The “Gates of Hades”
Now when Jesus came into the parts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his
disciples, saying, Who do men say that the Son of man is? And they said, Some say John the Baptist;
some, Elijah; and others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But who say ye that I
am? And Simon Peter answered and said,
Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jonah:
for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father who is in
heaven. And I also say unto thee, that
thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of
Hades shall not prevail against it.
I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever
thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt
loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Then charged he the disciples that they should tell no man that he was
the Christ. (Matt. 16:13-20)[1]
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Let it be suggested that when He used the expression “gates of Hades”
in Matt. 16:18, Jesus was referring metaphorically to Jerusalem. The passage is often understood more
literally to refer to the gated realm of the dead, and to this realm as a power
that comes against the church offensively but is ultimately unable to prevail
against it.
The literal sense of this expression, found only here in the Gospels, is
found in Job 17:16; 38:17; Ps. 9:13, 107:18; Is. 38:10 and
in noncanonical sources, Wis. Sol. 16:13; 3 Macc. 5:51; Pss.
Sol. 16:2 and is also found in pagan literature such as Homer, Aeschylus,
and Euripedes.[2] In this sense, as Carson notes, “gates of
Hades” seems to connote meanings of death and dying. Jesus will build His church of mortal people,
yet [their] deaths and dying will not prevail against the church so as to
destroy it. Again, “gates of Hades” is
often taken as an offensive force that comes against the church bent on
destruction. However, even with the more
literal meaning and sense, one could also understand the “gates” as a defensive
barricade that “will not prevail” against the militant evangelistic mission of
the church. And it does seem much more
natural to see “gates” with a defensive function, rather than with an offensive
one. When have gates ever attacked
anyone or anything?
The interpretation adopted here favors a
defensive understanding of the “gates” and understands Jesus to mean that He
will build His church, and Jerusalem will be unable to prevail against its
advance against its fortifications.
Jeremiah in Matthew’s Gospel
The identification by Peter, of Jesus as Messiah, is found in Matthew,
Mark, and Luke. Curiously, to answer the
question, “Who do men say that the Son of man is?” only Matthew mentions
Jeremiah. And, in the NT, the prophet Jeremiah
is mentioned only four times, and three of these are by Matthew (the other is
in Hebrews). Matthew places the Jeremiah
quotations at the beginning and end of his Gospel, and the one in 16:18 between them.
In 2:17, Matthew refers to Jeremiah’s description of “Rachel,
weeping for her children” in the story of the “slaughter of the
innocents.” The reference is drawn from
Jeremiah’s “Book of Consolation” (chs. 30-31).
In 1 Sam. 10:2f., Ramah is said to be the site of Rachel’s
tomb. John Bright[3]
writes, “Jeremiah imagines the spirit of the mother of Joseph’s tribes
(Ephraim) haunting her tomb, weeping for her children who had been deported by
the Assyrians one hundred years earlier (721).”
Frederick Bruner[4]
understands Matthew’s reference from Jeremiah, not so much as predicting
Herod’s murder of innocent children in his attempt to kill Jesus, but rather as
yet another episode, so sadly oft-repeated in history, that prompts the
mourning of the community of God’s people.
These too are Rachel’s children, however distant in the future, precious
but fragile human treasure callously destroyed by satanically-driven political
forces. Herod (Jewish only as a
political expedient) gets the intelligence data from both pagan and Jewish
practitioners to determine which babies to kill to eliminate a rival king, and Rachel weeps. The encounter occurs in Jerusalem between Herod and both the Magi and the Jewish religious intelligentsia.
In 27:9, Judas pays 30 pieces of silver as the blood-money to condemn
Jesus. Matthew adds, “Then was
fulfilled that which was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet, saying, And they
took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was priced, whom
certain of the children of Israel did price; and they gave them for the
potter's field, as the Lord appointed me.”
The villain in the slaughter of the innocents had been Herod; the
villain in the slaughter of the Innocent is now Judas. Like the babies of Bethlehem, Jesus becomes
the helpless victim of ruthless political forces that stand obstinately and
formidably against the purposes of God.
As in the earlier Jeremiah reference, political forces co-opt religious
forces in an attempt to kill Jesus. The
treachery of Judas succeeds where that of Herod had failed. This act of treachery also occurs in Jerusalem.
Let it be suggested that Matthew’s middle mention of Jeremiah (in
16:14) also enters the same conceptual battle between God and anti-God
political forces. In the climactic
moment of the disclosure of Jesus’ truest identity, the prophet Jeremiah is set
forth as one possible option some have suggested as this identity (again, no
other Gospel includes this possibility besides Matthew). Peter gives the better answer regarding
Jesus’ identity as “the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matt.
16:16) and Jesus validates this as a revelation from Heaven. After the famous commendation of Peter as
“the Rock”, Jesus then discloses the future building of His church and insists
that “the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”
A political/governmental meaning is subtly
suggested not only contextually, by the outer mentions of Jeremiah in
the First Gospel, but also suggested intertextually, by meanings
lodged within the book of Jeremiah.
The “gates of Jerusalem” in Jeremiah
Jeremiah prophesies through the waning days of the Davidic dynasty,
through the destruction of Jerusalem, and into the Exile—and these calamities
eventuate as the wrathful judgment of God falls against and upon His chosen
people, who have broken and forsaken the covenant. He is presented, through his self-effacing
lack of self-esteem that prohibits his willing acceptance of God’s commission,
to be a prophet like Moses. In
Jeremiah’s inaugural vision in 1:15, Jeremiah sees a boiling cauldron facing
from the North. Evil is to be poured
upon Israel from all of the northern enemies, who will set their thrones “at
the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all the walls
thereof round about, and against all the cities of Judah.” Jeremiah is to stand strong in this
message against them, as God brings judgment for the way they have forsaken Him
and engaged false worship. If they honor
Yahweh in Sabbath, they will have a Davidic king (22:4). Jeremiah is assured, “And they shall fight
against thee; but they shall not prevail (Heb. “yakōl”; LXX
“dunwntai”) against thee: for I am with thee, saith Jehovah, to deliver
thee” (1:19).
In 17:19-27, the “gates” are the focal point of Sabbath observance, as
people truck their wares for commerce.
God declares, “But if ye will not hearken unto me to hallow the
sabbath day, and not to bear a burden and enter in at the gates of Jerusalem on
the sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall
devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched” (17:27).
What is interesting here is that wicked Pagan political
foes are sent in the employ of Yahweh against His own people for the purpose of
executing His judgment against them.
The pagans set their “thrones” at the gates of Jerusalem (which Jesus referred
to as “the city of the great King”, the very footstool for the throne of
God in Heaven, Matt. 5:35), but the gates are no safeguard against the
wrath of God that will soon be unleashed.
Jeremiah is not to back down as he gives voice to this terrible message,
and he will be sorely resisted and opposed.
And God assures him, “And they shall fight against thee; but they
shall not prevail against thee: for I am with thee, saith Jehovah, to deliver
thee” (Jer. 1:19). The gates
are the barrier outside of which Jerusalem’s foes are ensconced upon their
thrones, and as Jeremiah dares tell of it, his foes will not prevail against
him any more than will their gates prevail against the onslaught by the
enemies from the North (Babylon).
Jesus made these pronouncements at Caesarea
Philippi, which was a complex
of paganism[5]. Interestingly, the topographical features of
this location are said to include a cave known as the “gates of Hades” and a
mountain called “the Rock.”
Jerusalem’s vulnerability to Jesus’ approach
As Jesus sets forth plans for His church, the same gates will not
“prevail” against it as those that fell before Babylonian destroyers of
Jerusalem’s temple. He ominously or
derisively calls the gates of Jerusalem the “gates of Hades.” As no other Gospel mentions Jeremiah, the
same goes for the word “church.” It
falls in Matthew both here and in the discussion of “church discipline/disfellowship”
in ch. 18. With Carson[6],
it seems best not to understand “church” in the later sense developed in the
NT, which would be rather anachronistic.
Instead, the word translated “church” in the Greek NT is also found in
the Greek OT (the Septuagint), and here it translates the Hebrew word “qāhāl”,
which means “assembly”. This came to
stand for the people of God as a community.
Thus, Jesus is speaking of the community of people He will establish
(“build”) in His role as Messiah. He and
they may be spoken of together, as one.
Thus, when Jesus enters Jerusalem, so (proleptically) do they. He/they, one community of God’s Messianic
people, will in eventual development constitute the “church” through the agency
of the apostles and of the Holy Spirit after Pentecost. When Jesus enters, Jerusalem will not prevail
against the church, the people among which He stands now as representative.
Immediately following, Jesus makes the first prediction of His passion
(16:21ff.) in these words: “From that
time began Jesus to show unto his disciples, that he must go unto Jerusalem,
and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be
killed, and the third day be raised up.”
When Peter (so soon after his triumphant answer to the “multiple
choice” question of Jesus’ true identity) challenges this as a non-acceptable
possibility, the same disciple who had just been praised as having received
revelation from the Father, revelation upon which the church would be built,
this same disciple is now castigated as “Satan.” The reason that Jesus one minute calls Peter
“the Rock” and the next minute calls him “Satan”? In Jesus’ perception: “for thou mindest not the things of God,
but the things of men” (Matt. 16:23). We might recall the final wilderness
temptation, in which Satan offers Jesus the kingdoms of the world and their
glory, if only Jesus will worship Him.
Instead, Jesus will go to Jerusalem and offer Himself (through the
criminal justice system) to the political powers.
Jesus again predicts His passion in 17:22f. and
20:17ff. (the theme also appears in 17:12; 26:2, and 26:12). The middle prediction is the least specific
regarding who will inflict suffering and death, indicating only “human
hands”. More to the point are the first
and last predictions, which implicate Jewish religious leadership (elders,
chief priests, scribes). But the final
prediction also includes a handing-over to the Gentiles. This foreshadows the complicity of Jewish
religious authority with Roman political authority that fulfills Psalm 2:
“Why do the nations rage,
And the peoples meditate a vain thing?
The kings of the earth set themselves,
And the rulers take counsel together,
Against Jehovah, and
against his anointed…”
A lexical glitch
As Jeremiah stood strong before the gates of Jerusalem, so will the
church against the “gates of Hades”. This
interpretation would be a lock if Matthew had used the same Greek word for
“prevail” as is found in the Greek translation of Jeremiah 1:19. However, Jeremiah in the Septuagint has “dunwntai” (PresActSubj
3Sng) and Matthew has “katisxusousin” (FutActInd 3Plur). Since Matthew usually worked from the LXX, it
is hard to account for the difference.
Perhaps Matthew is working from either Hebrew or Aramaic. The Hebrew for Jer. 1:19 is “yakōl”,
(BDB 3201; cognate to Aram. 3202) meaning, “be able, have power, prevail,
endure”, thus “to be able to do a thing, whether the ability be physical,
moral, constitutional, or dependent on external authority.”[7] Although the LXX employs the word “katisxuw” about
80 times, the Septuagint does not appear to ever use this word to translate the
Hebrew word “yakōl” that Jeremiah uses in 1:19. It may be worth noting that the Hebrew translation of the Greek NT[8]
for Matt. 16:18 instead uses “gābar” (BDB 1396), meaning “be strong,
mighty; compel, force; prevail over.”[9]
Although different lemmas are used between
Matthew and the LXX version of Jeremiah, both forms are translated as “prevail”
or “overcome” in most English translations. There appears to be enough semantic overlap
in the meanings of all of the Hebrew and Greek words involved in the various
texts to see them synonymously. It
certainly would have been nice to find complete lexical correspondence, but the
difference is not sufficient to counter the force of the contextual and
intertextual evidence for the interpretation offered here.
The coming judgment upon Jerusalem
After the disclosure of His status as Messianic Son of God, Jesus not
only grows more intense with predictions of His coming passion. Once Jesus arrives in the Holy City,
beginning with the temple cleansing (21:12ff.), He also sharpens rhetoric of scathing
judgment against Jerusalem. Many of the
parables could be read through rather thin veils as targets of the same barbs.
The judgment theme in Matthew began at the genealogy[10],
and by implication targets Jerusalem.
The second line of “14” features Davidic kings of Judah that ruled from
the capital of Jerusalem (the time-frame covered here would include Jeremiah’s
prophetic career). The line leads to the
final kings of the 400-year-old Davidic dynasty (the sons of Josiah) and ends
with a crash in the “deportation to Babylon.”
The major catastrophe against Jerusalem (and Temple) was so devastating that it does
not have to be mentioned. It is
apparent, by these and with other clear indications planted by Matthew within the genealogy, that
the theme of this “second line” is the descent into judgment.
History is about to repeat itself.
The condemning of Jerusalem by Jesus crescendos in chs. 23 and 24. Jesus lashes out in the twin emotions of
sadness and anger (both suggest a reaction to fear that Jesus feels deeply)
that are enunciated simply as, “Woe!” or “Alas!” The strongest denunciation of the city is
against its historical maltreatment of the prophets sent by God, a practice
that continues unabated:
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that killeth the
prophets, and stoneth them that are sent unto her! how often would I have gathered thy children
together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would
not! Behold, your house is left unto you
desolate. For I say unto you, Ye shall
not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name
of the Lord. (23:37-39)
The Temple will be left dismantled totally. Chapter 24, though its pronouncements are
cryptic and require the greatest effort in interpretation, speaks largely of
the Roman destruction that will wait only a few decades. This will be God’s doing, no less than the
Babylonian devastation had been.
Who finally “prevails”?
Jesus enters Jerusalem and His predictions are fulfilled. The King of Israel is mocked, and tortured,
and nailed to the Cross to death. Have
the Hosanna-cheering crowds whose adoration approached worship been switched to
bloodthirsty cries of “Crucify!”? And
what of that smallest circle of disciples who were so slow to “get it” during
the few years that Jesus taught, and chided, and role-modeled, and demonstrated
among them an other-realm Presence? One
had already turned on Him for 30 silvers; would Jesus’ work and mission end
with their disillusionment and His death? Had the
combined authorities of religion and politics overpowered Jesus?
Resurrection. Resurrection
appearances. A reception of outpoured
Spirit. Messages preached. Scriptures written. Converts baptized. In so short a time, like flame on dry tinder,
the Jesus movement transformed itself from a band of Jewish disciple-followers
into church. The fellowship of Jesus
crossed barriers of religion and ethnicity, growing continually. It had entered the Gates of Hades and the
gates were unable to prevail against it.
The terrible powers arrayed against Jesus threw their worst against Him,
but it was not enough. The baby that
Herod the Great tried to kill survived and advanced a mission that proved
unstoppable, even after Herod’s descendant, Herod Antipas, colluded with the
Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, to drain Jesus’ life on the Cross. The church that resulted had been built upon
Rock.
And what of Jerusalem, with the whole political complex from Temple
officials to Roman governor? For those
confidently hopeful that the judgment-threats issued by Jesus were empty, hope
was dashed when Jesus gained resurrection-life after three days in the tomb. The resulting brushfires of enthusiastic
belief among His disciples and their converts could not be quenched or
eliminated. A few decades would pass,
and tension grew between the Roman overlords and Jewish agitators who refused
to turn the other cheek. The resulting
Jewish War (from 66 to 73 AD) brought the crushing Roman military power against
the Jewish people, who suffered terribly, and against the Jerusalem Temple,
which was destroyed in 70 AD. The
Judgment predicted by Jesus had fallen, and for those with eyes to see, Jesus
had returned in fulfillment of Matt. 24:29-35.[11]
The tale carries terrible irony.
Jesus came to Jerusalem without military/political force. He was a man without army, riding a
donkey. And He submitted himself to the
military/political powers seated in the Holy City. And they did to Him what such powers tend to
do. Such brutal encounters almost always
make the powers the survivors, and make give their enemies a criminal status
that brings to a forgotten end anything they had started. Jesus entered the realm of the dead, but it
was Jerusalem that became the true Hades.
Her glorious Temple of stone toppled with the “power” it
represented. It could not prevail
against the Rock church.
[1] All Scripture citations are
from the ASV of 1901.
[2] References found in D. A.
Carson, Matthew, Chapters 12 through 28, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary (Grand
Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1995), p.
370.
[3] John Bright, Jeremiah
in The Anchor Bible (Garden City, NY:
Doubleday, 1965), p. 282.
[4] Frederick Dale Bruner, Matthew,
A Commentary, Volume 1: The Christbook,
rev. and exp. (Grand Rapids, MI:
Eerdmans, 2004), p. 70. Bruner
suggests that as there were three “exiles” (Egyptian, Babylonian, and Roman) in
the Bible, so there are three “slaughters” in Matthew (the innocents, John the
Baptist, and Jesus).
[5] Matthew’s interest in pagans
in the unfolding Messianic working of God begins with the mention of four
Gentile women in his genealogy which is soon followed by the visit to the baby
Jesus by Gentile Magi.
[6] D. A. Carson, Matthew,
p. 369.
[7] The New
Brown-Driver-Briggs-Genesius Hebrew and English Lexicon (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1979), pp. 407-08.
[9] The New
Brown-Driver-Briggs-Genesius Hebrew and English Lexicon, p.149.
[10] For an excellent exposition,
see Frederick Dale Bruner, Matthew, A Commentary, Volume 1: The Christbook, Matthew 1-12, rev. and
exp. ed., (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans,
2004), pp. 7-22.
[11]
This “coming” refers to Jesus’ return in power in judgment in AD 70. This judgment marks the end of a covenant
relationship between Israel and Yahweh.
This “coming” is not a reference to the “Second Coming”, the apocalyptic
return of Jesus at the end of history when the final Judgment convenes (Jesus
spoke to that event in chapter 24 beginning in v. 36).
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