Simon, Peter, Hanukkah, Revolution and Jesus: Matthew 16:17-18

Menorah

Matthew 16:17-18

17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church,

Jesus re-named his lead disciple from Simon to Peter.  The fact that Simon’s parents gave him that name is huge.  The fact that Jesus changed it is even more huge.  Simon was named for a great hero.  The story goes like this: (the Wikipedia pages on this period are on the  money and I’m using some quotes below)

Every year Jewish people celebrate Hanukkah in commemoration of  Jewish independence from the  Hellenistic Seleucid dynasty from 164 BCE to 63 BCE.

Here is how it happened: a Jewish priest named Mattathias, or Matthew, when asked by a Seleucid Greek government representative under King Antiochus IV to offer sacrifice to the Greek gods, not only refused to do so, but killed the Jew who had stepped forward to do so. He then attacked the government official that required the act.

Upon the edict for his arrest, Mattathias (Matthew) took refuge in the wilderness of Judea with his five sons, (including Judah, Simon, and Jonathan) and called upon all Jews to follow him; many did, and they were eventually successful at gaining national independence for nearly 100 years.  Note the names of 3 of his sons: they come up in the Gospels as Judas, Simon and John.

Matthew (Mattathaias)’s son Simon was the one in leadership when the Jews finally won their independence.  It was Simon who had the honor of riding into liberated Jerusalem. Simon assumed the leadership (142 BCE), receiving the double office of High Priest and prince of Israel, the founder of he Hasmonean dynasty.  This is the Simon that Jesus’ disciple was named for.

Apparently, giving your sons the names of your national heros of independence was not uncommon.  Two out of Jesus’ 4 brothers were named for national heroes: Simon and Judas (Matt 13:54-55).  Jesus himself was actually named Joshua in Hebrew, after the successor to Moses who led the Israelites to conquer the land of Canaan.

Independence ended 63 years before Jesus was born.  I think it would be safe to say that everyone who was Jewish in Jesus time wished desperately to regain that independence again, this time, from the Romans.  That quest was, after all, exactly the agenda of the Zealot movement.  They wished for it badly enough to name their sons for the heroes of their most recent independence movement.

The quintessential icon of Judaism for most of us is the Menorah which comes from the “Festival of Lights” or Hanukkah, which celebrates Jewish Independence.

All that to say this: Jesus changed the name of Simon, the great hero of Jewish national independence, to Peter, rock, something to build on.  This was not accidental nor trivial.  Everyone in Jesus’ circle of companions would have understood the significance of that change immediately.

Peter confesses Jesus as “Messiah” – a loaded title full of expectations about national liberation (see N.T. Wright on this:  Jesus and the Victory of God, especially p. 481, ff. and 528, ff).

Certainly this name-change was a dramatic act of re-defining what it meant that he was Messiah, Christ.  Jesus was not going to champion the movement for national independence.  For Jesus, the hopes and dreams of Israel were going to come true, but the kingdom was not a new Jewish state.

Wright puts it this way:
“Jesus’ redefined notion of Messiahship thus corresponded to his whole kingdom-praxis….  It offered itself as the central answer to other key kingdom-questions.  And it pointed on to a fulfillment of Israel’s destiny which no one had imagined or suspected.  He came, as the representative of the people of YHWH, to bring about an end of exile, the renewal of the covenant, the forgiveness of sins.  To accomplish this, an obvious first-century option for a would-be Messiah would run: go to Jerusalem, fight the battle against the forces of evil, and get yourself enthrouned as the rightful king.  Jess, in facte, adopted precisely this strategy.  But, as he hinted to James and John, he had in mind a different battle, a different throne.”  p. 539