ACC ~ Matthew 16 v14

WHO DO PEOPLE SAY THAT THE SON OF MAN IS?

CHRYSOSTOM: Note that he is not asking them their own opinion. Rather, he asks the opinion of the people. Why? In order to contrast the opinion of the people with the disciples answer to the question “But who do you say that I am?” In this way, by the manner of his inquiry, they might be drawn gradually to a more sublime notion and not fall into the same common view as that of the multitude.

Note that Jesus does not raise this question at the beginning of his preaching but only after he had done many miracles, had talked through with them many lofty teachings, and had given them many clear proofs of his divinity and of his union with the Father. Only then does he put this question to them.

He did not ask “Who do the scribes and Pharisees say that I am?” even though they had often come to him and discoursed with him. Rather, he begins his questioning by asking “Who do men say the Son of man is?” as if to inquire about common opinion. Even if common opinion was far less true than it might have been, it was at least relatively more free from malice than the opinions of the religious leaders, which was teeming with bad motives.

He signifies how earnestly he desires this divine economy to be confessed when he says, “Who do men say the Son of man is?” for he thereby denotes his godhead, which he does also in many other places. THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, HOMILY 54.1. [1]

[1] PG 58:532-33; NPNF 1 10:332.

SOME SAY JEREMIAH

THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: In the same way they had supposed that Christ was Jeremiah. Perhaps they knew that the Lord had wisdom from his birth and was without peer in his teaching. Something similar was thought of Jeremiah, in that as a child he was singled out for prophecy and that without human training he was the prophet of a greater prophet who was to follow. [1] FRAGMENT 91. [2]

[1] As it appears in Jeremiah 1:5, Jeremiah had already in his mother’s womb been chosen by God as a prophet.

[2] MKGK 129.

ONE OF THE PROPHETS

ORIGEN: Just look at the differences of opinion among the Jews about Jesus. Some, following corrupt thinking, said he was John the Baptist (for example, Herod the tetrarch, who asked his servants, “Is this John the Baptizer now risen from the dead and, because of this, with powers at work in him?”) Others said that Elijah is now the one called Jesus. He has either been born a second time or he has been alive somewhere all along and is now appearing again. Some suggested Jeremiah was Jesus, and not that Jeremiah was a type of Christ. This comes perhaps from a mistaken interpretation of a passage in the beginning of Jeremiah about Christ’s prophecy unfulfilled in the time of the prophet but beginning to be fulfilled in Jesus, whom God set up over nations and kingdoms “to root up, and to build up, and to transplant.” [1] COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 12.9. [2]

[1] Jer 1:10. In Origen’s view these words, which the Lord speaks to Jeremiah, go beyond the mission entrusted to the prophet and are instead meant for Christ, of whom Jeremiah had therefore been a prophetic prefigurement.

[2] GCS 40:81-82; ANF 9:455.

Mt