TRANSLATION MATTHEW 16:13

Now when Jesus arrived in the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his pupils, “Who do people say that this son of man is?”

They told him, “Some say, John the Dipper, others Elijah, and others again Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

He said to them, “And who do you say that I am?”

Simon Peter answered him, “You are the Messiah, the son of the living God.”

Jesus responded, saying to him, “How blessed you are, Simon son of Jonah, for flesh and blood have not revealed this to you, but my father who is in heaven! And I say that you are Peter the Rock and on this rock I will build the house of my assembly, and the gates of death will not enclose it. And I will give you the keys of the Rule of Heaven.Whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth will have been loosed in heaven.”

Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he is the Messiah.

Once more it helps to look at how Matthew has edited his source material from Mark. Firstly he has Jesus refer to himself as “son of man” who in the book of Daniel stands for the rule of justice and humanity by the holy ones of God. Various writings prophesied the arrival of the son of man in the last days. Jesus may have used this to mean himself along with his followers. Mark does not use the phrase in this narrative. Matthew also introduces the information that some identified Jesus with Jeremiah, the most sorely persecuted prophet, He adds to Peter’s declaration of Jesus as Messiah the phrase, “the son of the living God” which broadens the scope of the Messiah-as-ruler, with the feature of his relationship with God.

In Mark Jesus responds to Peter only by forbidding his pupils to tell anyone that he is the Messiah, whereas Matthew adds a very positive blessing of Peter as the “rock.” (Peter’s nick- name in Aramaic and Greek means stone.) On Peter’s rocky faith Jesus says he will build his assembly. It may be that Matthew is reflecting not just the status of Peter as the leader and martyr of the Roman Assembly, but also an older tradition in which Peter is a “rock” that can easily be pushed over, the one who denied his master. The joke about Peter’s rockiness may go back to Jesus, like the designation of James and John as “sons of thunder.”

Matthew adds also the gift to Peter of the keys of the Rule of Heaven: the power of binding and loosing, as used amongst Jewish rabbis is one of making decisive interpretations of God’s law. Peter is given the responsibility of interpreting the Jesus-tradition in the Christian assemblies. Given the tradition in the book of The Acts, of tension between the gentile assemblies under Paul and the Jerusalem assembly under James the Lord’s brother, Matthew may have seen Peter as an original pupil of Jesus and unifying leader of all the assemblies.

In this gift Jesus is seen by Matthew of as passing on his role as teacher to Peter, and through him to his other pupils. God is seen as initially sharing this role with his son Jesus, because it is not one of executive power, but of patient persuasion. To share with God however, requires great clarity as well as great love for the world. The binding and loosing, that is, clear guidance about thought, word and deed, requires human conviction, just as God’s partnership with Israel has always required it. God does not act upon but with his creation. This truth is the reality of what Matthew presents as the Jesus magic.

The misinterpretation of the Peter blessing as the conferring of divine authority on the executive of the church, is a coarse abuse of a gracious partnership.