Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Matthew 16:23

"But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art a stumbling-block unto me: for thou mindest not the things of God, but the things of men." — Matthew 16:23 (ASV)

Jesus then turned toward Peter to rebuke him. The rebuke is made up of three parts.

(1) “Get behind me, Satan!” (cf. 4:10) means not that Peter should get out of Jesus’ sight, but out of Jesus’ way.

(2) A few moments earlier Jesus had called Peter a rock. Now he calls him a different kind of “rock,” a “stumbling block” (GK 4998). As Satan offered Jesus kingship without suffering (4:8–9), so Peter does the same, adopting current expectations of victorious messianic conquest. Jesus recognizes the same diabolical source behind the same temptation. The notion of a suffering Messiah, misunderstood by Peter so that he became a stumbling block to Jesus, itself becomes, after the Resurrection, a stumbling block to other Jews (1 Corinthians 1:23).

(3) Peter was not thinking God’s thoughts (i.e., that Jesus must go to Jerusalem and die, v.21), but human thoughts (i.e., that he must not go). In vv.13–17 Peter, unlike other people, did think God’s thoughts because divine revelation was given him. Here, however, he has switched sides.

In summary of vv.13–23, Peter both did and did not understand the truth about Jesus. Along with the other disciples, he understood much more than the crowds; yet even so he did not reach full understanding until after the Resurrection. The juxtaposition of vv.13–20 and vv.21–23 clearly shows the (at best) qualified understanding of Jesus’ disciples at this point in salvation history.