13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do men say that the Son of man is?”
Jesus takes his disciples thirty miles north to Caesarea Philippi. This is a ten hour hike, for apparently no purpose at all except to ask a question. Caesarea Philipipi is no insignificant place. Firstly lets start from Jesus’ time and move backward.
It’s name in the Gospels was its name at that time, it was called Caesarea in honor of Caesar Augustus but Philip the Tetrarch wanted to distinguish it from Caesarea Maritima on the coast so he added his own name to it. Herod the Great, father of Philip built a large temple in honor of Caesar there as well. About three hundred years before this, after Alexander the Greats Hellenistic conquest of the region it became the major centre of cultic worship of the Greek god Pan and was named “Paneas” after the deity. There was a large cave there known as the Grotto of Pan and was believed to be the entrance to the underworld. Now that’s usually where scholars stop, because do we need to go any further? The answer is yes, yes we do.
Before the Hellenistic conquest, this region, especially Mount Hermon which the city was at the foot of was the centre of Ba’al worship. That Ba’al mentioned in your Old Testament. Ba’al means Lord or Husband and became the term we use for the Evil One hence Beelzebub. The Canaanites storm riding, sea chaos defeating, divine king “Ba’al” was basically Marduk of ancient Babylon. A prince of the air, if you will. But the ancient Hebrews did not see it that way, they believed something about this place, especially Mount Hermon that puts all of this in to a fantastic backdrop for the starting of the New Covenant.
If you ask a Christian when did all the bad stuff start, when was the “fall” they would tell you about our first parents, Adam and Eve. They’re right to say that but if you asked an ancient Hebrew they would ask you back “Which fall?” Because to them, there was more than one. The Fall in Eden was terrible but another Fall came after that preoccupied Hebrew thought all the way to the Second Temple Period and definitely occupied the minds of the New Testament Authors and therefore early Christians.
The second big fall was that of the “Son’s of God” who left their domain and did some illicit activity with human women, I am not going to say what, not because I’m squeamish but because I truly do not believe we will ever fully comprehend what this infringement was. The Bible only gives us Genesis 6:1-4 to explain. Either way, God put them in prison until the Day of Judgement for it. According to Hebrew Tradition, that exact location of that Fall was Mount Hermon. This is where our fallen nature from the first fall was twisted and mutilated even further by the “Sons of God”, rebels against the divine plan.
“Who do men say that the Son of man is?” writes Saint Matthew. This is a messianic title, initially just meaning a man but in the revelations given to the Prophet Daniel we understand the Son of Man to be the Messiah, the one who will come to fix basically everything and he will be Divine.
We understand that there were two falls, the first in Eden and the second on Mount Hermon. What do you think “Son of Man” is in Hebrew? Ben Adam. The Phrase Son of Man can also be read as the New Adam. He is going to fix the first fall by being the New Adam and is going to fix then second by founding his New Covenant family on top of the location of it. Literally conquering it. He proposes the question so the Leader of the Apostles has his chance to lay the first brick of the Church.
14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
The disciples respond with the presumptions of others, those that are listed out by Herod Antipas’ court. So this seems to be the dominant opinion by “the people”. Some think he is the resurrected John the Baptist, some think Elijah. There was a particular expectation of the Prophet Elijah as he was prophesied to arrive as a forerunner to the Messiah in the Old Testament. Other Prophets are also considered as being the true identity of Jesus.
15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
He now directs the question specifically at them, he wants to know who they think he is. Only Peter answers, the Leader of the Apostles and he answers “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” That is the Anointed One, that’s what Christos in Greek means. Those who are anointed are kings, priests and prophets. This lets us know that although all those offices were anointed there was a type of Messianic labelling as the definite article “The” is being used. He is The Anointed One, as in the Messiah, the Son of Man seen by the Prophet Daniel in a heavenly vision. Not just any particular King, Priest or Prophet but a preeminent one. He is also a Son of the living God, not in the biological sense that we consider sonship but that of an heir to the glory of the Father. He is eternally the Son. A son is the best representative of a father in the ancient near east context, he is the direct image of him.
17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.
Jesus responds to Simon’s confession of faith by telling him he is “Blessed”. This denotes favour from God. Jesus also calls him “Simon Bar-Jona” we know elsewhere in the Gospels that this is not Simon’s fathers name and we also know that Jesus isn’t wrong either. Here he is calling him a son of Jonah, in the sense that he is going to be an image of Jonah the prophet. He will go into the belly of the beast that is Rome as Jonah the Prophet went into the belly of the whale. If it seems like I am reaching here, we only have to go back 9 verses to when Jesus refers to the “sign of of the Prophet Jonah”. It is definitely connected even if others cannot see it.
Simon recognises Jesus’ true sonship and Jesus in return acknowledges a mysterious sonship of Simon’s. Jesus also points out that this acknowledgement of Simon’s is not a feat of intelligence or a good guess because neither flesh or blood revealed it to him, that is to say, nothing material or mortal did. It is a divine mystery passed exclusively to him by Jesus’ Father in Heaven.
18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it.
Jesus now renames Simon. This is something done by God whenever he means a new mission of a person. Consider the Old Testament examples of Abram to Abraham, Jacob to Israel and their new name denotes their new purpose. Abraham means “father of many” or “high father” which he is. Israel is derived from “Yisra” meaning “struggle” and El which is short for “God” as in “Elohim”. He does struggle with God and his descendants will also, they still do. Jesus renames Simon “Peter” or “Petros” in Greek. It means Rock. In the Greek text we have the male suffix added to to a typical female noun as Simon is not a female but when the word rock is mentioned again it is the feminine noun “Petra”. This has led to some (bad) exegesis by people desperately wanting to infer that Jesus is not building the Church on Peter but on some other rock which if you understand sentence structure, makes no sense. The entire focus is on Simon who has just been renamed “Rock”. It also doesn’t make sense if you understand the language that Jesus spoke which was Aramaic, which had ZERO masculine/feminine distinctions.
The powers of death or the Gates of Hades to be more accurate to the Greek will not prevail over this new Rock the Church is built on. Although the typical understanding is that regardless of what demonic or human evils may attempt to thwart Jesus’ “Ekklesia” which is a true statement, I don’t think that is what this text is saying. It is important to understand that a gate can’t prevail over anything, a gate stops people getting through something. When you reassess the statement through a more ancient understanding of the cosmic hierarchy, like the pseudepigraphal work of The Ascension of Isaiah it makes more sense. Although physically speaking Sheol was considered in the earth, in the cosmic hierarchal perspective of many ancient Jews, it was above that of the material earth and was one of “Seven Heavens” or Seven realms connected in series by gates and increasing in holiness the further you got up. For one to ascend to the seventh heaven and be with God in the beatific vision, you’d have to pass through those lower heavens, you’d have to break the gates of hell. An Ekkelsia is the term in the septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, that described the body of people of the Old Covenant. Jesus is founding a New Covenant body that will not be prevented from ascending to the beatific vision by the Gates between it and God.
19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
Saint Leo the Great, the Pope of the 5th century, venerated by Catholic and Eastern Orthodox alike, said of this verse:
“The authority vested in this power passed also to the other apostles, and the institution established by this decree has been continued in all the leaders of the Church. But it is not without good reason that what is bestowed on all is entrusted to one. For Peter received it separately in trust because he is the prototype set before all the rulers of the Church.”
Peter alone is entrusted with the Keys of the Heavenly Kingdom, which were prefigured in the Davidic Kingdom as written of by the Prophet Isaiah in chapter 22
“In that day I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and I will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your girdle on him, and will commit your authority to his hand; and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David; he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. And I will fasten him like a peg in a sure place, and he will become a throne of honor to his father’s house. And they will hang on him the whole weight of his father’s house, the offspring and issue, every small vessel, from the cups to all the flagons.”
The binding and loosing authority that will penultimately hang upon Peter and his successors is prefigured in the terminologies of the Second Temple Jews, to bind and loose meant binding and loosing doctrine and disciplines but this authority also extends out to the binding and loosing of sins, Jesus will say later to his apostles what sins you forgive are forgiven, and those you retain are retained, more binding and loosing authority. And in another place he will tell them how to deal with rebels, when they do not correct their ways they are to be brought to the church, this authoritative body would be the College of Bishops, the Apostles and their head, Peter and they can exclude them from the community, binding and loosing of membership of the body. The Church will now be a essentially a satellite state of the Heavenly Kingdom, the binding and loosing done here will effect the heavenly kingdom also as through Christ who is both man and God has united Heaven and Earth in himself and his body, the Church.
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