MATTHEW 16:13 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
“When Jesus came into the coasts of Cesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?”
Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples: who do people say that the Son of Man is? The question at Caesarea Philippi — who do people say the Son of Man is — is the turning point of Matthew's Gospel. The northern location (Caesarea Philippi is at the foot of Mount Hermon, near the source of the Jordan) communicates the geographical movement away from the center of Jewish life to the margins. The question about popular perception precedes the question about the disciples' own perception.
Church Fathers on Matthew 16:13
As soon as the Lord had taken His disciples out of the teaching of the Pharisees, He then suitably proceeds to lay deep the foundations of the Gospel doctrine; and to give this the greater solemnity, it is introduced by the name of the place, 'When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi.'
He adds 'of Philip,' to distinguish it from the other Caesarea, of Strato. And He asks this question in the former place, leading His disciples far out of the way of the Jews, that being set free from all fear, they might say freely what was in their mind.
This Philip was the brother of Herod, the tetrarch of Ituraea, and the region of Trachonitis, who gave to the city, which is now called Panaeas, the name of Caesarea in honour of Tiberias Caesar.
Read all 49 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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