This is both a beautiful and dreadful section of scripture. Beautiful because Yeshua/Jesus is revealing how the Passover is redefined through His ministry, and dreadful because of Peter’s proud assurances that he will never deny His Master—and calling Him a false prophet in the process.
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22 And as they were eating, he took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.” 23 And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. 24 And he said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. 25 Truly, I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.” 26 And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. 27 And Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away, for it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’ 28 But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee.” 29 Peter said to him, “Even though they all fall away, I will not.” 30 And Jesus said to him, “Truly, I tell you, this very night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.” 31 But he said emphatically, “If I must die with you, I will not deny you.” And they all said the same.
Okay, so this week we are going to talk about why there is no doubt that this is being written about as an actual Passover supper—despite my having taught otherwise in the past. We’re going to talk about the Passover elements in this section of Mark 14 and why it was written about this way as opposed to how, say, John wrote about the same event using a slightly different emphasis. Last week, we touched upon the history of the Passover and how it is a huge part of the metanarrative, or overall theme, of Scripture. We also looked into what the Passover looked like in the first century and about Justin Martyr’s firsthand witness of the crucified lamb of the Samaritan Passover and looked at a great article from a Jewish scholar who believes that it accurately reflects what was going on during the first century when the Temple was still standing. And we read Mishnah Tractate Pesachim chapter ten to see what the take on the Passover meal looked like at the end of the second century. This week, we will put that knowledge to good use as we explore the setup of the Last Supper.
Hi, I am Tyler Dawn Rosenquist, and welcome to Character in Context, where I teach the historical and ancient sociological context of Scripture with an eye to developing the character of the Messiah. If you prefer written material, I have six years’ worth of blog at theancientbridge.com as well as my six books available on amazon—including a four-volume curriculum series dedicated to teaching Scriptural context in a way that even kids can understand it, called Context for Kids—and I have two video channels on YouTube with free Bible teachings for both adults and kids. You can find the link for those on my website. Past broadcasts of this program can be found at characterincontext.podbean.com and transcripts can be had for most broadcasts at theancientbridge.com. If you have kids, I also have a weekly broadcast where I teach them Bible context in a way that shows them why they can trust God and how He wants to have a relationship with them through the Messiah.
All Scripture this week comes courtesy of the ESV, the English Standard Version but you can follow along with whatever Bible you want. A list of my resources can be found attached to the transcript for Part two of this series at theancientbridge.com.
Of course, the central theme of the Passover memorial meal is the retelling of the Exodus story. In fact, the gathered celebrants were to relive it and consider themselves to have been personally there and delivered from Egypt. Given that the Jews in the first century were in their own land but under the thumb of their Roman oppressors who didn’t technically hold them as slaves, but had them taxed to the point that they were often just barely surviving, the meal was a political action that was all the more poignant. Truthfully, they had never known what real freedom looked like under their own governing authorities. Big brother was always watching and especially at Passover when Messianic claimants were prone to arise and create a ruckus.
Ritual in religion is often about theater—and we see it in all of the festivals. At Passover, they relived the Exodus. At Shavuot, they had pageantry related to finally being able to reap a harvest in the Land (only after the destruction of the Temple was the festival day repurposed around the giving of the Torah), Trumpets revolved around the enthronement ceremonies for new kings, at Sukkot they reenacted living in booths during the Exodus in the wilderness. This is also why Purim and Hannukah came to be celebrated because they were reenactments and remembrances of great deliverances out of the hands of oppressors. Not to stand alongside or equal to the festivals because there are no High Sabbaths and no one is forbidden to work or commanded to go to the Temple, but as reminders that even in the darkest circumstances, God has not abandoned His people.
And so, this section of Scripture is all about Yeshua/Jesus presiding over the sharing of the Matzah, and the third and fourth cup of the seder and using them to redefine what God’s salvation looks like in their generation. You see, at a seder, it was the job of the host to tell the story and we have talked about this in the past. No matter where Yeshua is dining, no matter whose house He is in, He always acts the part of the host. Why? Because He is always foreshadowing the Messianic Banquet at the end of the age. And this will actually be our fourth bread-related incident in the Gospel of Mark. Previously, we have had the feeding of the five thousand in Jewish territory, the feeding of the four thousand in Gentile territory, and then the brouhaha after that incident when the disciples were upset that they had forgotten to bring bread. Let’s go ahead and get started. We are in chapter 14 starting in verse 22 of this very long chapter.
22 And as they were eating, he took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.”
The matzah, unleavened bread, eaten as part of the Passover is in remembrance of the fact that children of Israel left too early in the day to allow their bread dough to rise. They had eaten fully prepared to leave and after Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron to the palace, they were commanded to leave immediately. So, the matzah was symbolic of how they were literally slaves one minute and free the next with no time for fermentation. And it was the job of the host to explain all the elements of the Seder meal—the lamb, the matzah, and the bitter herbs. But Yeshua does something different—He explains the matzah and the wine instead. He very well might have explained the lamb and the herbs earlier, we don’t know, but we do know that He chose to highlight the bread between the second cup—called the Cup of Plagues, or Judgement and third cup—which is called the Cup of Redemption, and He also chose to redefine the third cup.
So, this is set as they were eating. Yeshua, as host of the seder, took the unleavened bread and spoke the b’racha over it—“Blessed are You oh Lord our God who brings forth bread from the earth,” and broke it and handed it out to everyone who was, as we saw two weeks ago, reclining. Reclining was traditional for Passover because it is how free and wealthy men ate their meals. On Passover night, all of Israel dined like royalty from the richest to the poorest. But this is where Yeshua went off-script. Remember last week I mentioned that according to Rabban Gamaliel, the host had to explain the elements of the seder. Here, Yeshua is explaining the true significance of the unleavened bread, the matzah. He said to them, “Take, this is my body.” And this is incredibly important. The laws of Passover were very explicit in this regard. Anyone who dined on the old leaven during the Passover and not on the unleavened bread was cut off from their people. But now, Yeshua is telling them something very specific. It is the body of Yeshua that they were now to take and even take into themselves. The partaking of Yeshua’s body and blood, identifying with Him in death and resurrection was now the identifier for who was and was not cut off from the people of Israel.
Remember that unlike the Passover itself, which was a day of preparation, the unleavened bread focused on the time after the Passover. The unleavened bread was about the future and leaving behind the old leaven and starting again. No different than our New Creation life in Messiah. It is stunning that this cultural act of divinely commanded theater would point the way to the true bread of life, that it truly was a shadow of something better and a greater salvation and a greater exodus than they experienced under Moses. Instead of one people group, Yeshua’s Passover was aimed at the redemption of the entire world. And, I have to say, this is why we should continue to celebrate the Passover and the Resurrection that happened on the day of First Fruits. But we will get to that later.
23 And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, and they all drank of it.
As I mentioned before, this would be the third cup, the Cup of Redemption, after the breaking and eating of the matzah. Repeating from last week, all Jews were to enjoy four cups of wine on Passover night, no matter how poor. Yeshua gave the blessing for wine, “Blessed are You oh Lord our God, who brings forth the fruit of the vine.” And we know from 2 Macc 15:39 that the wine was mixed with water, which is important in John’s account. But remember when we were talking two weeks ago about the obligations of loyalty toward anyone with whom you shared a meal? Verse 23 explicitly says that they all drank of it—even Judas. So, here he is, eating and drinking in an unworthy manner—which should ring a bell because Paul warns the Corinthian believers about this: “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.” (1 Corinthians 11:27-28) Anyone who is dealing treacherously with others in the Body (because that is the context of what Paul is saying here) and then partaking of the bread and wine of Passover or of communion because they are absolutely linked together, is compared here to Judas betraying the hospitality of fellowship at the Lord’s table. Incredibly serious.
24 And he said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.
This hearkens back to two different concepts in Scripture. First, it is an allusion to the blood of the Covenant that Moses splashed against the altar and sprinkled over the assembly of Israel at the base of Mt Sinai in Exodus chapter 24. This blood confirmed the Covenant between Yahweh and Israel after preliminary commandments were given through Moses to the assembly and they repeatedly said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do.” (Ex 19:8, 24:3, 7). But instead of the blood of bulls and sheep and goats, as were used by Moses and were a shadow of what would come, Yeshua says this is “my blood of the Covenant.” And instead of being poured out for those gathered around Mt Sinai and their descendants, Yeshua’s covenant blood is poured out for the many. If you listened through my series on Isaiah and the Messiah, your ears should have perked up. Remember this word in Greek is pollys, and in the Septuagint, the 3rd century BCE authorized translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek, that is the word used to translate rabbim. And rabbim shows up all over the place in the servant songs of Isaiah that refer to the Messiah:
Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted. As many were astonished at you—his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind—so shall he sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths because of him, for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand. (Is 52:13-15)
Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressors. (Is 53:11-12)
So, Moses led an exodus out of Egypt, but the servant of Isaiah leads a Greater Exodus. And in fact, Isaiah says that the new Exodus would be so amazing that people would hardly even remember the old. All the nations would pour into the New Jerusalem to honor Yahweh and His house would be called a house of prayer for all nations. The wealth of the nations and their worship would come through the gates in unending tribute. By talking about doing what He is doing for the many, Yeshua is naming Himself as the servant of Yahweh in the Isaiah songs. The Arm of the Lord that the Septuagint identified as the Messiah.
We’ve talked before about acted-out parables and there are many in the Gospels. The overturning of the tables in the Temple courtyard, for example, was a unique Messianic sign fulfilling passages in Zechariah and Malachi. If we were to do it, it wouldn’t mean the same thing at all. It was a sign that Yeshua was the Lord of the Temple coming in judgment. If we were to do it, it would just be presumptuous and empty. Also, we had the feedings of the multitudes as acted out parables of the giving of manna in the wilderness coupled with the Messianic Banquet at the end of the age. Healing the blind is the acting out of Isaiah 9. Washing the feet of the disciples. The great catches of fish. These all are actions that point the way to the fulfillment of something even greater. What do we have here? They all drank of the cup and then Yeshua drops the other shoe—they’ve just taken part in an acted-out parable about what is about to happen. First, they consumed the broken bread, symbolic of what would happen to Yeshua’s body. And not just broken, but personally and freely given to them by Yeshua. Then we have the wine, which we know was mixed with water at seders. John 19:34 tells us that when Yeshua’s side was stabbed with a spear that blood and water came out, poured out for the many onto the ground as all blood was required to be returned to Yahweh by pouring it out on the ground. They have all just participated in the suffering, crucifixion, and death of Yeshua in the form of this acted-out parable. And this is actually why it is so very important to do this together. This is no pagan ritual, this is participation and identification. Yeshua is recentering, reconstituting, Israel around Himself and the superior covenant in His blood instead of the blood of animals, for the whole world instead of just Israel.
25 Truly, I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”
So, Yeshua refuses to drink the fourth cup, the cup of praise. But, as we will see in the Garden, He will be drinking another cup entirely—the cup of Yahweh. I do want to break this down—“truly I say to you”—that is an oath formula. And you might object because Yeshua seems to forbid oaths elsewhere but we have to understand how oaths were being abused and I have a separate teaching on that. It was very much a game in those times to figure out how they could swear a non-binding oath, which of course is just premeditated deception. So, He is swearing not to drink the fruit of the vine, and that would be wine or vinegar, until “that day” but when is “that day” and when does the “Kingdom of God” happen? Is this some future thing or is it already here? We’ll talk about that more when we get to chapter 15.
26 And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
The hymns that would have been sung on the night of the Passover, throughout the seder, were Psalms 113-118, officially known as the Hallel. These are specifically Psalms of praise and celebration of deliverance from enemies. I love going through them on the Passover even though we don’t sing them because we no longer know the tunes they were originally singing them to. I mean, as far as I know. And even if we did, they would only work for the original Hebrew, so there’s that. But, they sing Psalm 118 and they head out of the city to the Mount of Olives, which would have been at least a fifteen-minute walk with full stomachs. And these guys rarely ate meat, okay? It was a rarity within a culture where animals were primarily a source of wealth, not dinner. If you ate an animal as a normal person, it was because it was elderly, not a nice young, tender grass-fed lamb. So, they are full of protein, carbohydrates, and wine. And it is dark. I am exhausted just thinking about it. And on the way, Yeshua drops another bomb—I say another because in the account before this one, He told them that one of the Twelve would betray Him and maybe they had forgotten over the course of the seder but Yeshua isn’t going to allow them to just drift off to a peaceful sleep. So, they are trudging along, probably thinking they are on their way to Lazarus’s house in Bethany, and Yeshua just destroys the festive atmosphere:
27 And Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away, for it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’
Now, when Yeshua told them that one of them would betray Him and then narrowed it down to one of the Twelve (because we know there were more than just the thirteen of them there because at least two others had gone ahead to prepare to Passover for them, and when He arrived later, all of the Twelve were accompanying Him), they were all incredulous and asking if it was them because no one immediately suspected Judas. Who knows—maybe they thought that since they had been given a heads up that it wouldn’t happen. After all, who would share a table with someone and then do something like this on purpose? Unthinkable in the ancient world even though we do it all the time now because we can’t even handle being miffed at a friend who says something stupid and so we gossip and tear people to shreds behind their back. Not in the ancient world, not when you share table fellowship with someone. It was an honor pact.
But Yeshua has upped the ante—not only will one of the Twelve betray Him, but each and every one of them will fall away. Such a statement was beyond bearing—it was one thing to think that the betrayal “might” come from one of them under some strange set of circumstances, but this is a guarantee, they will all fail to be loyal, courageous, and steadfast. You couldn’t hardly deliver more damning news to a bunch of honor/shame society teenagers who were still hoping to be great when Yeshua would become the kind of Messiah they want Him to be. Now, He is telling them that they are just the worst—that’s how it would have sounded to them. And the Scripture He is quoting here is Zechariah 13:7 so let’s look at that in context starting in verse 1:
“On that day there shall be a fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness…7 “Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man who stands next to me,” declares the Lord of hosts. “Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered…”
Yeshua does something incredibly Jewish here and compacts the verse. In Zechariah, the context is clear that Yahweh Himself has called down the sword on the man who stands next to Him, at His right hand. Instead of quoting the entire thing, He just changes it to “I will strike the shepherd” because that is the plain meaning of what came down to us through Zechariah. Yahweh will open up a fountain that will cleanse people from both sin and uncleanness, and it will happen through bringing the sword against the faithful Servant who also stands by His side and is Yahweh’s Shepherd. Yeshua is identifying Himself as that fountain, that shepherd, and the man who stands at the right hand of Yahweh. But more than that, if we were to read the very next chapter of Zechariah, we would see the Shepherd as victorious. So many people say that Yeshua never claimed to be the Messiah but He claims it all over the place without actually saying the word Messiah, and we have talked about why. The word Messiah in the first century came so heavily laden with false or premature expectations that He just could not use it. It was a political term that would have raised an army and would have had Rome executing Him prematurely without collaboration from the Jewish leadership. It had to go down exactly as it did and so no, He’s not going to use that term. Son of Man was obscure enough to work with and fill with meaning Himself, so was Shepherd.
But, I want to also take a moment here to show that the disciples were never expected to stand strong and fight. It’s easy to say we would have done differently than these young men but Zechariah clearly says that if we were there, we would have bolted as well. The only one who didn’t run was Judas, okay? We would have been scared out of our minds, just senselessly confused and terrified. And none of us have lived the life that they lived afterward so although we poke at them a bit, we also have to know we wouldn’t have done any better. When we are learning character from these accounts, it all must start with humility. We are not all that and a bag of chips and we prove it on a daily basis and sometimes moment by moment. It took the empowerment of the Spirit to change them from violent braggarts and runaways into men who were all willing to die in order to nonviolently spread the Gospel to the ends of the world as they knew it in those days.
28 But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee.”
There is more here than immediately meets the eye. And Peter completely misses it. First, of course, we could see here a fourth passion prediction in His claim of being raised up and it is the fifth time that He has mentioned being raised up. Although He doesn’t specifically talk about being turned over this time, with all the talk this night about being betrayed and abandoned, it isn’t hard to put all the pieces together. You can’t be raised up unless you have died but remember, they are all expecting a general resurrection at the end of the age and although He has mentioned “after three days” they don’t really seem to be grasping that this isn’t just figurative language. But now, this is weird. Who would go before them to Galilee after the general resurrection at the end of the age? Wouldn’t they all gather in Jerusalem? But, more importantly, I think—and reflective of His merciful character, Yeshua offers them hope and a lifeline here. “You are going to abandon me but I am not going to abandon you. I am going to meet you where you are. In fact, I will be there before you even arrive.”
Man, am I the only person this has been true for? He knows I am going to screw up. He doesn’t treat me like a screw-up but He knows I will and still He is always there walking in front of me, where I need to be before I even get there, leading me on. And back to Galilee? To where it all began? It’s like talking about a fresh start and of course, after the Resurrection and the giving of the Spirit and the New Creation Kingdom that was inaugurated at the Cross, it was a fresh start. And it still is when we go through it ourselves, and when we sometimes run and then we turn to find that He was always right there ready to begin all over again. What’s true for the disciples is true for all of us, from every denomination, for the whole Body—we all have this ongoing experience of Him shepherding us even when we act more like goats than the sheep we are supposed to be. Which, by the way, should never be used as an insult. The Bible compares us to sheep when we aren’t acting like idiots. Just call me a sheeple—I will take it as a compliment. I mean, biblically, it is and that should be our standard and not the mockers and name-callers on social media who would rather belittle the people they disagree with instead of coming up with more persuasive arguments in their favor.
29 Peter said to him, “Even though they all fall away, I will not.”
Oh, Peter. Peter, Peter…why did you have to just insult all the others like that? I mean, you know, he could have simply said, “I will never abandon you.” You know? But in defending himself and his own honor—which is exactly what was happening here and I will explain it in a bit—he threw all the others under the bus. “Even though they all fall away, I will not.” Big sigh. But haven’t we all done this? I’ve told this story before but this is the reason why I never say stuff like this anymore—back about fifteen years ago, we have just moved into our new house in New Mexico, and you have to understand, I was one of those people who always watched movies or read news stories and would see people frozen in fear or not doing what I thought they should be doing and call them idiots and say, “I would have done such and such if I was them,” or “I would never have done that!” Because, you know, we all of us have given ourselves way too much credit for not being idiots, or being somehow above normal human limitations, and more loyal, smarter, just whatever. And usually about situations we have never been in ourselves and might never be in. We all assume we are people who act instead of people who freeze. And now we get to the point of my story. The former owner hadn’t informed a relative who drives long-distance trucks about the fact that they moved and he had a key and I swear he was 6’4” and built like a mountain and when he let himself in through the garage in the middle of the night and I heard him and thought it was Mark or one of the kids and I saw him, standing there in my jammies, I froze in place. So, all that, I would never nonsense? I am a freezer, and not a fighter. Just so you know.
And so, Peter is just doing what we have all arrogantly done. And it wouldn’t be the last time either. I mean, what happened between Acts 10, when Yahweh makes it clear that Peter is not to refuse table fellowship with Gentiles, and Acts 11 when he has to tell the Jewish believers back in Jerusalem that they shouldn’t refuse Gentiles at their tables, and Acts 15 where we are seeing the fallout from Peter having refused table fellowship with Gentiles in Galatia. We all think we know what we will do in situations we have never been in. Fear, in the case of the arrest at Gethsemane, and peer pressure, in the case of Galatia, can overcome our better judgment.
Want to touch briefly on the wording here—the word used for “fall away” is scandalizo. And what Peter is saying here is, “Even if all these other guys are too scandalized, too embarrassed, too distrusting to follow you, I won’t. No matter what happens to convince them that they can’t trust you anymore, I will never stop trusting and following you.” Which necessitates the following prophetic utterance from Yeshua, who isn’t playing games with Peter. There is no time left.
30 And Jesus said to him, “Truly, I tell you, this very night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.”
Just, ugh. I am going to tell you something that is a pet theory of mine based upon all those times I have said, “I would never.” I honestly believe that when we do stuff like that, we open ourselves up to be tested and sifted and that God allows it to happen. I had to stop talking about places I would never move to in a million years after I had to do just that four times. It’s like, God says, “Oh, so you are telling me where I can and can’t send you—alrighty then, let’s see how you like this.” And so now I tell people I would never move to Bora Bora but I think He is on to me. I just—I don’t tell Him anymore what He can and can’t do, what I can and can’t do, how I will and will not fail. None of it. There is nothing I can positively claim to be incapable of, good or bad. I am just keeping my head down and trusting in God. If I screw up, He can pick me back up, and not focusing on my inevitable failures gives me hope in what He can accomplish.
But, beyond this, Yeshua has just delivered a prophetic utterance, beginning with the oath formula, “truly, I tell you” which puts his own honor on the line. And this word translated “deny” is a particularly harsh word in the Greek, aparnese. It doesn’t just mean to say you don’t know someone, it actually caries the meaning of actually disowning another person. Yeshua’s claim on Peter could hardly be more severe, with the wording combined with the oath. How will Peter respond to this? This is Peter’s teacher, whom he personally identified as the Messiah on Mt Hermon staking His own honor on the truth of what He is claiming. How Peter responds to this is the first chink in the armor of Peter’s professed faith in Yeshua.
Now, I am going to burst a popular bubble. You’ll hear that this couldn’t have been a rooster because of m. Baba Kava 7.7, which reads–“No cocks or hens must be raised in Jerusalem (even by laymen), because of the voluntary offerings (the meat of which may be eaten in any part of the city, and as the habit of the named fowls is to peck with their beaks in the rubbish, they may peck into a dead reptile and then peck in the meat of the offerings). In all other parts of Palestine priests only must not raise them, as they use leave-offerings for their meals, and they must be very careful about cleanliness.” However, they fail to mention the ruling from the Jerusalem Talmud that clearly states that a chicken had once killed an infant by pecking the soft spot on top of the child’s head (y.Eruv.10.1.5). So, clearly, the idea that there were no fowl raised in the city was not universal. And actually, sound carries. When I was living out in the boonies, I could hear roosters that were a long way away and some of them would sound off looong before dawn and even in the middle of the night. I have one across the street in my neighborhood now, actually. Fortunately, he is more polite about it and waits until daybreak. Usually.
The two theories that play on this supposed ban on poultry involve either the Roman soldiers or the Temple guards sounding different calls. With the Romans, this was called the gallicinium and would have probably been referring to the blasts at around midnight and three in the morning. With the priests, it would have been a call involved with rousing the Temple priests much later in the morning—but there would need to be two of them. But there is a linguistic problem with this—although the English translations generally say “the rooster” there is no definite article in the original Greek, as we would expect to see if it was referring to a scheduled and otherwise named event. In any event, we can theorize but what we cannot do is give any definitive answer. A lot of stuff is like that. We’ll survive. Either way, Peter would completely disown Him before sunrise and that’s the real bottom-line thing to take away from this.
31 But he said emphatically, “If I must die with you, I will not deny you.” And they all said the same.
Peter’s response to Yeshua’s prophetic utterance in the form of a vow is nothing short of shocking. He is literally calling Yeshua a false prophet—although I believe it was probably a knee-jerk reaction to this attack on his honor rating and especially as the designated leader of this young group. Honor was more important than money in the ancient world and families rose and fell with their reputation. It was the ancient form of credit rating and someone with low honor wasn’t a leader for long, couldn’t feed their family for long, had no standing in any way—and neither did their immediate family. Yeshua was attacking the core of Peter’s existence, in front of an audience. And, of course, as we will see in a few weeks, Peter didn’t just publicly cave, he caved to pressure from the lowest of the low—not only a servant but a girl with absolutely no power in this world. It could hardly have been any worse than it was.
Next week, we’ll be talking about the prayer in Gethsemane.
