Luke 9:18-21 depicts how Jesus initiates an essential conversation with His disciples. He asks them who the people say He is, and then directs the same question to them personally. Peter confesses Jesus is the Christ of God, acknowledging His divine identity.
The parallel Gospel accounts for Luke 9:18-21 are Matthew 16:13-20 and Mark 8:27-30.
In Luke 9:18-21, Jesus prays alone with His disciples, asks them who the crowds say He is, receives Peter’s confession that He is the Christ of God, and then warns them not to tell anyone.
And it happened that while He was praying alone, the disciples were with Him (v 18a).
The Gospel of Luke last placed Jesus and His disciples in a desolate area near the city of Bethsaida on the northern shores of the Sea of Galilee where Jesus performed a notable miracle, feeding a crowd of over five thousand people by multiplying five loaves of bread and two fish (Luke 9:12-17).
It appears that instead of telling us what happened next, Luke transitions to a conversation between Jesus and His disciples without mentioning other events that took place between the feeding of the five thousand and the conversation that unfolds here in Luke 9:18-21.
The events from Jesus’s life that Luke seems to omit here include:
Jesus’s walking on water (Matthew 14:22-33, Mark 6:45-52, John 6:15-21)
Jesus’s arrival on the north shore of Galilee (Matthew 14:34-36, Mark 6:53-56, John 6:22-71)
Jesus’s visit to Tyre and Sidon (Matthew 15:21-28)
Jesus’s trip to the Decapolis and the feeding of the Four Thousand (Matthew 15:32-39, Mark 8:1-10)
For instance, the Gospels of Matthew and Mark (and later John) will all describe how Jesus walked on water the evening after Jesus fed the five thousand (Matthew 14:22-33, Mark 6:45-52, John 6:15-21). Luke on the other hand does not describe Jesus’s walking on the water, here or anywhere else in his account.
Instead of describing Christ’s walking on the water, Luke moves on to a different part of his narrative by using the stock transitional phrase translated as: And it happened…. This phrase comes from the Greek phrase καὶ ἐγένετο (pronounced “kai eh-gen-eh-tó”). Older English translations sometimes render this phrase: “And it came to pass…”
This transitional phrase—And it happened—is the only indicator Luke provides to signal the passage of time and change of setting.
Normally, Luke writes with greater historical clarity and chronological precision, as this was part of his stated purpose for writing this account of Jesus’s life (Luke 1:3-4). Luke was aware of the Gospels of Matthew and Mark (Luke 1:1-2) and the things their narratives said Jesus did. This would have included His walking on the water.
Therefore, the fact that Luke omits material from Jesus’s life at this moment which the Gospels of Matthew and Mark (and later John) include is noteworthy and likely deliberate.
One of Luke’s purposes for possibly skipping over Jesus’s walking on the water is because he knew that the other Gospels had already sufficiently presented this miracle.
Another purpose Luke may have had for omitting this is that he was trying to connect the actions and statements of Jesus recorded here in Luke 9:18-21 with something Luke had recently described. And if Luke included the additional events that happened between Luke 9:12-17 and Luke 9:18:21 then this connection would be less firm and more likely to be missed by his readers.
This connection could be that Jesus finally was able to get the solitude He was seeking. Recall how Jesus “withdrew by Himself to… Bethsaida” (Luke 9:10). But the crowds would not leave Him alone—they even followed Him to a desolate place outside of town (Luke 9:11, 12).
Now here in verse 18, in what may have been the first moment He was alonewith His disciples since they first regrouped from their missionary journeys (Luke 9:10), Jesus was praying alone and the disciples were with Him. Mark indicates that one of the reasons Jesus travelled to the region of Tyre was to be alone, yet even in this non-Jewish province “He could not escape notice” (Mark 7:24). After this, it is plausible that Jesus had a similar motive for traveling to the Decapolis, but another large crowd greeted Him there also.
While Luke may have had other reasons for omitting these well-known and already recorded events from his narrative of Jesus, Luke’s omission of these events helps his readers make the connection that at long last Jesus finally found the solitude He was seeking.
And it happened that while He was praying alone, the disciples were with Him, and He questioned them, saying, “Who do the people say that I am?” (v 18).
According to Matthew and Mark, this time of solitude with His disciples and the discussion that came from it (or a similar one to Luke 9:18-21) took place in the Roman district of Caesarea Philippi.
Caesarea Philippi, the capital city of the district of Gaulanitis, was located approximately 25 miles north of the Sea of Galilee. As the northernmost territory of the Promised Land, it had a history of pagan worship even when belonging to the Israelites (Judges 18:6,1 Kings 12:28-31).
In Jesus’s time, Caesarea Philippi was steeped in Roman paganism. From 334 B.C-175 B.C. the Greeks occupied and renamed the city Paneas, dedicating it to their fertility god Pan. Pan worship took place at a cave named the Gates of Hades and entailed sacrifice and bestiality.
After the Roman conquest in 63 B.C., Herod the Great constructed a temple dedicated to Caesar Augustus at the entrance to the Gates of Hades. The son of Herod the Great, Philip, was given charge over this land, renaming it Caesarea Philippi and constructing another temple and courtyards to facilitate pagan worship.
When Jesus said “the gates of Hades will not overpower” His church (Matthew 16:18) He was likely alluding to this pagan temple as a symbol of ungodly culture that is antithetical to His church and kingdom.
It is unlikely that Jesus and His disciples directly visited the temples since doing so would render a Jew ceremonially unclean, the backdrop would provide an important visual as Jesus questioned His disciples about their understanding of who He really was.
While Jesus was praying alone with His disciples, He asked them a question about His identity. He began by asking them: “Who do the people say that I am?”
In this context, the people refer to the people of Israel. Jesus was asking His disciples for their take on who the people of Israel thought or said who He was.
There is an interesting difference in how the Gospels record Jesus’s question. Instead of asking: “Who do the people say that I am?” as recorded by Mark (Mark 8:27b) and Luke (v 18b), Matthew records Jesus as asking His disciples: “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” (Matthew 16:13b).
In Mark and Luke, Jesus is quoted as using the first-person expression: I am (Mark 8:29,Luke 9:18) as He directly refers to Himself. But in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus is quoted as using the third person and Messianic title “the Son of Man” (Matthew 16:13b) to more subtly refer to Himself.
The likely reason for the differences in these two expressions is because of the different intended audiences for each Gospel.
Matthew’s Gospel, which was written for a Jewish audience, records Jesus as referring to Himself indirectly and with the Messianic title “the Son of Man” (Matthew 16:13b). (See The Bible Says article: “Son of Man?”). The Jews would have appreciated both the subtle nuance of the indirect self-reference and they would have understood the Messianic implications.
Mark and Luke’s Gospels, which were written for Gentile audiences, record Jesus’s self-reference with straightforward expression: I am (Mark 8:27,Luke 9:18). This simplicity would make it clear to their respective Roman (Mark) and Greek (Luke) readers that Jesus was referring to Himself in this question. Had they used Matthew’s language then it would have been easier for their audiences to not realize that Jesus was asking about Himself.
Both recordings are accurate in what they express. But because Jesus was Jewish, He likely used language and expressions that were more Jewish than Greek when He spoke, especially teaching His Jewish disciples. (See The Bible Says article: “The Four Languages of Jesus’s Judea”).
Jesus’s question touched on His reputation: “Who do the people say that I am?”
At this point in Jesus’s ministry (probably 2 years into it), His message had spread far and wide throughout Israel. He had performed multiple miracles in the presence of thousands of witnesses. He had taught the Gospel of the kingdom to multitudes. And He had publicly clashed with and been challenged by the religious leaders.
He was asking His disciples, who had recently traveled throughout Israel with His message (Luke 9:1-6) what the people thought about Him and His identity?
Luke records the disciples’ response:
They answered and said, “John the Baptist, and others say Elijah; but others, that one of the prophets of old has risen again” (v 19).
Thedisciples provided three of the popular opinions amongst the people as to His identity—
John the Baptist
Elijah,
or a prophet of old risen again.
All three of these responses were similar to the speculations of Jesus’s identity that were reported to Herod earlier in this chapter:
“Now Herod the tetrarch heard of all that was happening; and he was greatly perplexed, because it was said by some that John had risen from the dead, and by some that Elijah had appeared, and by others that one of the prophets of old had risen again.” (Luke 9:7-8)
The first person the disciples told Jesus who some people believed Him to be was the recently executed John the Baptist “risen from the dead” (Luke 9:7b).
Johnthe Baptist was the Messianic forerunner (Luke 1:17) and Jesus’s cousin (Luke 1:36).
Herod the Tetrarch had imprisoned John (Matthew 11:2,Luke 3:20) and recently had him beheaded at the request of his niece (Matthew 14:1-2, Mark 6:14-29, Luke 9:9).
Before his execution, John was a fiery preacher who wore unusual clothing and proclaimed a bold message, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2). John attracted large crowds to the district surrounding the Jordan River, where he baptized people and called them to repentance for the forgiveness of their sins (Matthew 3:5-6, Luke 3:3). Many wondered if John was more than just a prophet—possibly even the Christ (Matthew 11:9,Luke 3:15). But John explicitly denied this, stating that he was not the Christ (Luke 3:16-17, John 1:20). Instead, John identified himself as the forerunner foretold in Scripture—the one sent to prepare the way for the Lord (Isaiah 40:3, 3:1, John 1:23).
A second response the disciples told Jesus that thepeople gave as to who He might be was the prophet Elijah.
Elijah (c. 900-850 B.C.) was a prominent prophet in the northern kingdom of Israel during the reign of the wicked King Ahab.
Elijah was known for performing powerful miracles in God’s name—such as predicting the start and end of a three-year famine (1 Kings 17:1; 18:41), raising a widow’s son from the dead (1 Kings 17:17-24), and parting the waters of the Jordan River (2 Kings 2:8). Elijah’s most famous miracle was his dramatic showdown with 450 prophets of Baal, when he called on God to send fire from heaven to consume a water-soaked altar (1 Kings 18:19-40).
According to 2 Kings, Elijah never died—instead, he was taken to heaven in a whirlwind (2 Kings 2:11). Therefore, when Elijah returns, he will not be risen from the dead. This is likely why Elijah is described as having appeared and not as risen from the dead.
Beyond prophesying a forerunner to the Messiah, the prophet Malachi also foretold Elijah’s return along with some strong Messianic wording in the final verses of the Old Testament:
"Remember the Law of Moses My servant, even the statutes and ordinances which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel. Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse." (Malachi 4:4-6)
Malachi prophesied that Elijah will return before the coming of the “great and terrible day of the Lord” (Malachi 4:5), signaling the arrival of the Messiah and a time of spiritual renewal and restoration. This prophecy fueled the popular expectation that Elijah would return as a sign of the Messiah’s arrival, or that Elijah himself would be the long-awaited Messiah.
The third thing the disciples told Jesus that the people said about His identity was that He was a prophet of old risen again.
A prophet of old refers to one of the prophets from the era when God spoke to Israel through the prophets, beginning with Moses and ending with Malachi. After Malachi (~ 430 B.C.) there were over four centuries of prophetic silence. God did not send a prophet to Israel until He sent John the Baptist (Luke 1:13-17, John 1:6-8).
The people who said Jesus was a prophet of old did not think that Jesus was John the Baptist nor Elijah—but a different prophet from that old bygone era.
Some of these people presumably knew that Jesus was not John the Baptist, because many of them had likely seen and may even have interacted with both men. Therefore, they knew them to be different individuals, and that Jesus was not and could not be John the Baptist.
And for one reason or another that is not described, this third group of people did not think that Jesus was Elijah, re-appeared on earth, but instead they concluded that Jesus was some other prophet from the old days who had risen back to life.
In the Gospel of Matthew’s parallel account of this event (Matthew 16:14), the disciples mention the prophet Jeremiah as one of several other prophets of old whom the people say Jesus is.
Jeremiah (c. 650-570 B.C.) was a prophet of Judah who lived during the fall of Jerusalem at the hands of Babylon. Jeremiah authored two prophetic books—The Book of Jeremiah and Lamentations, which mourns the fall of Jerusalem to Babylon, and is why Jeremiah is often called the “weeping prophet.”
As a prophet, Jeremiah warned Judah’s kings of God’s coming judgment, but his messages led to intense opposition. His bold prophecies provoked hostility from the rulers of Judah (Jeremiah 1:18-19, 2:26, 8:1-2, 22:11-12), resulting in his being beaten and imprisoned (Jeremiah 37:15-16), thrown into a cistern (Jeremiah 38:6), and eventually exiled to Egypt (Jeremiah 42:1-7). When Judah’s rulers rejected his warnings, God allowed Babylon to conquer the land which brought an end to the rule of the kings of Judah.
Despite Jeremiah’s many proclamations of judgment, he also spoke words of hope and restoration. He prophesied that God would bring His people back from exile and bless them again (Jeremiah 29:10-14, 31:3-6, 32:37-42, 33:6-9). Jeremiah also foretold the coming of the Messiah, describing Him as a “righteous Branch” coming from the line of David who would reign with justice and righteousness (Jeremiah 23:5-6, Jeremiah 33:14-18).
Some people may have thought Jeremiah was the risen Christ because of his powerful prophecies of judgment, deliverance, and the coming of the Messiah. His role as both a stern warning voice and a herald of hope likely led some to associate him with the promised Redeemer.
Having heard the peoples’ speculations that He might be John the Baptist, Elijah, or one of the old prophets risen again, Jesus turned the question directly and personally upon His disciples.
And He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” (v 20a).
Jesus was not merely interested in public opinion. He wanted to know what His closest followers believed about Him. This shift forced them to move beyond secondhand reports and confront the deepest convictions of their own hearts. It was no longer enough to recount what others said—they had to declare for themselves who they believed Jesus to be.
Their answer would reveal their heart.
By asking this question, Jesus invited His disciples into a moment of personal confession and commitment. Faith in Him could not remain abstract or detached, if His disciples were to truly know Him and embrace everything He had in store for their lives. It had to be owned.
Jesus’s question pierced through the noise of public opinion and placed their relationship with Him at the center. Throughout His ministry, Jesus often pressed people to respond personally to Him—not simply to admire His miracles or teachings, but to recognize His identity and authority (as in John 11:25-26, where He asked Martha, “Do you believe this?”). His question—“But who do you say that I am?”—demanded the same kind of personal response.
Jesus was seeking in His disciples a quality of a faith that acknowledges Him for who He truly is.
This question also carried profound implications for their future mission. How they answered would shape everything about their willingness to follow Him, suffer for Him, and proclaim Him. If they truly understood who He was, then their lives would no longer be their own.
Jesus’s question was not an academic inquiry but a spiritual turning point. By directly asking His disciples to tell Him who they believed He was, Jesus was calling His followers to stand apart from the crowd and stake their lives on their confession of Him.
Jesus’s question: “But who do you say that I am?” may be the most significant question a person can be asked. And how they respond to this question will determine everything else about their lives.
By including this moment in their Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke now present Jesus’s question directly to their readers. Through the Bible, Jesus still asks this question to everyone—including you and me.
“But who do you say that I am?”
This same question now comes to us with the same piercing weight. It is not enough to know what others believe or say about Jesus or to merely admire Him from a distance—each person must answer for themselves who they believe He is.
Your response cannot remain theoretical or borrowed from family, culture, or tradition. It is entirely your own. Just as it did for the disciples, your answer will shape the entire course of your life—what you value, how you live, and whom you follow. It will shape your eternal destiny.
Jesus is asking you, But who do you say that I am?
What is your answer to this most important question?
Your response will either place you among the people who wondered about Him, or among those who believe Him to be God and receive the Gift of Eternal Life and who confess Him as Lord and stake their lives upon Him to inherit the Prize of Eternal Life.
Jesus’s disciple Peter answers his Rabbi’s question:
And Peter answered and said, “The Christ of God” (v 20b).
Peter, with characteristic confidence answered Jesus’s question about who he thought Jesus was: “The Christ of God.” In this bold confession, Peter professes Jesus is far more than a prophet, teacher, or even a powerful miracle worker, He is the promised Messiah of God.
The word Christ is the English translation of the Greek term “Christos,” which itself is translated from the Hebrew word “Mashiach,” meaning “Anointed One.” In English, “Mashiach” is rendered as “Messiah.” So when Peter called Jesus the Christ, he was declaring Him to be the “Anointed One,” the long-awaited Messiah.
Throughout the Old Testament, the LORD repeatedly promised to send a Christ/Messiah who would:
Teach God’s Law (Deuteronomy 18:15, 18:18-19)
Fulfill and Establish God’s Law (Psalm 40:7-8, Isaiah 42:1, 42:3-4)
Redeem His people from their Sin (Isaiah 53:11-12, Daniel 9:24)
Institute a New and Better Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-33, Malachi 3:1)
Be a Godly King (Psalm 2:6-8, Isaiah 9:6-7, Jeremiah 23:5-6)
Bring Prosperity and Salvation to Israel (Isaiah 61:1-2, Zechariah 9:9)
Suffer for Israel’s Behalf (Psalm 22,Isaiah 53)
Save the Entire World (Isaiah 49:6, 53:11-12)
The LORD promised through Isaiah that the Messiah would thrive:
“Behold, My Servant will prosper, He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted.” (Isaiah 52:13)
And Israel’s hope and understanding was that their prosperity and exaltation would come through the Messiah and His success.
Peter’s reply, “The Christ of God,” indicated that he believed that Jesus was this promised Messiah sent from God.
Mark’s account of Peter’s answer to Jesus’s question, But who do you say that I am?, slightly varies. In the Gospel of Mark, Peter responds: “You are the Christ” (Mark 8:29). Mark appears to simplify Peter’s answer for His Roman audience, who appreciate basic answers. It is understood that the Christ came/was sent from/is ofGod.
Matthew’s account, however, gives the most complete record of Peter’s answer. Matthew records Peter as replying: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). It is from Matthew’s account that we see that Peter not only confessed that Jesus was the Messiah—the Christ—but also that Jesus was the Son of God—God in human form.
Matthew goes on to detail Jesus’s praise of Peter for his confession, exclaiming:
“And Jesus said to him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.’” (Matthew 16:17-19)
Neither Luke nor Mark include this part of Jesus’s response to Peter’s confession in their accounts. We will not take the time to comment on all of this in detail here, but it is worth mentioning that Peter learned this because God the Father revealed it to him (Matthew 16:17).
While Luke (and Mark) skip Jesus’s compliment of Peter and His teaching that followed, they do include Jesus’s instruction to His disciples in response to Peter’s answer. Luke writes:
“But He warned them and instructed them not to tell this to anyone,” (v 21)
After Peter correctly identified Jesus as the Christ, Jesus warned the disciplesnot to tell anyone about this revelation. Jesus’s instruction infers that Peter’s belief that Jesus was in fact the Christ of God was correct.
The command to keep His identity quiet was not a denial of His role, but a matter of timing. Jesus was on a divine schedule, orchestrated to culminate in His death and resurrection at Passover (John 2:4; 7:6-8). In God’s plan, the timing was not correct for Jesus’s identity as the Messiah to be openly declared by His followers. Instead, people were meant to come to recognize who Jesus was through other means—such as witnessing His works and hearing His words (John 14:11).
There are several possible reasons why Jesus chose to remain Messianically and divinely anonymous.
One reason may have been to fulfill prophecy that the Christ was to be revealed spiritually to those who were truly seeking Him, as discussed in connection with Matthew 13:10-17.
Another reason may have been to shift people away from their assumptions and expectations about what the Messiah would be like, guiding them instead to a new understanding rooted in His actions and teaching.
It is also possible that Jesus was protecting His disciples from premature conflict until the time was right.
Jesus may have had some other reasons for forbidding His disciplesto tell anyone about His Messianic and divine identity. Whatever His reasons, it was only after the cross and resurrection that Jesus sent His disciples into the world to proclaim Him openly (Matthew 28:18-20).
Luke 9:18-21
18 And it happened that while He was praying alone, the disciples were with Him, and He questioned them, saying, “Who do the people say that I am?”
19 They answered and said, “John the Baptist, and others say Elijah; but others, that one of the prophets of old has risen again.”
20 And He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” And Peter answered and said, “The Christ of God.”
21 But He warned them and instructed them not to tell this to anyone,
Set to dark mode
Luke 9:18-21 meaning
The parallel Gospel accounts for Luke 9:18-21 are Matthew 16:13-20 and Mark 8:27-30.
In Luke 9:18-21, Jesus prays alone with His disciples, asks them who the crowds say He is, receives Peter’s confession that He is the Christ of God, and then warns them not to tell anyone.
And it happened that while He was praying alone, the disciples were with Him (v 18a).
The Gospel of Luke last placed Jesus and His disciples in a desolate area near the city of Bethsaida on the northern shores of the Sea of Galilee where Jesus performed a notable miracle, feeding a crowd of over five thousand people by multiplying five loaves of bread and two fish (Luke 9:12-17).
It appears that instead of telling us what happened next, Luke transitions to a conversation between Jesus and His disciples without mentioning other events that took place between the feeding of the five thousand and the conversation that unfolds here in Luke 9:18-21.
The events from Jesus’s life that Luke seems to omit here include:
(Matthew 14:22-33, Mark 6:45-52, John 6:15-21)
(Matthew 14:34-36, Mark 6:53-56, John 6:22-71)
(Matthew 15:21-28)
(Matthew 15:32-39, Mark 8:1-10)
For instance, the Gospels of Matthew and Mark (and later John) will all describe how Jesus walked on water the evening after Jesus fed the five thousand (Matthew 14:22-33, Mark 6:45-52, John 6:15-21). Luke on the other hand does not describe Jesus’s walking on the water, here or anywhere else in his account.
Instead of describing Christ’s walking on the water, Luke moves on to a different part of his narrative by using the stock transitional phrase translated as: And it happened…. This phrase comes from the Greek phrase καὶ ἐγένετο (pronounced “kai eh-gen-eh-tó”). Older English translations sometimes render this phrase: “And it came to pass…”
This transitional phrase—And it happened—is the only indicator Luke provides to signal the passage of time and change of setting.
Normally, Luke writes with greater historical clarity and chronological precision, as this was part of his stated purpose for writing this account of Jesus’s life (Luke 1:3-4). Luke was aware of the Gospels of Matthew and Mark (Luke 1:1-2) and the things their narratives said Jesus did. This would have included His walking on the water.
Therefore, the fact that Luke omits material from Jesus’s life at this moment which the Gospels of Matthew and Mark (and later John) include is noteworthy and likely deliberate.
One of Luke’s purposes for possibly skipping over Jesus’s walking on the water is because he knew that the other Gospels had already sufficiently presented this miracle.
Another purpose Luke may have had for omitting this is that he was trying to connect the actions and statements of Jesus recorded here in Luke 9:18-21 with something Luke had recently described. And if Luke included the additional events that happened between Luke 9:12-17 and Luke 9:18:21 then this connection would be less firm and more likely to be missed by his readers.
This connection could be that Jesus finally was able to get the solitude He was seeking. Recall how Jesus “withdrew by Himself to… Bethsaida” (Luke 9:10). But the crowds would not leave Him alone—they even followed Him to a desolate place outside of town (Luke 9:11, 12).
Now here in verse 18, in what may have been the first moment He was alone with His disciples since they first regrouped from their missionary journeys (Luke 9:10), Jesus was praying alone and the disciples were with Him. Mark indicates that one of the reasons Jesus travelled to the region of Tyre was to be alone, yet even in this non-Jewish province “He could not escape notice” (Mark 7:24). After this, it is plausible that Jesus had a similar motive for traveling to the Decapolis, but another large crowd greeted Him there also.
While Luke may have had other reasons for omitting these well-known and already recorded events from his narrative of Jesus, Luke’s omission of these events helps his readers make the connection that at long last Jesus finally found the solitude He was seeking.
And it happened that while He was praying alone, the disciples were with Him, and He questioned them, saying, “Who do the people say that I am?” (v 18).
According to Matthew and Mark, this time of solitude with His disciples and the discussion that came from it (or a similar one to Luke 9:18-21) took place in the Roman district of Caesarea Philippi.
Caesarea Philippi, the capital city of the district of Gaulanitis, was located approximately 25 miles north of the Sea of Galilee. As the northernmost territory of the Promised Land, it had a history of pagan worship even when belonging to the Israelites (Judges 18:6, 1 Kings 12:28-31).
In Jesus’s time, Caesarea Philippi was steeped in Roman paganism. From 334 B.C-175 B.C. the Greeks occupied and renamed the city Paneas, dedicating it to their fertility god Pan. Pan worship took place at a cave named the Gates of Hades and entailed sacrifice and bestiality.
After the Roman conquest in 63 B.C., Herod the Great constructed a temple dedicated to Caesar Augustus at the entrance to the Gates of Hades. The son of Herod the Great, Philip, was given charge over this land, renaming it Caesarea Philippi and constructing another temple and courtyards to facilitate pagan worship.
When Jesus said “the gates of Hades will not overpower” His church (Matthew 16:18) He was likely alluding to this pagan temple as a symbol of ungodly culture that is antithetical to His church and kingdom.
It is unlikely that Jesus and His disciples directly visited the temples since doing so would render a Jew ceremonially unclean, the backdrop would provide an important visual as Jesus questioned His disciples about their understanding of who He really was.
While Jesus was praying alone with His disciples, He asked them a question about His identity. He began by asking them: “Who do the people say that I am?”
In this context, the people refer to the people of Israel. Jesus was asking His disciples for their take on who the people of Israel thought or said who He was.
There is an interesting difference in how the Gospels record Jesus’s question. Instead of asking: “Who do the people say that I am?” as recorded by Mark (Mark 8:27b) and Luke (v 18b), Matthew records Jesus as asking His disciples: “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” (Matthew 16:13b).
In Mark and Luke, Jesus is quoted as using the first-person expression: I am (Mark 8:29, Luke 9:18) as He directly refers to Himself. But in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus is quoted as using the third person and Messianic title “the Son of Man” (Matthew 16:13b) to more subtly refer to Himself.
The likely reason for the differences in these two expressions is because of the different intended audiences for each Gospel.
Matthew’s Gospel, which was written for a Jewish audience, records Jesus as referring to Himself indirectly and with the Messianic title “the Son of Man” (Matthew 16:13b). (See The Bible Says article: “Son of Man?”). The Jews would have appreciated both the subtle nuance of the indirect self-reference and they would have understood the Messianic implications.
Mark and Luke’s Gospels, which were written for Gentile audiences, record Jesus’s self-reference with straightforward expression: I am (Mark 8:27, Luke 9:18). This simplicity would make it clear to their respective Roman (Mark) and Greek (Luke) readers that Jesus was referring to Himself in this question. Had they used Matthew’s language then it would have been easier for their audiences to not realize that Jesus was asking about Himself.
Both recordings are accurate in what they express. But because Jesus was Jewish, He likely used language and expressions that were more Jewish than Greek when He spoke, especially teaching His Jewish disciples. (See The Bible Says article: “The Four Languages of Jesus’s Judea”).
Jesus’s question touched on His reputation: “Who do the people say that I am?”
At this point in Jesus’s ministry (probably 2 years into it), His message had spread far and wide throughout Israel. He had performed multiple miracles in the presence of thousands of witnesses. He had taught the Gospel of the kingdom to multitudes. And He had publicly clashed with and been challenged by the religious leaders.
He was asking His disciples, who had recently traveled throughout Israel with His message (Luke 9:1-6) what the people thought about Him and His identity?
Luke records the disciples’ response:
They answered and said, “John the Baptist, and others say Elijah; but others, that one of the prophets of old has risen again” (v 19).
The disciples provided three of the popular opinions amongst the people as to His identity—
All three of these responses were similar to the speculations of Jesus’s identity that were reported to Herod earlier in this chapter:
“Now Herod the tetrarch heard of all that was happening; and he was greatly perplexed, because it was said by some that John had risen from the dead, and by some that Elijah had appeared, and by others that one of the prophets of old had risen again.”
(Luke 9:7-8)
The first person the disciples told Jesus who some people believed Him to be was the recently executed John the Baptist “risen from the dead” (Luke 9:7b).
John the Baptist was the Messianic forerunner (Luke 1:17) and Jesus’s cousin (Luke 1:36).
Herod the Tetrarch had imprisoned John (Matthew 11:2, Luke 3:20) and recently had him beheaded at the request of his niece (Matthew 14:1-2, Mark 6:14-29, Luke 9:9).
Before his execution, John was a fiery preacher who wore unusual clothing and proclaimed a bold message, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2). John attracted large crowds to the district surrounding the Jordan River, where he baptized people and called them to repentance for the forgiveness of their sins (Matthew 3:5-6, Luke 3:3). Many wondered if John was more than just a prophet—possibly even the Christ (Matthew 11:9, Luke 3:15). But John explicitly denied this, stating that he was not the Christ (Luke 3:16-17, John 1:20). Instead, John identified himself as the forerunner foretold in Scripture—the one sent to prepare the way for the Lord (Isaiah 40:3, 3:1, John 1:23).
To learn more about John, see The Bible Says article: “Why Did Jesus Call John the Baptist Great?”
A second response the disciples told Jesus that the people gave as to who He might be was the prophet Elijah.
Elijah (c. 900-850 B.C.) was a prominent prophet in the northern kingdom of Israel during the reign of the wicked King Ahab.
Elijah was known for performing powerful miracles in God’s name—such as predicting the start and end of a three-year famine (1 Kings 17:1; 18:41), raising a widow’s son from the dead (1 Kings 17:17-24), and parting the waters of the Jordan River (2 Kings 2:8). Elijah’s most famous miracle was his dramatic showdown with 450 prophets of Baal, when he called on God to send fire from heaven to consume a water-soaked altar (1 Kings 18:19-40).
According to 2 Kings, Elijah never died—instead, he was taken to heaven in a whirlwind (2 Kings 2:11). Therefore, when Elijah returns, he will not be risen from the dead. This is likely why Elijah is described as having appeared and not as risen from the dead.
Beyond prophesying a forerunner to the Messiah, the prophet Malachi also foretold Elijah’s return along with some strong Messianic wording in the final verses of the Old Testament:
"Remember the Law of Moses My servant, even the statutes and ordinances which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel. Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse."
(Malachi 4:4-6)
Malachi prophesied that Elijah will return before the coming of the “great and terrible day of the Lord” (Malachi 4:5), signaling the arrival of the Messiah and a time of spiritual renewal and restoration. This prophecy fueled the popular expectation that Elijah would return as a sign of the Messiah’s arrival, or that Elijah himself would be the long-awaited Messiah.
The third thing the disciples told Jesus that the people said about His identity was that He was a prophet of old risen again.
A prophet of old refers to one of the prophets from the era when God spoke to Israel through the prophets, beginning with Moses and ending with Malachi. After Malachi (~ 430 B.C.) there were over four centuries of prophetic silence. God did not send a prophet to Israel until He sent John the Baptist (Luke 1:13-17, John 1:6-8).
The people who said Jesus was a prophet of old did not think that Jesus was John the Baptist nor Elijah—but a different prophet from that old bygone era.
Some of these people presumably knew that Jesus was not John the Baptist, because many of them had likely seen and may even have interacted with both men. Therefore, they knew them to be different individuals, and that Jesus was not and could not be John the Baptist.
And for one reason or another that is not described, this third group of people did not think that Jesus was Elijah, re-appeared on earth, but instead they concluded that Jesus was some other prophet from the old days who had risen back to life.
In the Gospel of Matthew’s parallel account of this event (Matthew 16:14), the disciples mention the prophet Jeremiah as one of several other prophets of old whom the people say Jesus is.
Jeremiah (c. 650-570 B.C.) was a prophet of Judah who lived during the fall of Jerusalem at the hands of Babylon. Jeremiah authored two prophetic books—The Book of Jeremiah and Lamentations, which mourns the fall of Jerusalem to Babylon, and is why Jeremiah is often called the “weeping prophet.”
As a prophet, Jeremiah warned Judah’s kings of God’s coming judgment, but his messages led to intense opposition. His bold prophecies provoked hostility from the rulers of Judah (Jeremiah 1:18-19, 2:26, 8:1-2, 22:11-12), resulting in his being beaten and imprisoned (Jeremiah 37:15-16), thrown into a cistern (Jeremiah 38:6), and eventually exiled to Egypt (Jeremiah 42:1-7). When Judah’s rulers rejected his warnings, God allowed Babylon to conquer the land which brought an end to the rule of the kings of Judah.
Despite Jeremiah’s many proclamations of judgment, he also spoke words of hope and restoration. He prophesied that God would bring His people back from exile and bless them again (Jeremiah 29:10-14, 31:3-6, 32:37-42, 33:6-9). Jeremiah also foretold the coming of the Messiah, describing Him as a “righteous Branch” coming from the line of David who would reign with justice and righteousness (Jeremiah 23:5-6, Jeremiah 33:14-18).
Some people may have thought Jeremiah was the risen Christ because of his powerful prophecies of judgment, deliverance, and the coming of the Messiah. His role as both a stern warning voice and a herald of hope likely led some to associate him with the promised Redeemer.
Having heard the peoples’ speculations that He might be John the Baptist, Elijah, or one of the old prophets risen again, Jesus turned the question directly and personally upon His disciples.
And He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” (v 20a).
Jesus was not merely interested in public opinion. He wanted to know what His closest followers believed about Him. This shift forced them to move beyond secondhand reports and confront the deepest convictions of their own hearts. It was no longer enough to recount what others said—they had to declare for themselves who they believed Jesus to be.
Their answer would reveal their heart.
By asking this question, Jesus invited His disciples into a moment of personal confession and commitment. Faith in Him could not remain abstract or detached, if His disciples were to truly know Him and embrace everything He had in store for their lives. It had to be owned.
Jesus’s question pierced through the noise of public opinion and placed their relationship with Him at the center. Throughout His ministry, Jesus often pressed people to respond personally to Him—not simply to admire His miracles or teachings, but to recognize His identity and authority (as in John 11:25-26, where He asked Martha, “Do you believe this?”). His question—“But who do you say that I am?”—demanded the same kind of personal response.
Jesus was seeking in His disciples a quality of a faith that acknowledges Him for who He truly is.
This question also carried profound implications for their future mission. How they answered would shape everything about their willingness to follow Him, suffer for Him, and proclaim Him. If they truly understood who He was, then their lives would no longer be their own.
Jesus’s question was not an academic inquiry but a spiritual turning point. By directly asking His disciples to tell Him who they believed He was, Jesus was calling His followers to stand apart from the crowd and stake their lives on their confession of Him.
Jesus’s question: “But who do you say that I am?” may be the most significant question a person can be asked. And how they respond to this question will determine everything else about their lives.
By including this moment in their Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke now present Jesus’s question directly to their readers. Through the Bible, Jesus still asks this question to everyone—including you and me.
“But who do you say that I am?”
This same question now comes to us with the same piercing weight. It is not enough to know what others believe or say about Jesus or to merely admire Him from a distance—each person must answer for themselves who they believe He is.
Your response cannot remain theoretical or borrowed from family, culture, or tradition. It is entirely your own. Just as it did for the disciples, your answer will shape the entire course of your life—what you value, how you live, and whom you follow. It will shape your eternal destiny.
Jesus is asking you, But who do you say that I am?
What is your answer to this most important question?
Your response will either place you among the people who wondered about Him, or among those who believe Him to be God and receive the Gift of Eternal Life and who confess Him as Lord and stake their lives upon Him to inherit the Prize of Eternal Life.
Jesus’s disciple Peter answers his Rabbi’s question:
And Peter answered and said, “The Christ of God” (v 20b).
Peter, with characteristic confidence answered Jesus’s question about who he thought Jesus was: “The Christ of God.” In this bold confession, Peter professes Jesus is far more than a prophet, teacher, or even a powerful miracle worker, He is the promised Messiah of God.
The word Christ is the English translation of the Greek term “Christos,” which itself is translated from the Hebrew word “Mashiach,” meaning “Anointed One.” In English, “Mashiach” is rendered as “Messiah.” So when Peter called Jesus the Christ, he was declaring Him to be the “Anointed One,” the long-awaited Messiah.
Throughout the Old Testament, the LORD repeatedly promised to send a Christ/Messiah who would:
(Deuteronomy 18:15, 18:18-19)
(Psalm 40:7-8, Isaiah 42:1, 42:3-4)
(Isaiah 53:11-12, Daniel 9:24)
(Jeremiah 31:31-33, Malachi 3:1)
(Psalm 2:6-8, Isaiah 9:6-7, Jeremiah 23:5-6)
(Isaiah 61:1-2, Zechariah 9:9)
(Psalm 22, Isaiah 53)
(Isaiah 49:6, 53:11-12)
The LORD promised through Isaiah that the Messiah would thrive:
“Behold, My Servant will prosper, He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted.”
(Isaiah 52:13)
And Israel’s hope and understanding was that their prosperity and exaltation would come through the Messiah and His success.
Peter’s reply, “The Christ of God,” indicated that he believed that Jesus was this promised Messiah sent from God.
Mark’s account of Peter’s answer to Jesus’s question, But who do you say that I am?, slightly varies. In the Gospel of Mark, Peter responds: “You are the Christ” (Mark 8:29). Mark appears to simplify Peter’s answer for His Roman audience, who appreciate basic answers. It is understood that the Christ came/was sent from/is of God.
Matthew’s account, however, gives the most complete record of Peter’s answer. Matthew records Peter as replying: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). It is from Matthew’s account that we see that Peter not only confessed that Jesus was the Messiah—the Christ—but also that Jesus was the Son of God—God in human form.
Matthew goes on to detail Jesus’s praise of Peter for his confession, exclaiming:
“And Jesus said to him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.’”
(Matthew 16:17-19)
Neither Luke nor Mark include this part of Jesus’s response to Peter’s confession in their accounts. We will not take the time to comment on all of this in detail here, but it is worth mentioning that Peter learned this because God the Father revealed it to him (Matthew 16:17).
See The Bible Says commentary for Matthew 16:17-19 to read more about the meaning of Jesus’s words.
While Luke (and Mark) skip Jesus’s compliment of Peter and His teaching that followed, they do include Jesus’s instruction to His disciples in response to Peter’s answer. Luke writes:
“But He warned them and instructed them not to tell this to anyone,” (v 21)
After Peter correctly identified Jesus as the Christ, Jesus warned the disciples not to tell anyone about this revelation. Jesus’s instruction infers that Peter’s belief that Jesus was in fact the Christ of God was correct.
The command to keep His identity quiet was not a denial of His role, but a matter of timing. Jesus was on a divine schedule, orchestrated to culminate in His death and resurrection at Passover (John 2:4; 7:6-8). In God’s plan, the timing was not correct for Jesus’s identity as the Messiah to be openly declared by His followers. Instead, people were meant to come to recognize who Jesus was through other means—such as witnessing His works and hearing His words (John 14:11).
There are several possible reasons why Jesus chose to remain Messianically and divinely anonymous.
One reason may have been to fulfill prophecy that the Christ was to be revealed spiritually to those who were truly seeking Him, as discussed in connection with Matthew 13:10-17.
Another reason may have been to shift people away from their assumptions and expectations about what the Messiah would be like, guiding them instead to a new understanding rooted in His actions and teaching.
It is also possible that Jesus was protecting His disciples from premature conflict until the time was right.
Jesus may have had some other reasons for forbidding His disciples to tell anyone about His Messianic and divine identity. Whatever His reasons, it was only after the cross and resurrection that Jesus sent His disciples into the world to proclaim Him openly (Matthew 28:18-20).