Mark 8:33

Mar_8:31; Mar_8:33

That the Son of Man must suffer many things.

The rebuke of love

Let us not overlook this loving rebuke; for

(1) it cures Peters presumption;

(2) sets him to learn a new lesson on the heavenliness of sacrifice;

(3) prevents the greatness of his faith being spoiled by the earthliness of his hopes.

Faithful are the wounds of a friend: but the wounds which the Saviour inflicts are kindest of all. From Peters weakness let us learn how hard it is to see all truth at once. From Christs rebuke let us learn that the heavenly thing is not to seek for glory, but for usefulness, even if we can reach it only through a cross. (R. Glover.)

Peter rebuked Christ and Christ rebuked Peter-an altercation of more than mere words

It is charged with practical truths.

1. Mans shortsightedness.

2. Mans sentiment exaggerated.

3. Mans audacity to think he can help or save Christ.

On Christs side:

1. He rebukes the oldest.

2. He rebukes the wisest-it was Peter who said, Thou art the Christ.

3. He shows that men are only worthy of Him in proportion as they enter into His spirit. (Dr. Parker.)

Christs intimation of His sufferings

I. What there is to mark the time which our blessed Saviour thus selected, for giving prominence to a new and unwelcome subject of discourse. In the third year of His public ministry. Up to this time our Lord left the great truth of His Godhead to work its way rote the minds of His apostles. Now they had arrived at the conviction that He was none other than the ever-living God. What inducement led to, and what instruction may be gathered from, the recorded fact, that when Jesus had drawn from His disciples the acknowledgment of His Divinity, then, and not before, He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. Now the apostles could have had none but the most indistinct apprehensions of the office and mission of our Lord, so long as they were ignorant of the death which He had undertaken to die. This made it appear remarkable, that our Lord should so long have withheld the express mention of His sufferings, As much as to say, It will be of no avail to speak to them of My death till they are convinced of My Deity. So long as they only know Me as the Son of Man, they will not be prepared to hear of the cross; when they shall also know Me as the Son of the living God, then will be the time to tell of ignominy and death. Oh, how strange, you may exclaim, that the moment of discovering a Divine person in the form of a man should be the right moment for the being informed that this person should be crucified! To discover a Divine person is to discover what death cannot touch; and yet Christ waited till this discovery in regard of Himself, that He might then expressly mention His approaching dissolution. But do you not observe, my brethren, what a testimony our Lord hereby gives to the fact, that the truth of His Godhead alone explains-alone gives meaning or worth to-His having died on the cross? He will say nothing of His death whilst only believed to be man; He speaks continually of His death, when once acknowledged as God. Are we not taught by this, that they only who believe Christ Divine, can put the right construction on the mystery of His death, or so survey it as to draw from it what it was intended to teach? Then we perceive, that He must have died as a sacrifice; then we understand that He must have died as an atonement to be the propitiation for our sins, to reconcile the world unto God. He could not have died for such ends had He been only man; but being also God, such ends could be answered and effected by His death, though nothing less, so far as we can tell, could have sufficed. Therefore, again and again, we say, Christs Divinity is the explanation of Christs death. We seem quite justified in gathering from the text, that hence forward our Lord made very frequent mention of His cross. If you examine, you will find so many as nine instances spoken of by the evangelists; though it was a topic which He had not before introduced. And what is very observable is, that it seems to have been upon occasions when the disciples were likely to have been puffed up and exalted, that ever after our Lord took special pains to impress upon them that He must be rejected and killed. Ah! my brethren, ought we not to learn from this keeping the cross out of sight till faith had grown strong and high privilege been imparted, that it is the advanced Christian who has need of persecution; and that grace, in place of exempting us from, is to fit us for trial? The disciples must have well known that if suffering were to be their Masters lot, it would also be theirs. If, then and thence, Jesus spake of afflictions which should befall Himself, He must have been understood as likewise speaking of afflictions which would befall His apostles; and He abstained, you see, from dwelling on the tribulation which would be the path to His kingdom, till He found His followers strong in belief of His actual Divinity. And then take one more lesson from the peculiarity of the occasions on which, as we bays shown you, Christ made a special point of introducing the mention of His sufferings; occasions on which the disciples were in danger of being puffed up and exalted. Learn to expect, and be thankful for, something bitter in the cup, when faith has won the victory, and you have tasted, in no common measure, the powers of the invisible world. You may say, however, that it militates against much that we have advanced, that in point of fact, Christs mentioning His sufferings at the time when He did, produced not on the disciples the effect which our statement supposes. We have but too good proof, that though our Lord deferred so long as He did speaking of His sufferings, the apostles were still unprepared for the saying, and could neither understand it nor receive it. Even St. Peter, who had just made the noble confession which proved him ready and willing to hear tidings from Christ, no sooner hears of his Saviour being rejected and killed, than he begins presumptuously to rebuke Him; saying, Be it far from Thee, Lord; this shall not be unto Thee. Yet let it not be thought that Christ chose an unseasonable time, or tried an unsuitable means. The medicine may be what we want; but we, alas! may reject it, as not being what we like. The ease may be precisely such, that from that time forth, it is wholesome that we be admonished of appointed tribulation. We may only the more prove how the admonition is needed, by treating it with dislike, and trying to disbelieve it. When we find that there was such repugnance in St. Peter and his brethren to the cross, though Christ had waited so patiently for the fittest time to introduce it, we ought to learn the difficulty of taking part with the suffering Saviour, and submitting ourselves meekly, and thankfully, to the scorn and the trial of sharing His afflictions. And this lesson from mans aversion to, and how much more the bearing of, the cross, should bring home to us with great force, our need of being continually disciplined by the Spirit of God. And yet it is not to pure and unmingled sorrow, that Christ would consign the more faithful in His Church. As St. Paul writes to the Corinthians, as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ. How beautiful is it in our text, that if Jesus then began to tell His disciples how He should die, He then began also to tell them how He should rise again from the dead. It is our unbelief, or our impatience, which makes us overlook the one statement in our eagerness to get rid of the other. If God lead you into the wilderness, it is, as He saith by the prophet Hosea, that there He may speak comfortably to you, giving you vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope. (H. Melvill, B. D.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

8:33 Jesus looked at his disciples before he publicly rebuked Peter; he wanted them to understand that Peter was wrong. • Get away from me, Satan does not mean that Peter was demon-possessed. Peter spoke from a human point of view, not from God’s, so he unwittingly spoke for Satan, the god of this world (2 Cor 4:4), and repeated Satan’s temptation (cp. Matt 4:8-10).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Mar 8:33 . ἐπιστραφεὶς : the compound instead of the simple verb in Mt., which Mk. does not use. ἰδὼν τ . μαθ .: the rebuke is administered for the benefit of all, not merely to put down Peter. This resistance to the cross must be grappled with at once and decisively. What Peter said, all felt . In Mk.’s report of the rebuke the words σκάνδαλον εἶ ἐμοῦ are omitted. On the saying vide in Mt.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

This is not godly, but worldly wisdom.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

33. when he had turned about and looked on his disciples] Observe the graphic touches of St Mark. The Apostle who had restrained the Evangelist from preserving the record of that which redounded to his highest honour, suppresses the record neither of his own mistaken zeal, nor of the terrible rebuke it called forth.

Get thee behind me] The very words which He had used to the Tempter in the wilderness (Mat_4:10), for in truth the Apostle was adopting the very argument which the great Enemy had adopted there.

thou savourest not] Thou art thinking of, thy thoughts centre on. This rendering of the Greek word for “to think” is suggested by the Latin sapere, which is found in the Vulgate and retained from Wyclif’s Version. It is derived directly from the substantive savour, Fr. saveur, Lat. sapor, from sapere. Thus Latimer quoting 1Co_13:11 writes, “When I was a child I savoured as a child.” “In confusion of them that so saveren earthely thinges.” Chaucer, Parson’s Tale. “Thy words shew,” our Lord would say to the Apostle, “that in these things thou enterest not into the thoughts and plans of God, but considerest all things only from the ideas of men. This attempt of thine to dissuade Me from My ‘baptism of death’ is a sin against the purposes of God.”

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But when he had turned about,.... Upon Peter, and showed quick resentment at what he said:

and looked on his disciples; he cast his eye toward, them at the same time, and expressed to them the same displeasure in his countenance, they being of the same mind:

he rebuked Peter, saying, get thee behind me, Satan: for thou savourest not the things that be of God; things which were according to the will of God, as the sufferings of Christ were: they were according to the determinate counsel of his will; what he had determined in his purposes and council should be; and what he had declared in the Scriptures of truth, the revelation of his will, would be; and in which, according to them, he should have a great concern himself, Isa 53:6, and whereby all his divine perfections would be glorified, and therefore may well be said to be the things of God; and which ought to be savoured, minded, and attended to, as things of the greatest moment and importance: and which, though the apostle had often read of in the books of the Old Testament; yet either had not a clear understanding of them, as being the will of God; or however, they were greatly out of his view at this time, his mind being possessed with notions of a temporal kingdom, and of worldly honour and grandeur: wherefore it follows,

but the things that be of men; as were the notions of Christ's being a temporal prince, that would set up a worldly kingdom, and deliver the Jews from the Roman yoke, and make his subjects happy, with an affluence of all worldly things; and particularly his favourites, as the disciples were: these were schemes of men's devising, and were suited to the corrupt nature, and carnal inclinations of men; and these things at present too much possessed Peter's mind: wherefore the Lord rebuked him in a very severe, though just manner; being touched in his most tender part, and dissuaded from that which his heart was set upon, and he came into the world for; whose keen resentment is seen by using a phrase he never did but to the devil himself, Mat 4:10; See Gill on Mat 16:23.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

33 But when he had turned about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying, Get thee behind me, Satan: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men.

Ver. 33. {See Trapp on "Mat 16:22"} {See Trapp on "Mat 16:23"}

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But he turning about, and seeing his disciples, rebuked Peter. The words indicate a sudden movement (o de epistrafeiv), accompanied by a keen searching look at his disciples. Then he singles out Peter, and addresses to him, in their presence, the severe rebuke, Get thee behind me, Satan: for thou savourest not (ou froneiv) literally, thou mindest notthe things of God, but the things of men. The form of words is the same as that used by our Lord to Satan himself, when he was tempted by him in the wilderness. It reminded him of that great conflict. The visions of worldly glory again floated before him. The crown without the cross was again held out to him. This explains his language. Peter was indeed rebuked; but the rebuke was aimed through him at the arch adversary who was addressing him through Peter. Here is the striking significance of his "turning about." Peter was for the moment doing the tempter"s work, and in "turning about" our Lord was again putting Satan behind him.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Looking on his disciples - That they might the more observe what he said to Peter.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

thou savourest

i.e. thou art thinking man’s thoughts, not the thoughts of God. Contra, Mat 16:17

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Connecting Statement:

After rebuking Peter for his not wanting Jesus to die and rise, Jesus tells both his disciples and the crowd how to follow him.

Get behind me, Satan! You are not setting

Jesus means that Peter is acting like Satan because Peter is trying to prevent Jesus from accomplishing what God sent him to do. AT: "Get behind me, because you are acting like Satan! You are not setting" (See: Metaphor)

Get behind me

"Get away from me"

follow me

Following Jesus here represents being one of his disciples. AT: "be my disciple" or "be one of my disciples" (See: Metaphor)

must deny himself

"must not give in to his own desires" or "must forsake his own desires"

take up his cross, and follow me

"carry his cross and follow me." The cross represents suffering and death. Taking up the cross represents being willing to suffer and die. AT: "must obey me even to the point of suffering and dying" (See: Metonymy and Metaphor)

follow me

Following Jesus here represents obeying him. AT: "obey me" (See: Metaphor)

translationWords

Jesus

disciple

rebuke

Peter

Satan

God

call

cross

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

[33. Τοὺς μαθητὰς αὐτοῦ, His disciples) who might have been very quickly carried away by Peter’s objection, so as to embrace views merely human.—V. g.]

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

33. καὶ λέγει ([1770][1771][1772][1773][1774]) rather than λέγων ([1775][1776][1777][1778]).

[1770] Codex Sinaiticus. 4th cent. Discovered by Tischendorf in 1859 at the Monastery of St Katharine on Mount Sinai. Now at St Petersburg. The whole Gospel, ending at Mar 16:8. Photographic facsimile, 1911.

[1771] Codex Vaticanus. 4th cent., but perhaps a little later than א. In the Vatican Library almost since its foundation by Pope Nicolas V., and one of its greatest treasures. The whole Gospel, ending at Mar 16:8. Photographic facsimile, 1889.

[1772] Codex Ephraemi. 5th cent. A palimpsest: the original writing has been partially rubbed out, and the works of Ephraem the Syrian have been written over it; but a great deal of the original writing has been recovered; of Mark we have Mar 1:17 to Mar 6:31, Mar 8:5 to Mar 12:29, Mar 13:19 to Mar 16:20. In the National Library at Paris.

[1773] Codex Regius. 8th cent. An important witness. At Paris. Contains Mar 1:1 to Mar 10:15; Mar 10:30 to Mar 15:1; Mar 15:20 to Mar 16:20, but the shorter ending is inserted between Mar 16:8 and Mar 16:9, showing that the scribe preferred it to the longer one.

[1774] Codex Sangallensis. 9th or 10th cent. Contains the Gospels nearly complete, with an interlinear Latin translation. The text of Mark is specially good, agreeing often with CL. At St Gall.

[1775] Codex Alexandrinus. 5th cent. Brought by Cyril Lucar, Patriarch of Constantinople, from Alexandria, and afterwards presented by him to King Charles I. in 1628. In the British Museum. The whole Gospel. Photographic facsimile, 1879.

[1776] Codex Bezae. 6th cent. Has a Latin translation (d) side by side with the Greek text, and the two do not quite always agree. Presented by Beza to the University Library of Cambridge in 1581. Remarkable for its frequent divergences from other texts. Contains Mark, except Mar 16:15-20, which has been added by a later hand. Photographic facsimile, 1899.

[1777] Codex Oxoniensis. 9th cent. Contains Mark, except Mar 3:35 to Mar 6:20.

[1778] Codex Petropolitanus. 9th cent. Gospels almost complete. Mar 16:18-20 is in a later hand.

33. ἐπιστραφείς. Midd. sense, as in Mar 5:30. This graphic touch, freq. in Lk., is in Mt. also. If Peter’s rebuke to Him was given privately, His rebuke to Peter must, for the sake of all, be given openly. It was as He turned that He saw the disciples, from whose company Peter had withdrawn Him. Without ἐπί (Act 9:35; Act 11:21) or πρός (Luk 17:4; Act 9:40) after it, ἐπιστρέφ. means “turn round,” not necessarily “turn towards.” The other Evangelists use στραφείς of Christ’s turning to people. Vulg. spoils the effect of ἐπιτιμᾷν … ἐπετίμησεν by translating increpare … comminatus est. The latter is the usual translation.

Ὕπαγε ὀπίσω μου, Σατανᾶ. At the end of the Temptation Christ dismissed the evil one with Ὕπαγε, Σατανᾶ (Mat 4:10). He recognizes Satan’s influence once more in Peter’s suggestion that the Messiah can accomplish His work without suffering and death, which is a repetition of the suggestions made in the wilderness. Mt. says expressly that Ὕπαγε … Σατανᾶ was addressed to Peter, and ὅτι οὐ φρονεῖς must be addressed to him. For the moment Peter has identified himself with Satan, and he is banished with similar decision and severity.

Bede tries to mitigate Peter’s error, which he thinks sprang de pietatis affectu and could not be attributed to the prompting of the evil one. He admires Peter’s taking the Master aside, ne praesentibus ceteris condiscipulis magistrum videatur arguere. He would give to “Satan” its original meaning of “adversary”; in this matter Peter’s wishes are opposed to Christ’s. Origen and Theophylact go still further from the true meaning when they interpret Ὕπαγε ὀπίσω μου as signifying “Follow Me; conform to My will.”

The severity of the rebuke is explained by the severity of the temptation. Christ’s prayers during the Agony show what it cost Him to resist the suggestion that the triumphant Τετέλεσται could be reached without suffering, and that the Crown might be won without enduring the Cross. The Divine Δεῖ must be accomplished, but Christ’s human soul shrank from the accomplishment, and the thought of escaping it had a dire attractiveness. D.C.G. art. “The Character of Christ.”

οὐ φρονεῖς τὰ τοῦ θεοῦ. It was God’s will that His Son should suffer and die, and Peter was setting his love for his Master in opposition to God’s love for His Son and His sons. The Apostle who should have been a support had become an occasion of falling. It is a low type of human affection that forbids those who are loved to suffer in a righteous cause. Conformity to the mind of God is the only safe rule. Cf. Php 3:19. Excepting this Saying and Act 28:22, φρονεῖν in N.T. is confined to the Pauline Epistles; Rom 8:5; Col 3:2. But the expression φρονεῖν τά is not specially Pauline; cf. 1Ma 10:20, and in Dem. Philippians 3 we have οἱ τὰ Φιλίππου φρονοῦντες.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

33. ἐπιστραφείς—having turned, that is, upon Peter. But as he turned on him, it brought the rest of the disciples to view, and having seen the effect of Peter’s action on them, he was moved to special plainness of speech. ἐπετίμησε Πέτρῳ καὶ λέγει—he rebuked Peter and says. Notice the repetition of the ἐπιτιμᾷν of v. 32. Peter had assumed to rebuke him, and now he rebukes Peter.

καὶ λέγει, instead of λέγων, saying, Tisch. Treg. WH. RV. א BCL Δ two mss. Lat. Vet. Memph. Pesh.

Ὕπαγε ὀπίσω μου—Ὕπαγε denotes withdrawal, get away. And the whole phrase means, Get out of my sight. Σατανᾶ—Satan. Our Lord is not calling names here, but indicating in strong language the part that Peter is playing. He is putting temptation in our Lord’s way, and is so acting the rôle of Satan. Jesus recognizes that it is not Peter in propria persona that is speaking, but the Spirit of evil speaking through him, just as he recognized the invisible Tempter in the wilderness (Mat 4:10). φρονεῖς—thou thinkest not, thou dost not regard. φρονεῖν τά τινος means to side with one.1 Peter did not keep in mind God’s purposes, but men’s. He did not look at things as God looks at them, but as men regard them, and hence he played the part of the Adversary, the Tempter. And it was not a minor and incidental temptation, but the great thing that separates God’s ways and man’s, the temptation to consider himself, instead of imitating God’s self-sacrifice.

JESUS TEACHES THE MULTITUDE THAT THE SELF-SACRIFICE PRACTISED BY HIMSELF IS THE NECESSARY CONDITION OF DISCIPLESHIP

34-9:1. Jesus now calls up the multitude, having closed the purely esoteric part of his teaching, relating to his own fate, and teaches them that the condition of discipleship is self-denial, and following him even to death. He bases this on the general principle that to lose life is to save it, and to save it is to lose it. And there is no profit in gaining the whole world and losing one’s life, because that is an irreparable loss. Nothing will buy it back. These ultimate gains and losses follow a man’s attitude towards Him because the Son of Man is to return in the glory of his Father, and will then be ashamed of the man who is now ashamed of Him.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.