Matthew 16:23 - To Peter: Get behind me, Satan?

Does Matthew 16:23 object to the need for those who have been believers in the past?

Matthew 16:23: "But the (One), having-turned, said (to) Peter, “Get behind Me, SATAN! You-are a cause-of-falling (to) Me, because you-are not thinking the (things of) God, but the (things of) humans”."

Could this verse neither argue for the possibility of deliverance for believers, nor for its impossibility?

Jesus "said (to) Peter, “Get behind Me, SATAN! You-are a cause-of-falling (to) Me, because you-are not thinking the (things of) God, but the (things of) humans”" (Matthew 16:23).

Why didn't Jesus cast SATAN out of Peter when Jesus "said (to) Peter, “Get behind Me, SATAN" (Matthew 16:23)?

The answer would be that there would be no clear indication that SATAN would have entered Peter, but simply that Peter opposed Jesus as an ADVERSARY. Indeed, Jesus did not said His sentence to Satan, but Jesus said His sentence "(TO) PETER" (Matthew 16:23) directly, as Peter was thinking "the (things of) HUMANS" (Matthew 16:23).

The word for "SATAN" can actually be used to simply refer to an ADVERSARY. For example a human can be named a "SATAN", as for example the Hebrew word for "SATAN" is used to describe humans: "YHWH raised an ADVERSARY (haś·śā·ṭān 7854 in Hebrew) to Solomon, Hadad the Edomite" (1 Kings 11:14 (Masoretic)). Another example: "God raised up an ADVERSARY (haś·śā·ṭān 7854 in Hebrews) to him, Rezon the son of Eliadah" (1 Kings 11:23 (Masoretic)).

Jesus said "(TO) PETER" (Matthew 16:23) directly the word "SATAN" (Matthew 16:23), and may have said that to Peter to simply denote Peter as an ADVERSARY, because Peter at that moment was "not thinking the (things of) God, but the (things of) HUMANS" (Matthew 16:23), as Peter opposed Jesus Who said that He must "be-killed" (Matthew 16:21) but Peter said: "This shall never happen (to) You" (Matthew 16:22). 

4 chapters earlier, Jesus said that "The (one) not being with Me is against Me" (Matthew 12:30). Jesus also said in the very next verse after answering Peter: "If anyone wants to-come after Me, let-him-deny himself" (Matthew 16:24). Peter would have been in need of denying himself in order to not be against Jesus and be an ADVERSARY to Jesus.

↺ Click here to return to the Table of Contents.