Matthew 16

A human being possesses a ψυχή, and when the human being dies, the ψυχή leaves their body. The ψυχή is immaterial—it is not a physical substance—

Chapter 16 moves fast and its details are fairly sparse but there is a momentous interaction that happens in its short 28 verses.

The Pharisees are back in verse 1, and now the Sadducees have joined them. The Sadducees were a religious sect active during this period, as the Pharisees were, though these two groups were historically more rivals than they were partners. The fact that they are gathering together and accosting Jesus seems to indicate that all the religious authorities are beginning to regard Jesus’ ministry as a threat.

I noted here that in Greek the word πειράζοντες is used for the action that the Pharisees and Sadducees are doing to Jesus. This word comes from πειράζω, which means “to test,” or “to tempt.” You might remember that the first word used for the devil, who tempts Jesus in the desert, is πειράζων, “tempter.” (Matthew 4:3)

Jesus starts off with a strange sort of rebuke of the religious authorities. He tells them: you know how to read the signs in the heavens, you can tell when there is going to be good weather or bad, but you can’t read the signs of the times.

Though the words he speaks are strange, Jesus’ point here seems abundantly clear to me: The religious authorities are preoccupied with signs that indicate what is happening in the physical world, but they’re missing what’s happening in the social world of human beings. I think there are a couple things Jesus means when he says this.

For one: look at all the suffering going on around you. All these deaf and blind and paralyzed people that I’ve been healing—what have you been doing for these poor and sick, you Pharisees and Sadducees? You’ve been spending time looking at clouds instead of ministering to the people who depend on you.

And what follows from this: Jesus knows that the religious authorities are asking him to show them a sign in order to discredit him, but they are doing this because they feel threatened by the popularity of his ministry. If they spent their time ministering to people and helping them, instead of protecting their privilege by knocking down their rivals, maybe they’d have a following like Jesus.

Again, Jesus is not a magician. He’s not going to perform tricks on command.

Note the reference to Jonah. What does Jesus mean here specifically, though? Recall the last time that Jesus mentioned Jonah, in chapter 12. He said that Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, and so will the Son of man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.

So is Jesus saying that his resurrection from the dead will be the sign that the religious authorities are asking for?

The interaction with his disciples in verses 5-12 is funny. The disciples don’t have any bread, and Jesus tells them to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees, and the disciples discuss amongst themselves what these mysterious words might mean.

Jesus, seemingly fed up with the disciples not perceiving things, points out the details of the two miracles we saw in the last two chapters.

Jesus explains: When we had to feed five thousand people, we had only five loaves of bread, but we did it, and we took up 12 baskets full of leftovers. Then there were four thousand people, and we had seven loaves of bread, but we fed them all, and we took up only seven baskets full of the leftovers. Don’t you see, disciples? The number of loaves and the amount of people don’t matter. We will have what we need.

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The latter half of the chapter witnesses events that are undoubtedly important, though the way they are presented you could be forgiven for missing them.

First off, Jesus owns up to being THE CHRIST in front of his disciples for the first time. This is important, because though this fact is taken for granted by us in the present, Jesus has not actually claimed the mantle of Messiah so far in his ministry.

He enters into this conversation by asking his disciples who people say that he, Jesus, is. They answer that some people say he’s John the Baptist, or Elijah, or Jeremiah, or one of the other prophets. Then Jesus asks them who they—the disciples—say that he is. Simon Peter replies: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (σὺ εἶ ὁ χριστὸς ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ τοῦ ζῶντος.)

“Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven,” Jesus Christ says.

Bar-Jona means son of Jonah, so apparently Simon’s father was named Jonah. (Probably it’s a coincidence that the name Jonah appears twice in this chapter?)

Then, Jesus says: “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.” Peter (Πέτρος in Greek), as you may know, means “rock.” Christ is essentially anointing Peter to be the leader of the first Christians after he, Jesus, passes away.

Peter is held to be the founder of the Church of Antioch, and the Church of Rome, and he is venerated as the first pope¹. Simon Peter is the foremost of the disciples, and he is the single disciple who will most directly carry Jesus’ legacy into the world beyond Jesus’ death.

I wonder though, as I read the Gospels now, was Peter always fated to gain this role? Was his saying that Jesus is Christ what caused him to be the founder of the future Catholic Church?

In verse 20 Jesus tells the disciples to not make his role as the Christ be known. But why keep it a secret? It is probably fear of persecution. Also, it doesn’t matter if anyone knows who Jesus actually is, in the cosmic sense. His role is to die on the cross, not to be famous while he is on earth.

Jesus’ words in verses 24-28 are enigmatic. I like these verses especially, because here, the Greek shows me something that the English never did.

“Whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

In Greek, the word “life” is “ψυχή,” which is often translated as “soul.”

Oceans of ink have been poured out in arguments about what the Greek word ψυχή means. “Life” is certainly one of its meanings, and “soul” is obviously another, but neither of these English words, as they are used today, quite capture the essence of the Greek original. “Life,” our modern English word, is an abstract noun, which does not refer to any entity that you can point to in the world. Life is a state, which a being is either in when it’s alive, or out of when it’s dead.

ψυχή, on the other hand, is quite concrete, at least in the writings of Plato where I’ve encountered it. A human being possesses a ψυχή, and when the human being dies, the ψυχή leaves their body. The ψυχή is immaterial—it is not a physical substance—but it is conceived as an entity, a thing you can point to, at least metaphorically.

So the question here is: what does the writer of Matthew mean when he uses ψυχή? More precisely, how does Jesus mean whatever Aramaic word he used when he spoke, and how close is the meaning of that Aramaic word to ψυχή? It’s likely that Jesus spoke the word naphsha, which is the Aramaic form of the Hebrew word nephesh. I am not familiar with Hebrew, so I can’t comment on these words specifically, but both of them as I understand it have a concrete quality to them, and were thus more similar to ψυχή than to our English word “life.”

So my question remains: what is the “life” (soul) we are going to lose if we try to save it, and what is the “life” (soul) we gain when we follow Jesus?

I pose these questions seriously. Can you put your finger on what that life—what that ψυχή—actually is?

Verse 28: I don’t know what Jesus means when he says that there are some here who will not taste death before they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.

Is Jesus talking about when he will be resurrected, or when he will come for a second time, and bring his kingdom? It sounds to me like he means the second option, but if that’s the case, I don’t think the prophecy would be true, because (presumably) all the Apostles died.

¹According to Catholic belief there is a direct line of “apostolic succession” between Peter, the first pope, and the pope of today. —If this is true, does it matter?

Photo of a morning.