Three-year Bible reading plan for 13 September 2025

King James Version (en)

King James Version (en)

Matthew, Chapter 16, verses 1-12

²³ Christ is brought back again into Galilee to Nazareth,

¹The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting desired him that he would shew them a sign from heaven.

²He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red.

³And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowring. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?

⁴A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them, and departed.

⁵And when his disciples were come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread.

⁶Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.

⁷And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have taken no bread.

⁸Which when Jesus perceived, he said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread?

⁹Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up?

¹⁰Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took up?

¹¹How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees?

¹²Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.

Read more:Matthew, Chapter 16

Comments:

Comments on the current fragment

Comments on the book

Comments on the part

16

16:1 A sign from heaven - Such they imagined Satan could not counterfeit. Mar 8:11; Mat 12:38.

16:2 Luk 12:54.

16:3 The signs of the times - The signs which evidently show, that this is the time of the Messiah.

16:4 A wicked and adulterous generation - Ye would seek no farther sign, did not your wickedness, your love of the world, which is spiritual adultery, blind your understanding.

16:5 Mar 8:14.

16:6 Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees - That is, of their false doctrine: this is elegantly so called; for it spreads in the soul, or the Church, as leaven does in meal. Luk 12:1.

16:7 They reasoned among themselves - What must we do then for bread, since we have taken no bread with us?

16:8 Why reason ye - Why are you troubled about this? Am I not able, if need so require, to supply you by a word?

16:11 How do ye not understand - Beside, do you not understand, that I did not mean bread, by the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees?

NOTES

Jesus' answer to the Pharisees' request that He show them some “sign from heaven” seems rather strange. Judging by the meaning of His words, we must conclude that they had enough information and needed no other signs...

Jesus' answer to the Pharisees' request that He show them some “sign from heaven” seems rather strange. Judging by the meaning of His words, we must conclude that they had enough information and needed no other signs. The only sign Jesus clearly alludes to when He speaks of the “sign of the prophet Jonah” is His death and resurrection. What, then, does He mean when He says that even without signs the Pharisees have everything they need to understand the situation? And what kind of “sign from heaven” are they asking Him for?

In speaking of a “sign from heaven,” Jesus' interlocutors apparently meant some proof of His messiahship. There were generally accepted ideas about such proofs, according to which the Messiah had to give certain well-known signs of support from above, signs visible and intelligible to everyone. Evidently there were Pharisees prepared to see Jesus as the Messiah, but only as the “right” kind of Messiah. He had no intention of becoming that “right” Messiah.

He told those demanding signs plainly: you have seen enough to make a decision. If you were honest with yourselves, doing so would be no more difficult than looking at the sky and deciding whether to expect fair or rainy weather soon. Indeed, throughout His earthly ministry Jesus gave everyone willing to see more than enough evidence of the nearness and active power of the Kingdom He brought into the world. Anyone who wanted to see could see everything necessary. Only those who did not want to see—those for whom their own religious ideas and theological concepts were more important than the Kingdom and testimony to it—failed to see or notice the obvious.

Jesus had no intention of playing along with such people. This was not because their ideas were worse or better than any others, but because the position they had adopted separated them from the Kingdom from the outset. They were prepared to accept it only on their own terms. Yet the conditions for entering the Kingdom were by no means determined by them and were nothing like what they imagined. Those who wanted the Kingdom had to choose between the Kingdom and their religiosity. Jesus had no intention of hiding that fact from them.

Jesus' words are not always easy to understand, and at first their true meaning remains hidden even from His disciples. Only after the Teacher's explanations do they grasp that He is speaking not about bread, but about...

Today's reading tells us about Peter's confession, which is preceded by Jesus' conversations with the Pharisees about signs and with the disciples about the "leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees." It concludes with a description of Peter's conversation with Jesus, during which...

Today's reading tells us about Peter's confession (vv. 13-20), which is preceded by Jesus' conversations with the Pharisees about signs (vv. 1-4) and with the disciples about the "leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees" (vv. 5-12). It concludes with a description of Peter's conversation with Jesus, during which Jesus speaks rather sharply about His disciple (vv. 21-28).

The central event here is Peter's confession: he recognizes in Jesus the Messiah, the Christ promised by God, while the people considered Him a prophet (vv. 14-16). And then Jesus, confirming Peter's conclusion, says that he could understand this only through revelation from God (v. 17).

It would seem that the Messiah was expected not only by Jesus' disciples: in Gospel times, messianic expectation among the Jewish people was very intense. But the point is that Jesus least of all resembled the Messiah whom both the people and the learned rabbis expected. The people expected a Messiah-king who would free Judea from Roman rule; the learned rabbis and theologian-scribes wanted to see a Messiah who matched their theological theories. It is no accident that the Pharisees and Sadducees ask Jesus to show them one of those messianic signs by which, according to their own concepts, the Messiah alone could be recognized. And Jesus refuses - not, of course, because it was difficult for Him, but because He did not want to fit into any theological concept and had no intention of conforming to anyone's ideas. Accepting such a Messiah, one who matched no generally accepted norms or views, and in whom the majority were ready to see an ungodly man and a violator of the Torah rather than the Messiah, was truly possible only by revelation.

Soon after this, it was time for Peter and the other disciples to learn about the cross and the Resurrection (v. 21), and then it turned out that this knowledge was unbearable for a person. It was still possible to accept a persecuted and suffering Messiah, especially since the image of the suffering Messiah was well known to every believing Jew from the book of Isaiah. But to accept His complete defeat was utterly unthinkable, and death on the cross was perceived by Peter and the other apostles only as defeat. The reality of resurrection in general, and of Christ's Resurrection in particular, was still only a distant prospect for them, so that even when He had risen, they still could not fully believe it for a long time.

It is no surprise that Peter cannot come to terms with the thought that the Teacher's death is inevitable (v. 22). But Jesus is uncompromising here as well: one cannot stop halfway; one cannot accept the Messiah and refuse His path. A person who acts this way turns from a disciple into an adversary (v. 23). There is only one road into the Kingdom (vv. 24-27), and one can arrive there only by walking it to the end.

${currentDateString}