Word Pictures in the New Testament - David Cox

Word Pictures in the NT [Matthew: Chapter 16].
instruments of temptation than well-meaning friends, who care
more for our comfort than for our character" (Bruce). "In Peter
the banished Satan had once more returned" (Plummer). {A
stumbling-block unto me} (\skandalon ei emou\). Objective
genitive. Peter was acting as Satan's catspaw, in ignorance,
surely, but none the less really. He had set a trap for Christ
that would undo all his mission to earth. "Thou art not, as
before, a noble block, lying in its right position as a massive
foundation stone. On the contrary, thou art like a stone quite
out of its proper place, and lying right across the road in which
I must go--lying as a stone of stumbling" (Morison). {Thou
mindest not} (\ou phroneis\). "Your outlook is not God's, but
man's" (Moffatt). You do not think God's thoughts. Clearly the
consciousness of the coming cross is not a new idea with Jesus.
We do not know when he first foresaw this outcome any more than
we know when first the Messianic consciousness appeared in Jesus.
He had the glimmerings of it as a boy of twelve, when he spoke of
"My Father's house." He knows now that he must die on the cross.
16:24 {Take up his cross} (\arat• ton stauron autou\). Pick up at
once, aorist tense. This same saying in 10:38, which see. But
pertinent here also in explanation of Christ's rebuke to Peter.
Christ's own cross faces him. Peter had dared to pull Christ away
from his destiny. He would do better to face squarely his own
cross and to bear it after Jesus. The disciples would be familiar
with cross-bearing as a figure of speech by reason of the
crucifixion of criminals in Jerusalem. {Follow} (\akaloutheit•\).
Present tense. Keep on following.
16:25 {Save his life} (\t•n psuch•n autou s•sai\). Paradoxical
play on word "life" or "soul," using it in two senses. So about
"saving" and "losing" (\apolesei\).
16:26 {Gain} (\kerd•s•i\) and {profit} (\z•mi•th•i\). Both aorist
subjunctives (one active, the other passive) and so punctiliar
action, condition of third class, undetermined, but with prospect
of determination. Just a supposed case. The verb for "forfeit"
occurs in the sense of being fined or mulcted of money. So the
papyri and inscriptions. {Exchange} (\antallagma\). As an
exchange, accusative in apposition with \ti\. The soul has no
market price, though the devil thinks so. "A man must give,
surrender, his life, and nothing less to God; no \antallagma\ is
possible" (McNeile). This word \antallagma\ occurs twice in the
_Wisdom of Sirach_: "There is no exchange for a faithful friend"
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