Mark 8:27-30, Peter Confesses Jesus as the Christ

²⁷ And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. [He heads north to the headwaters of the Jordan river that feeds the Sea of Galilee. Caesarea Philippi is located in the Golan Heights at the foot of Mount Hermon, the northern most boundary of Israel in Deuteronomy and Joshua, and the likely location of the Transfiguration in the next chapter.] And on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” ²⁸ And they told him, “John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.” [The answers of others identify Jesus as a great man, but still a man.] ²⁹ And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” [Now Jesus gets personal.] Peter answered him, “You are the Christ [Messiah].” [Peter answers for the group. This is the first time the title Christ was used to describe Jesus by another human being.] ³⁰ And he strictly charged them to tell no one about him. [This is a command not to reveal Jesus’ Messiahship. As we will see below, Peter does not fully understand it yet. The Messiahship Peter has triumphantly declared will be very different than what he has imagined. Jesus wants the title Christ to be for the world, not just for the Jews. If his own disciples do not understand it yet, then how would the Galilean crowd? We now enter into a new phase of Jesus’ teaching.]