8:27
We now come to the famous section where Jesus asks the disciples “Who do the people say I am?” Why does He ask this? We know that later He will ask Peter “Who do you say that I am?”. Perhaps it is to get the disciples to realise the difference between the way the people in general perceive who Jesus is, and who He actually is. Also the array of different perceptions of Jesus, and that the people really do not have a clue. We need to understand that the world does not see Jesus in the same way that we do. They are not right in their perceptions (at least for the most part), but we do need to appreciate the situation.
8:28
The variety of views included John the Baptist, Elijah, and one of the prophets. All these are related to pointing to the Messiah, not actually being the Messiah. We saw earlier that Herod thought Jesus was John the Baptist, this being borne out of guilt. Malachi speaks of Elijah coming to prepare the way for the Messiah. The people did recognise that there was something special about Jesus, but did not know precisely what it was.
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