and so what you have here
is jesus saying in effect i'm going to
take satan's domain where he lives the
lord of the dead and i'm going to turn
it into his own tomb
i'm going to empty the place out
[Music]
and i have a lot to say about this in
unseen realm so i'm not going to
rehearse all the content here
but this is peter's confession now when
jesus came into the district of caesarea
philippi we'll look at where that is
geographically in a moment
he asked his disciples who do people say
that the son of man is
and they said some say john the baptist
others say elijah and others jeremiah
one of the prophets i mean everybody's
guessing he said to them but who do you
say that i am and simon peter replied
you are the christ the son of the living
god
and jesus answered him blessed are you
simon barjona son of jonah for flesh and
blood has not revealed this to you but
my father who is in heaven and i tell
you
you are peter
and on this rock i will build my church
and the gates of hell again if you hover
over esv it has a little note there
gates of hades this is the underworld
shall not prevail against it i will give
you the keys of the kingdom of heaven
whatever you bind on earth so that you
bind in heaven binding and losing is
actually a reference to exorcism i spent
a whole episode of my podcast on that if
you wanted to get into that content you
can just listen to the podcast
but let's go back here what we have here
is
a location of caesarea philippi
it's known later i mean it's known by a
number of names where this with a
confession the peter rock you know uh
passage occurs it's also known as banyas
or ponies the grotto of pan
later on in jesus day this references to
the diction my book on demons
it's associated with
baal in the old testament adjacent to
this there was a baal cult baal is lord
of the dead the underworld this is
baal's role in canaanite religion so you
have a matrix of ideas here you also
have
you know bashan is actually an important
term let me just show you a map here
we'll get into some of this material a
little bit later in other sessions of
the class so i don't want to skip ahead
too far
but here's caesarea philippi at the top
this is where this scene occurs also
known as banyas or ponies
you'll notice in galilee this is upper
and lower galilee or on this side
on this side this whole region
this whole region actually going down it
includes edrai and asteroth is not on
this map but this whole region is bashan
in the old testament
okay here's asteroth edrai sea of
galilee this map let's go back to the
first map
here's sea of galilee here's edrai
if we go down a little bit asteroth
eddre this is all part of bashan
okay in the old testament this is the
region where joshua and moses went up on
the on the other side of the jordan
heading to bashan to what to get rid of
the last vestiges of the giant clans in
that area the rephaim
this is their turf or was their turf in
the old testament
so if you take a look at this caesarea
philippi
there's the rock
okay when when jesus is standing in this
place
and he says
you're peter and upon this rock i will
build my church this is the grotto of
pan
this is banias ponies
this is
in their thinking both in the canaanite
world asteroth and edry
were gateways to the netherworld
this is again adjacent to a cult of baal
the god of the underworld
this is what he's talking it's hard to
miss the rock
okay if you're standing there
upon this rock i will build my church
you know basically jesus saying
i'm going to reverse
death
i'm going to be the cure for death
i'm going to turn satan's dominion the
lord of the dead but elsa bull the new
testament term for satan it means prince
baal ba'al zabol
he is god of the dead lord of the dead
this is how this is why baal you know
becomes a satan figure because satan as
the result of his rebellion
is lord of the dead everything dies
everything winds up on his doorstep as
it were
and jesus is saying well i'm here to
preach the kingdom of god and upon this
rock i'm going to build my church
and the gates of hell
are not going to be able to withstand it
now you might have noticed the subtle
difference in my translation there
and i'll show you why here
because
this is the place upon this rock
and it's hard to miss now esv has
the gates of hell or hades shall not
prevail against it this is a screenshot
from the interlinear that i use in logos
you'll notice against has no right here
against it it has no greek word
that means in the english translation
against it
isn't really based on the greek text
there is no preposition here that means
against that's a translator
attempt to capture what's in the greek
rather
rather there's a better way to translate
this
and that is the gates of hell will not
be able to withstand it the verb used
there
stand against can also be withstand and
then you don't need the preposition the
gates of hell will not be able to
withstand it and so what you have here
is jesus saying in effect i'm going to
take satan's domain where he lives the
lord of the dead and i'm going to turn
it into his own tomb
i'm going to empty the place out
and if you
were faithful to yahweh in the old
testament you are not you know you're
going to be delivered from death
okay this is your reward you're going to
be delivered from death if you're a
follower of me because i am yahweh
incarnate
and you align yourself with me your
believing loyalty is with me you will
not
have everlasting death you're not going
to be in there in the realm of the dead
the curse of death is reversed
for you
and he goes to
the gates of the
underworld in his ministry in bashan
which as we'll find out in a later
session was also associated with
serpents place of the serpent
he goes to bashan which is already
associated with the underworld and baal
and zeus and pan and all these you know
these other deities
and says it's going to be right here
right on top of the underworld i'm going
to overturn i'm going to bury
the underworld i'm going to nullify it
i'm going to reverse it
you know he picks this place to say
these things
and so it's significant
the conversation is significant against
the backdrop that the disciples have in
their head about this place
they know what it is they know it's
history both old testament and more
recent
and jesus takes them to this place to
have this conversation because he's the
one who provokes it who do men say that
i am
and then you know they get a few answers
and who do you think i am
you know peter says thou art you know
you're the son of the living
god
which is significant as well i mean if
we we could rabbit trade on this too
you know john at one point
jesus gets a new debate with the
sadducees who deny the resurrection they
want to know you know they ask him some
stupid question about a woman gets
divorced seven times like whose wife is
she
basically to make fun of the
resurrection talk and jesus looks at
them and says you do air not knowing the
scriptures or the power of god and he
quotes the exodus 3 passage
you know the i am that i am the burning
bush and he says god is the god of the
living not the dead he's the god of
abraham isaac and jacob he is the god of
the living not the dead you know what
that suggests
it suggests that abraham isaac and jacob
are alive
this is from jesus own mouth
you know
there there's just a lot of this stuff
going on in the gospels
that
it's targeted rebuke
it's targeted theological rebuke
but to appreciate it again sometimes you
need to know the setting and the
theological backdrop to it