Matthew 16:15 "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"

◄ Matthew 16:15 ►

Parallel Verses

New International Version
"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"

English Standard Version
He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”

New American Standard Bible
He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?"

King James Bible
He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?

Holman Christian Standard Bible
"But you," He asked them, "who do you say that I am?"

International Standard Version
He asked them, "But who do you say I am?"

American Standard Version
He saith unto them, But who say ye that I am?

Douay-Rheims Bible
Jesus saith to them: But whom do you say that I am?

Darby Bible Translation
He says to them, But ye, who do ye say that I am?

Young's Literal Translation
He saith to them, 'And ye -- who do ye say me to be?'

Cross References

Matthew 16:14
And they said, Some say that you are John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.

Matthew 16:16
And Simon Peter answered and said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

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Commentaries

Matthew Henry's Commentary

16:13-20 Peter, for himself and his brethren, said that they were assured of our Lord's being the promised Messiah, the Son of the living God. This showed that they believed Jesus to be more than man. Our Lord declared Peter to be blessed, as the teaching of God made him differ from his unbelieving countrymen. Christ added that he had named him Peter, in allusion to his stability or firmness in professing the truth. The word translated rock, is not the same word as Peter, but is of a similar meaning. Nothing can be more wrong than to suppose that Christ meant the person of Peter was the rock. Without doubt Christ himself is the Rock, the tried foundation of the church; and woe to him that attempts to lay any other! Peter's confession is this rock as to doctrine. If Jesus be not the Christ, those that own him are not of the church, but deceivers and deceived. Our Lord next declared the authority with which Peter would be invested. He spoke in the name of his brethren, and this related to them as well as to him. They had no certain knowledge of the characters of men, and were liable to mistakes and sins in their own conduct; but they were kept from error in stating the way of acceptance and salvation, the rule of obedience, the believer's character and experience, and the final doom of unbelievers and hypocrites. In such matters their decision was right, and it was confirmed in heaven. But all pretensions of any man, either to absolve or retain men's sins, are blasphemous and absurd. None can forgive sins but God only. And this binding and loosing, in the common language of the Jews, signified to forbid and to allow, or to teach what is lawful or unlawful.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown

15. He saith unto them, But whom—rather, "who."

say ye that I am?—He had never put this question before, but the crisis He was reaching made it fitting that He should now have it from them. We may suppose this to be one of those moments of which the prophet says, in His name, "Then I said, I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for naught, and in vain" (Isa 49:4): Lo, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree; and what is it? As the result of all, I am taken for John the Baptist, for Elias, for Jeremias, for one of the prophets. Yet some there are that have beheld My glory, the glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father, and I shall hear their voice, for it is sweet.