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Mark8:27–30

Peter’s Confession of Christ

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Mark 8:27–30 — Peter’s Confession of Christ. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

27

Then Jesus and His disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way, He questioned His disciples: “Who do people say I am?”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai ho Iēsous kai autou hoi mathētai exēlthen eis tas kōmas Kaisareias tēs Philippou kai en tē hodō epērōta autou tous mathētas legōn autois Tina hoi anthrōpoi legousin me einai

Word by word30 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiThenG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἸησοῦςIēsousJesusG2424
√ Ἰησοῦς — Jesus (iNounNominative Masculine Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
αὐτοῦautouHisG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
οἱhoiG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
μαθηταὶmathētaidisciplesG3101
√ μαθητής — a learner, iNounNominative Masculine Plural
ἐξῆλθενexēlthenwent onG1831
√ ἐξέρχομαι — to issue (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
exerchomai: to issue, go out (Aorist Active Indicative, 3rd person singular) A singular verb under a compound subject: Greek often binds the verb to the chief or nearest subject, so the grammar itself puts Jesus alone in motion and the disciples in his train. Maclaren treats the whole withdrawal as strategy: he led them away from familiar ground into the comparative seclusion of the country round Caesarea Philippi in order to tell them plainly of his death.
εἰςeistoG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
τὰςtastheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Plural
κώμαςkōmasvillagesG2968
√ κώμη — a hamlet (as if laid down)NounAccusative Feminine Plural
kome: a hamlet, village The plural, dependent settlements of a city, not the city. Cambridge notes the word is literally villages; Pulpit presses the observation that he went into the villages and avoided Caesarea Philippi itself. The sharpest confession in Mark is drawn out in hamlets on a road, with no crowd, no synagogue and no capital.
ΚαισαρείαςKaisareiasaround CaesareaG2542
√ Καισάρεια — Cæsaria, the name of two places in PalestineNounGenitive Feminine Singular
Kaisareia: Caesarea, one of two places in Palestine The name carries the world's lordship: Caesar in Καισαρείας, the Herodian tetrarch in Φιλίππου. Cambridge traces the site through Baal Gad or Baal Hermon, then Paneas (the cavern of Pan), then Herod's temple of white marble to Augustus; Pulpit adds that it lay at the far north, the Dan of “from Dan even to Beersheba,” and that many Gentiles came there. The title Anointed is spoken on soil named for Caesar and layered with the shrines of Baal and Pan.
τῆςtēsG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Feminine Singular
ΦιλίππουPhilippouPhilippiG5376
√ Φίλιππος — fond of horsesNounGenitive Masculine Singular
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐνenOnG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
τῇtētheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Feminine Singular
ὁδῷhodōwayG3598
√ ὁδός — a roadNounDative Feminine Singular
hodos: a road, way Mark's ἐν τῇ ὁδῷ, in the way, is his standing marker for the teaching that now runs to Jerusalem: the confession, the announcement of the cross, and the later quarrels about greatness all happen while walking. Pulpit and Cambridge both locate this as the journey's decisive point. The way is where discipleship is examined, not where it rests.
ἐπηρώταepērōtaHe questionedG1905
√ ἐπερωτάω — to ask for, iVerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
eperotao: to ask for, interrogate (Imperfect) Durative past: he was asking, and kept asking. Ellicott hears in the tense a continued and searching inquiry rather than one question, and the very same imperfect returns at v. 29, which makes the two questions a single sustained examination with a pivot in the middle, not two separate conversations.
αὐτοῦautouHisG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
τοὺςtousG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Plural
μαθητὰςmathētasdisciplesG3101
√ μαθητής — a learner, iNounAccusative Masculine Plural
λέγωνlegōnG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
αὐτοῖςautoisG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Plural
ΤίναTinaWhoG5101
√ τίς — an interrogative pronoun, who, which or what (in direct or indirect questions)Interrogative / Indefinite PronounAccusative Masculine Singular
Accusative interrogative Τίνα governed by the infinitive: whom, not who. The form itself requires a predicate as the answer, a name or an office. Every reply in v. 28 duly comes back in the accusative.
οἱhoiG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
ἄνθρωποιanthrōpoi{do} peopleG444
√ ἄνθρωπος — from G3700 (ὀπτάνομαι))NounNominative Masculine Plural
anthropos: a human being With the article, “the men,” that is people at large. Mark keeps it general where Luke has the crowds, which Pulpit notes as Luke's sharper distinction from the disciples. Maclaren reads the question as Jesus bringing home to the Twelve that, as far as the masses were concerned, his work and theirs had for net result total misconception: this is not contempt for the crowd but an honest audit of the Galilean mission.
λέγουσινlegousinsayG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
μεmeIG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative 1st Person Singular
εἶναιeinaiamG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbPresent Infinitive Active
28

They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

eipan autō legontes hoti Iōannēn ton Baptistēn de Hoi kai alloi Ēlian de alloi hoti heis tōn prophētōn

Word by word18 · parsed
εἶπανeipanThey repliedG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
Aorist εἶπαν with the present participle λέγοντες: a redundant pair of speech verbs, normal in Septuagint Greek, flattened in every modern English rendering.
αὐτῷautō. . .G846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
λέγοντεςlegontes. . .G3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
ὅτιhotiG3754
√ ὅτι — demonstrative, that (sometimes redundant)Conjunction
Recitative ὅτι: a quotation mark, not a conjunction. It is untranslatable, and its repetition at word 14 frames the crowd's answers as words actually spoken rather than as Mark's summary.
ἸωάννηνIōannēn[Some say] JohnG2491
√ Ἰωάννης — Joannes (iNounAccusative Masculine Singular
τὸνtontheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
ΒαπτιστήνBaptistēnBaptistG910
√ Βαπτιστής — a baptizer, as an epithet of Christ's forerunnerNounAccusative Masculine Singular
Baptistes: a baptizer, the epithet of Christ's forerunner A rare title: the Verifier counts it in only 12 verses of the New Testament. Poole gives the guess its source: Herod and those who followed him judged Christ to be John the Baptist raised from the dead, or to have John's soul clothed with other flesh. Cambridge names Herod guilty. The first public theory about Jesus is a frightened king's nightmare that has become common rumour.
δὲdeG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ΟἱHoiG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἄλλοιalloiothers [say]G243
√ ἄλλος — "else," iAdjectiveNominative Masculine Plural
ἨλίανĒlianElijahG2243
√ Ἡλίας — Helias (iNounAccusative Masculine Singular
Elias: Elijah Cambridge explains the expectation: Elijah, who like Enoch had never died but was taken up bodily, was to return as Malachi predicted. The guess is not absurd, it is mistimed: Malachi does promise Elijah before the day of the LORD, and the crowd has taken the King for the herald. Mark has already reported this rumour once at 6:15, so by 8:28 it is settled opinion.
δὲdeand stillG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ἄλλοιalloiothersG243
√ ἄλλος — "else," iAdjectiveNominative Masculine Plural
The repeated ἄλλοι (“others ... others”) tallies a divided public: three answers, no agreement, and, as Cambridge observes, not one of them Messiah.
ὅτιhotiG3754
√ ὅτι — demonstrative, that (sometimes redundant)Conjunction
εἷςheisoneG1520
√ εἷς — oneAdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
Nominative εἷς after recitative ὅτι breaks the accusative construction of words 4 and 11: the third opinion is quoted in its own voice. Gill reports the variant tradition here, the Vulgate Latin reading “as one of the prophets,” and an ancient copy known to Beza agreeing with Mark 6:15.
τῶνtōnof theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Plural
προφητῶνprophētōnprophetsG4396
√ προφήτης — a foreteller ("prophet")NounGenitive Masculine Plural
prophetes: a foreteller, prophet Genitive plural after εἷς. Pulpit supplies the premise the crowd is reasoning from: the common people knew that prophecy had ceased not long after the Captivity, so they thought Christ was not a new prophet but one of the old. Every guess in this verse is therefore a resurrection guess, and that instinct is the one true thing in them, and precisely what he is about to claim for himself in v. 31.
29

“But what about you?” Jesus asked. “Who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Christ.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de Hymeis Kai autos epērōta autous tina legete me einai ho Petros Apokritheis legei autō Sy ei ho Christos

Word by word19 · parsed
δὲdeBut [what about]G1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ὙμεῖςHymeisyouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounNominative 2nd Person Plural
Emphatic Ὑμεῖς, fronted: the pronoun exists only to make a contrast. Maclaren hears in the sharp transition an intent to force home the conviction of the gulf between the disciples and the whole nation, so that they feel their isolation and face the fact that they stand alone in their faith. Pulpit expands the implied appeal: ye, who have been always with me, who have listened to my teaching, who have worked miracles in my name.
ΚαὶKaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
αὐτὸςautos[Jesus]G846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounNominative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ἐπηρώταepērōtaaskedG1905
√ ἐπερωτάω — to ask for, iVerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
The imperfect repeated from v. 27 binds the two questions into one examination. Mark gives no interval, no new setting and no new audience: the same road, the same asking, the crowd's answer and then theirs.
αὐτούςautousG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Plural
τίναtinaWhoG5101
√ τίς — an interrogative pronoun, who, which or what (in direct or indirect questions)Interrogative / Indefinite PronounAccusative Masculine Singular
Accusative τίνα as in v. 27: the answer must again be a title. Peter's reply obeys the grammar exactly and supplies one word.
λέγετεlegetedo you sayG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Indicative Active2nd Person Plural
μεmeIG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative 1st Person Singular
εἶναιeinaiamG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbPresent Infinitive Active
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ΠέτροςPetrosPeterG4074
√ Πέτρος — a (piece of) rock (larger than G3037 (λίθος))NounNominative Masculine Singular
ἈποκριθεὶςApokritheisansweredG611
√ ἀποκρίνομαι — to conclude for oneself, iVerbAorist Participle PassiveNominative Masculine Singular
apokrinomai: to conclude for oneself, to answer (Aorist Participle Passive) A deponent passive with active sense, joined to the historic present λέγει. The participle is the ordinary Septuagint idiom for opening a solemn reply; the present tense verb is Mark's own vividness. Pulpit and Cambridge agree that Peter speaks as the mouthpiece or ready spokesman of the rest, so the singular verb carries a corporate confession, which is also how Gill reads it.
λέγειlegeiG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
αὐτῷautōG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ΣὺSyYouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounNominative 2nd Person Singular
Σὺ is as unnecessary and therefore as emphatic as Ὑμεῖς was: you, over against John, Elijah and the prophets. Peter's confession is built by contrast, and the two stressed pronouns of this verse, ours and his, are the hinge of the whole paragraph.
εἶeiareG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbPresent Indicative Active2nd Person Singular
ὁhotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ΧριστόςChristosChristG5547
√ Χριστός — anointed, iNounNominative Masculine Singular
Christos: anointed The Greek word for the one smeared with oil, and in the Greek Scriptures the standing word for the anointed king (compare the anointing of David in 1 Samuel 16:13, the LORD's anointed of Psalm 2:2, and the anointed one of Daniel 9:25). With the article it is an office, and a dangerous one under a Roman name like Caesarea. Mark omits Matthew's addition, the Son of the living God; Maclaren argues the omission is not a lower conception, since Mark's first verse has already named Jesus Messiah and Son of God, though he allows that this Gospel passes lightly over the exalted side in order to set him forth as the Servant. Gill notes the addition standing in the Syriac and Persic versions here, and in one ancient copy known to Beza, and judges it likely taken from Matthew 16:16; Cambridge, from the other side, observes that the fuller announcement finds no place in the Gospel written under Peter's eye.
30

And Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about Him.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai epetimēsen autois hina legōsin mēdeni peri autou

Word by word8 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiAndG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐπετίμησενepetimēsen[Jesus] warnedG2008
√ ἐπιτιμάω — to tax upon, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
epitimao: to charge sternly, censure, rebuke Pulpit: a strong word, implying almost rebuke. Mark uses it of Jesus silencing an unclean spirit (1:25) and rebuking the wind (4:39), and within three verses it will run both ways between Peter and Jesus (8:32, 8:33). Read with that range, v. 30 is not caution but suppression: the right answer, spoken at the wrong hour, is treated like a shout that must be stopped.
αὐτοῖςautoisthemG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Plural
ἵναhinaG2443
√ ἵνα — compare G3588 (ὁ))Conjunction
ἵνα with the present subjunctive gives the charge its duration: the silence is to be kept, not merely begun. Geneva takes this as Christ appointing certain times for the preaching of the gospel and deferring this to a fitter one.
λέγωσινlegōsinnot to tell anyoneG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Subjunctive Active3rd Person Plural
μηδενὶmēdeni. . .G3367
√ μηδείς — not even one (man, woman, thing)AdjectiveDative Masculine Singular
medeis: not even one (man, woman, thing) The emphatic compound negative in the dative, fronted: to not one person. Pulpit lists the reasons the hour was wrong: those favourable to him would have taken him by force to make him a king (John 6:15), those opposed were watching for an opportunity to destroy him, and the disciples themselves had much to learn. Benson adds a third motive, not to forestall the brighter evidence to be given after the resurrection.
περὶperiaboutG4012
√ περί — properly, through (all over), iPreposition
περὶ αὐτοῦ: the object of the silence is the person, not merely the word Christ. Poole draws the distinction exactly: Jesus was willing to be taken notice of as a prophet, but not yet as the Messiah or Son of God, and reserved that publication until, as Romans 1:4 says, he was declared so with power by the resurrection from the dead.
αὐτοῦautouHimG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. The road north, and a question asked more than once — 8:27

⚙ Mark moves the scene as far from Jerusalem as the story ever goes. Cambridge reckons the walk at some 25 or 30 miles north, past the waters of Merom, into the deepest solitude among the mountains, and notes that this is the only district of Palestine where a recent traveller found the pelican of the wilderness; Pulpit places the site at the far north, the Dan of the old phrase from Dan even to Beersheba, and traces the names Paneas and Baneas to the god of shepherds, adding Cornelius a Lapide's note that Gentiles crowded there as they do in border towns. Cambridge stacks the layers: a Canaanite sanctuary of Baal under the aspect of Gad, then the grotto of Pan, then Herod's temple of the whitest marble dedicated to Augustus, then a tetrarch's flattery of Tiberius in the name itself. Maclaren says why: he led them away from familiar ground into comparative seclusion in order to tell them plainly of his death, and desired a quiet spot where there would be collectedness and leisure. Pulpit suggests a further reason, that here he could speak more freely than in Judaea about a Messiah whom the Jews expected as their king, since near Jerusalem the scribes would at once have accused him to the Roman power. The grammar keeps this a journey and not a lecture: ἐξῆλθεν is singular under a plural subject, one man going out with the Twelve in tow, and ἐπηρώτα is imperfect, which Ellicott reads as a continued and, as it were, searching inquiry rather than a single question. Pulpit notes that he entered the villages and avoided the city.

ii. The audit of public opinion — 8:28

⚙ Three answers come back, and Cambridge's summary is the decisive one: they did not add that any regarded him as the Messiah. Poole sources the first guess to the palace, Herod and those that followed him judging Christ to be John the Baptist raised from the dead, or to have the soul of John clothed with other flesh. Cambridge sources the second to Malachi, Elijah who like Enoch had never died and was expected to return, and the third to the hope that Jeremiah would inaugurate the reign of the Messiah. Pulpit gives the reasoning behind all of them: the people knew prophecy had ceased after the Captivity, so they took Christ for one of the old prophets rather than a new one, and Pulpit judges these current opinions and floating notions far below his real claims. Gill weighs the compliment honestly, that all spake highly and honourably of him and none thought him less than one of the prophets, and then names the failure, that they knew him not, at least did not confess him to be the Messiah, because he did not appear as the temporal prince they were taught to expect. Maclaren draws the conclusion Jesus was after: as far as the masses were concerned, his work and the disciples' had for net result total misconception. Note the grammar of the crowd: Ἰωάννην and Ἠλίαν are accusatives still hanging on Jesus' own εἶναι, while εἷς is nominative after a fresh recitative ὅτι, so the third voice is quoted rather than reported.

iii. But you — 8:29

⚙ The turn is made by two pronouns that Greek did not need. Ὑμεῖς stands first, and Maclaren says what it does: the sharp transition is meant to force home the conviction of the gulf between his disciples and the whole nation, to make them feel their isolation and to test whether, knowing they stood alone, they had courage and tenacity to re-assert it, which he sums up as Athanasius contra mundum. Pulpit fills out the appeal, ye who have been always with me and have seen far greater things than they. Then Σὺ answers it, in an aorist participle with a historic present, Ἀποκριθεὶς λέγει, answering he says. Pulpit finds the suddenness and terseness eminently characteristic of Peter and holds that the strength of the answer really lies in Mark's short words, thou art the Christ, that is, the promised Messiah; Gill says the confession exceeds the most exalted sentiments the people had of him, since he was not the harbinger of the Messiah but the Messiah himself. Both Pulpit and Cambridge note that Peter speaks as spokesman for the rest, and both note what Mark leaves out: the blessing and the promise of Matthew 16:17 to 19 find no place in the Gospel written, as Cambridge puts it, under Peter's eye. Ellicott reads the omission as evidence of the Apostle's humility, shrinking from what might savour of self-assertion; Poole turns it into an argument that Peter's primacy cannot have been understood in that age as settled by those words, since two evangelists would not have omitted the account. Those are different claims and should not be merged: the omission is a fact, its motive is inference, and Poole's inference is polemical.

iv. The right answer, silenced — 8:30

⚙ The reward for the true confession is an order not to repeat it, and the verb is harsh. Pulpit calls ἐπετίμησεν a strong word, implying almost rebuke, and Mark elsewhere uses it of silencing an unclean spirit and the storm. The reasons given by the commentators are all prudential and all convergent. Benson lists three: that he might not encourage the people to set him up for a temporal king, that he might not provoke the scribes and Pharisees to destroy him before the time, and that he might not forestall the brighter evidence to be given of his divine character after his resurrection. Pulpit says much the same, adding John 6:15 where some made no secret of their intention to take him by force and make him a king. Geneva generalises it: Christ has appointed certain times for the preaching of the gospel, and defers this lest sudden haste should hinder rather than further the mystery of his coming. Poole makes the finest distinction, that he was willing to be taken notice of as a prophet but not yet as the Messiah or Son of God, and reserved that publication until, in the words of Romans 1:4, he was declared so with power by the resurrection, adding the pastoral guess that a weak faith in his divine nature would be overthrown by the sight of his sufferings. Henry, whose note covers the whole paragraph, sees the sequence the other way round and just as truly: now the disciples are convinced that Jesus is the Christ, they may bear to hear of his sufferings, of which Christ here begins to give them notice.

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

⚙ Offered to be tested, not believed on our word. This paragraph is where the word Christ is won and then confiscated, and the two acts belong together. Jesus asks a question he does not need answered (Gill: not that he needed any information of this), and he asks it twice in the imperfect, first about the men and then about the Twelve, so that the right answer arrives already surrounded by wrong ones. The wrong ones are generous: John risen, Elijah returned, a prophet back from the silence after the Captivity. Every one of them is a resurrection guess, and every one of them makes Jesus a figure from the past come round again. Peter's answer is the only one that is not about the past at all. It is one word with an article, and it is the most politically loaded word available in a village named for Caesar, under a mountain of Baal, beside a cave of Pan.

⚙ Then comes the rebuke. We take ἐπετίμησεν at Pulpit's strength and read v. 30 as a real suppression, not a caution, and we think the reason is not only the prudence the commentators name, true as that is, but the definition of the word itself. The title is correct and the content is not yet filled, and Mark proves this by what he prints next, since the same Peter who says Thou art the Christ will use this same verb on Jesus for saying what the Christ must suffer. A confession with the cross left out of it is not yet safe to publish, even when every syllable of it is true. So the order to be silent is not a denial of Peter's words, it is a stay of execution on their meaning until the cross has taught the church what it just said. That reading is ours and is fallible; it cannot be proved from these four verses alone, and the commentators above give prudential reasons only.

⚙ The line printed beside this section is our own sentence, not a verse of Scripture.

The title was confessed in a town named for Caesar and sealed until the cross could say what it meant.

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

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AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

The same road in three Gospels verbal / quotation: confirmed

⚙ The scene stands in all three Synoptics, and the Verifier's candidate list reproduces it: Matthew 16:13 shares the place names, Matthew 16:14 and Luke 9:19 share the crowd's answers. Ellicott, JFB and Barnes all simply refer the reader to Matthew 16:13 to 28 for the exposition, which is itself an editorial judgment that the three accounts are one account. Cambridge and Pulpit both note the two things Matthew adds and Mark lacks, the words Son of the living God and the promise to Peter, and Luke adds a third thing neither has, that he was alone praying (Luke 9:18), which Cambridge notes preceded several turning points in his life.

Matthew 16:13 · Matthew 16:14 · Luke 9:19

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes with Matthew 16:13, G2542 Καισάρεια (in 17 vv) and G5376 Φίλιππος (in 35 vv) and G3101 μαθητής (in 247 vv); with Matthew 16:14 and Luke 9:19, G2243 Ἡλίας (in 29 vv) and G4396 προφήτης (in 138 vv). The relatively rare place-name pair fixes these as the same scene in the triple tradition. Greek to Greek, so the lexical link is real, but it is parallel narrative, not one text quoting another.

John the Baptist risen: a guilty king's theory becomes public opinion verbal / quotation: confirmed

⚙ The first answer in v. 28 is not invented by the crowd. Poole names its author: Herod and those that followed him judged Christ to be John the Baptist raised from the dead, or to have the soul of John the Baptist clothed with other flesh; Cambridge calls him the guilty Herod. Mark had already recorded the rumour at 6:14 to 16, in the paragraph that runs into the Baptist's execution (Mark 6:25 asks for his head), and the rare title Βαπτιστής is the thread the Verifier catches. Matthew 14:2 gives Herod's words directly. So the first thing the public says about Jesus is a haunted man's guess repeated until it sounded like knowledge.

Mark 6:25 · Matthew 14:2 · Luke 7:20

basis: Verifier: shared rare Greek lexeme G910 Βαπτιστής (in 12 vv only) with Mark 6:25, Matthew 14:2 and Luke 7:20, together with G2491 Ἰωάννης (in 132 vv). The rarity of the title carries the verbal link; no verse here quotes another, and Luke 7:20 is included for the title alone, not for its subject matter.

Elijah must come first structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ The second answer has a prophecy behind it. Cambridge states it: Elijah, who like Enoch had never died but was taken up bodily to heaven, had now returned as Malachi predicted, and Poole records that the Jews were in expectation that he should come before the Messias. The Verifier links Matthew 17:10, where the disciples ask about the same expectation and Jesus answers it, and Matthew 17:13, where they understand he spoke of John the Baptist. The crowd is therefore half right twice over and wrong in the joining: Elijah has come, in John, and the one they are looking at is not the forerunner but the one forerun.

Malachi 4:5 · Matthew 17:10 · Matthew 17:13

basis: Within the New Testament the Verifier computes shared Greek lexemes with Matthew 17:10, G2243 Ἡλίας (in 29 vv) and G1905 ἐπερωτάω (in 56 vv) and G3101 μαθητής (in 247 vv). The link to Malachi 4:5 cannot be verbal, since a Hebrew text and a Greek text share no Strong's numbers; it rests on the expectation itself, which Cambridge and Poole both cite from Malachi. Tiered structural for that reason, and no quotation is claimed.

The Anointed: the office behind the one word Peter says structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ ὁ Χριστός with the article is an office before it is a name, and its content comes from the Hebrew Scriptures: the king anointed with oil (David in 1 Samuel 16:13), the LORD's anointed against whom the nations take counsel (Psalm 2:2), the horn budding for David (Psalm 132:17), and the anointed one of Daniel 9:25 and 26 who is cut off. Gill puts the whole weight there: Peter's answer means he who was spoken of by all the holy prophets which have been since the beginning of the world. Pulpit reduces it to its plainest form, that is, the promised Messiah. That inheritance also explains the danger Pulpit describes, that near Jerusalem the scribes would have accused him to the Roman power of seeking the kingdom, and therefore explains v. 30.

1 Samuel 16:13 · Psalm 2:2 · Daniel 9:25

basis: No shared Strong's number is possible: this unit is Greek (G5547 Χριστός) and the referents are Hebrew, so the Verifier can compute no verbal basis across the Testaments. The recorded basis is the office itself, the anointed king of the Hebrew Scriptures, as cited by Gill and Pulpit in their notes on v. 29. Never tiered verbal.

The Servant who does not cry out typological

⚙ The command of v. 30 has a shape in Isaiah: the chosen Servant who will not cry aloud or lift up his voice, nor let it be heard in the street (Isaiah 42:2). Matthew 12:16 joins exactly this to a command of silence, charging those he healed not to make him known, and then quotes Isaiah 42 in full. Mark gives no such quotation here, and none of the commentators in our brief make the connection: Benson, Pulpit and Geneva all give prudential reasons instead. The figure is offered as a reading of the pattern, not as Mark's own citation.

Isaiah 42:2 · Matthew 12:16

basis: Figural reading of the silencing command against the hidden Servant of Isaiah 42:2. Cross-Testament, so no shared Strong's lexeme exists and none is claimed. The application of Isaiah 42 to Jesus' commands of silence is ancient, since Matthew 12:17 to 21 makes it explicitly; applying it to Mark 8:30 in particular is our own extension, unsupported by any voice in this unit.

Caesarea and Philip: a lexical coincidence, not a connection flagged: verify source

⚙ The Verifier offers Acts 8:40 and Acts 21:8 among the candidates for v. 27, on the strength of Καισάρεια and Φίλιππος appearing in both. We record and reject it. Cambridge is explicit that this city was called Caesarea Philippi to distinguish it from Caesarea Palestinae, or Caesarea on the sea, and Pulpit says the same; the Philip of Acts 8 and 21 is the evangelist, one of the seven, not Herod Philip the tetrarch after whom this town was renamed. Two different places and two different men share two words. We leave the candidate on the record as a caution about how a purely lexical thread can mislead.

Acts 8:40 · Acts 21:8

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G2542 Καισάρεια (in 17 vv) and G5376 Φίλιππος (in 35 vv), with G1831 ἐξέρχομαι (in 212 vv) at Acts 21:8. The shared words are homonyms: a different Caesarea (Palestinae, on the sea, per Cambridge and Pulpit) and a different Philip (the evangelist, not the tetrarch). The computed basis is real, the connection is not. Flagged rather than tiered.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The Anointed King, confessed at the edge of the land ancient/widely-held

⚙ Peter's one word places Jesus in the line of the anointed king: David anointed at Bethlehem (1 Samuel 16:13), the LORD's anointed whom the kings of the earth conspire against (Psalm 2:2), the anointed one of Daniel 9:25 and 26. Gill states the apostolic reading plainly, that Jesus is he who was spoken of by all the holy prophets since the beginning of the world, and that Peter's confession speaks out what Jesus really was; Pulpit and Cambridge both gloss the word simply as the promised Messiah. Henry frames the paragraph's purpose in the same terms, that these things are written that we may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. Mark does not print Matthew's additional clause, and Maclaren's judgment is that the omission is no lower conception, since the Gospel's first verse has already announced Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God, and having identified the two conceptions at the outset Mark must be supposed to include both here.

1 Samuel 16:13 · Psalm 2:2 · Daniel 9:25 · Mark 1:1

The Christ defined by what follows: confession at the hinge of the Gospel ancient/widely-held

⚙ Maclaren treats these four verses as the preparation for the announcement of the cross, the passage having that announcement as its centre, prepared for on the one hand by a question and followed on the other by a warning that his followers must travel the same road. Henry reads the order as pastoral: now the disciples are convinced that Jesus is the Christ, they may bear to hear of his sufferings, of which Christ here begins to give them notice. Poole adds the converse fear, that a weak faith in his divine nature might be overthrown by the sight of his subsequent sufferings. On any of these readings the title is not self-explanatory. It is about to be filled with content the confessor does not want, which is why Henry can say in the same note that the wisdom of man is folly when it pretends to limit the Divine counsels, and that Peter did not rightly understand the nature of Christ's kingdom.

Mark 8:31 · Isaiah 53:3 · Luke 24:26

The Anointed under orders of silence novel

⚙ The redemptive-historical point of v. 30 is timing. Geneva states it as a principle: Christ has appointed certain times for the preaching of the gospel, and therefore here defers it to a more appropriate time. Poole locates the release of the embargo precisely, that he reserved the publication of himself to be the Son of God until the time when, as Paul says in Romans 1:4, he was declared so with power by his resurrection from the dead; Benson agrees, that he might not forestall the brighter evidence to be given after the resurrection; Pulpit says faith in his Godhead would be easier when his death had been followed by resurrection and ascension. Read this way the silence is not concealment but sequence, the same sequence Mark ends with, when the veil is torn and a Gentile soldier says aloud what the disciples are forbidden to say here. Our own further step, reading the silence through the Servant of Isaiah 42:2 who does not lift up his voice in the street, is offered as figure only, and no voice in this unit supports it.

Romans 1:4 · Mark 15:39 · Isaiah 42:2

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

  • Alexander Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (c. 1905)
  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
  • Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
  • Geneva Study Bible, Marginal Notes (1599)
  • John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
  • Joseph Benson, Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1810s)
  • Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
  • Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible (1685)
  • The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

⚙ Text: BSB for the English, Berean interlinear with Strong's for the Greek, four verses, all Greek, no textual variant affects the wording we have glossed. One variant does bear on v. 29: Gill reports that the Syriac and Persic versions add the Son of the living God, and that Beza found it in one ancient copy, and Gill himself judges it likely taken from Matthew 16:16; Cambridge makes the same point from the other side, that the fuller announcement finds no place in the Gospel written under Peter's eye. We have followed Mark's shorter text and have not treated the addition as original.

⚙ Sources: of the eleven commentators available for this unit, Barnes and JFB provide no exposition at all here, referring the reader entirely to their notes on Matthew 16:13 to 28, so nothing could honestly be quoted from them; Ellicott does the same for vv. 27 to 29 but comments substantively on v. 30. Henry's note is a single comment on Mark 8:27 to 33 and therefore reads all four verses in the light of the cross-saying that follows. Poole annotates vv. 27 and 28 as one unit and vv. 29 and 30 as another, which is why his remark on the crowd's guesses is anchored in his note on v. 27 and his remark on the silence in his note on v. 29. Geneva's entries for vv. 28 and 29 reprint only the verse text, so only his glosses on vv. 27 and 30 were usable. The Maclaren, Cambridge and Pulpit entries are capped in our brief; every excerpt we cite lies inside the portion available to us, and we have not reconstructed anything from the capped remainder.

⚙ Uncertain: Cambridge cites the Elijah promise as ( Mark 4:5 ), plainly a misprint for Malachi 4:5, and we have flagged it inside the quotation rather than mending it. The motive for Mark's omission of the promise to Peter is inference in every source we have, whether Ellicott's humility of the Apostle or Poole's polemical argument from silence, and should not be read as a reported fact. Our reading of ἐπετίμησεν in v. 30 as a real suppression rather than a caution rests on the lexicon, on Pulpit's almost rebuke, and on Mark's other uses of the verb, but the further claim that the silence is tied to the undefined content of the title is our own synthesis. Our Isaiah 42:2 figure is marked novel. The Verifier's Acts 8:40 and Acts 21:8 candidates are homonym collisions and are recorded as flagged, not as links.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)