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13 When Jesus arrived at the region around Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14 They said, “Some say John the Baptist. Others say Elijah. Others say Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” 17 Jesus responded and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. 18 And I say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of death will not shut it in. 19 I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

Comments

Jesus travels to Caesarea Philippi, a city of the Decapolis built at the base of Mt. Hermon (this makes clear that Jesus did in fact go to the Decapolis in 15.29). There he asks his disciples who people say that he is, to which they recite a variety of different opinions. Then he asks them who they say that he is. This is the turning point of the Gospel of Matthew. Up until now, Jesus has been doing amazing things, but he has been reticent about his own identity. When asked in chapter 11 by the disciples of John the Baptist whether he was the Christ, he gave an indirect answer. Now he is asking his own disciples directly: Who do they say that he is? The apostle Simon answers for the group: He is the Christ, the Messiah. Jesus confirms his answer and blesses him with a new name: Peter, from the Greek Petros, meaning rock. (Jesus actually would have called him Kepha, the Aramaic equivalent, which is why Paul sometimes refers to Peter as Cephas (e.g. 1 Cor 1.12, Gal 1:18).) Peter is the rock on which Jesus will build his Church, which translates the Greek word ekklesia, meaning assembly or gathering. In other words, Jesus makes Peter the leader of the apostles, and by extension, the Christian community as a whole. Caesarea Philippi was the site of an impressive cave in a rocky cliffside of Mt. Hermon from which flowed a spring that was the source of the Banias River. When Jesus said, “on this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of death will not shut it in,” he may have been standing in sight of this cliffside and cave, which must have seemed like an entrance to the underworld. His promise to give Peter the keys to the Kingdom echoes Is 22.15-24, in which the prophet promises Eliakim that God will give him the key to the kingdom, i.e. make him the master of the king’s palace. If Jesus is king, then Peter is his chancellor.