (also called scribes):
To learn more about them, please click on this post:
Quick Reference to Jewish Groups in Gospels and Acts
See vv. 11-13 for how these groups were the Watchdogs of Theology and Behavior.
This verse will be literally fulfilled in Mark 14:53, when the chief priests, the elders and the teachers of the law bring him into the council room and interrogate him and conclude that he committed blasphemy (Matt. 26:65-66 // Mark 14:62-64 // Luke 22:66), which deserves death (Lev. 24:10-16, 23).
“after three days”: Some people take this to mean literally seventy-two hours, because Jonah spent three days and three nights in the big fish (Jnh. 1:17; Matt. 12:40), so Jesus must also spend seventy-two hours in the grave. But we over-read the intent here. The sign of Jonah was his coming out of the depths of the belly and the sea, which was a type of the resurrection. Let’s not over-analyze it. Jesus was crucified and died on Friday; he spent Saturday in the grave—or his body did—and body was raised from the dead early on Sunday morning: Friday, Saturday, and Sunday—three days. They don’t have to be seventy-two hours. Go to biblegateway.com, and look up “third day.” It is remarkable how many times it means something significant and redemptive. So of course the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus would be accomplished on the third day.
Strauss: “‘after three days’ reflects the Jewish custom of treating any part of a day as a full day, so that ‘after three days’ is the same as saying ‘on the third day.’”
Solving Passover Chronology Problems Between John and Synoptics
Some people take this to mean literally seventy-two hours, because Jonah spent three days and three nights in the big fish (Jnh. 1:17; Matt. 12:40), so Jesus must also spend seventy-two hours in the grave. But we over-read the intent here. The sign of Jonah was his coming out of the depths of the belly and the sea, which was a type of the resurrection. Let’s not over-analyze it. Jesus was crucified and died on Friday; he spent part of Friday and Saturday and Sunday in the grave—or his body did—and his body was raised from the dead early on Sunday morning: Friday, Saturday, and Sunday—three days. They don’t have to be seventy-two hours. It was a Jewish custom to count a partial day as one day. It’s inclusive counting.
How do I prove that “after three days” can be partial? First, in 1 Sam. 30:12 (literally “today three days”), the day before yesterday. Second, in Esther, a period described as “three days and three nights” (4:16) is concluded on the third day (5:1). (Thanks, R. T. France, p. 491, fn. 12!). Third, Jesus says he will rise on the third day (Matt. 16:21; 17:23; 20:19; 27:64, and in Mark and Luke). Those verses in the Gospels where he quotes Jonah 1:17 and here where he says “on the third day” prove that he did not over-interpret Jonah, for the prophet was merely a sign and type. Jesus believed that three days and three nights could be partial. Fourth, even Paul said, “on the third day, according to the Scriptures”, that is, the OT (1 Cor. 15:4). So Paul must be using a semitic inclusive day out of three days of 72 hours. The days are partial.
Go to biblegateway.com and look up “third day.” It is amazing how many times the two words appear and how significant they are in many contexts.
Rising on the third day is the key to early apostolic preaching. All throughout the first five chapters of Acts, Peter and the others refer to it time and again. Paul referenced the resurrection when he spoke to the Athenians in Mars Hill (Acts 17:30-32).
1 Cor. 15:3-8 is all about the resurrection:
3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8 and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born. (1 Cor. 15:3-8, NIV)
Paul omitted the fact that he appeared to women first. (No, Paul did not omit this out of malice.) He appeared then to Cephas (Peter) and then the twelve. Next, he appeared to more than 500 at a time. Where did that happen? In Galilee? In or around Jerusalem? Probably the holy city, where the Jesus community gathered in larger numbers, at least according to what Acts says. (Or maybe they appeared in large numbers in Galilee, his main ministry operation.) In any case, Paul recounted what he knew. And the resurrection is the key reality and doctrine. Never give it up as nonessential, people of God. It is the core of our faith.
Commentator Lane sees these themes in Jesus’s title of the Son of Man in Mark (slightly modified format):
A
2:10 The authority to forgive sins
2:28 The Lord of the Sabbath
B
8:31 Prophecy of the Passion (Suffering)
9:31 Prophecy of the Passion
10:32-34
C
9:9 Resurrection
9:12 Sufferings
10:45 His life a ransom for many
14:21 Goes to death
14:21 Betrayed
14:41 Betrayed
D
8:38 Will come in glory
13:26 Will come in clouds
14:62 Will come in clouds
Lane explains: “A” represents the sole use of the Son of Man in the first half of the Gospel and indicates the theological significance of an incident for his Christian readers. The six texts of “C” are allusions to the three prophetic announcements of the passion in “B.” The remaining Groups, “B” and “D,” consist in three cardinal texts announcing Jesus’ suffering balanced by three promising his parousia (arrive or coming) in glory. Each group represents the phase of Jesus’ ministry.
Lane concludes: “The tension between the concealment and openness in the self-revelation of God’s Son is thus exhibited in the texts of Groups B and D. Only the eye of faith can perceive the identity between the broken figure upon the cross and the transcendent majesty of the enthroned Son of Man whose coming consummates history and initiates universal judgment” (pp. 298-99).
You can make of his insightful idea what you will.
32-33:
Yes, Peter really did approach Jesus—or another translation could be that he took the Messiah aside—as if to give him private instruction. Yes, the Greek really does say “rebuke.” Peter actually rebuked Jesus. The lead apostle may have had enough insight from the Father to declare Jesus to be the Messiah, the Son of the living God, but Peter did not have enough insight to calculate the plan of God that the Messiah must suffer and die, as Is. 53 says.
“wheeled around”: it could be translated more gently as “turned,” but I like the drama because Satan was behind the human-centered plan of Peter.
“get behind me”: it can be loosely translated as “Fall back in line!” (Strauss). Jesus used the same wording against Satan during the Great Temptation (Matt. 4:10), which can also be translated as “away from me!”
“set your mind”: The verb means, depending on the context: (1) “think, hold or form an opinion, judge”; (2) “set one’s mind on, be intent on”; (3) “have thoughts or attitudes, be minded or disposed” (the Shorter Lexicon). The editor recommends the second definition. Peter had a good idea, but he did not have a God idea.
“people”: it is the Greek noun anthrōpos (pronounced ahn-throw-poss, and we get our word anthropology from it). Conservative translations have “man,” but that is not exactly right. It encompasses all persons, much like our archaic word mankind includes women. The best translation, in most instances, is person, not man (in the singular). I chose “people,” but it could also be translated, freely, as “human centered things”!
GrowApp for Mark 8:31-33
1. Have you ever misinterpreted and misunderstood God’s plan, as Peter did? How did you get back on the right track?
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
For bibliographical data, please click on this link and scroll down to the very bottom:
Dr. Jim's Essential Bible Teaching 