And Jesus answered and said unto him,
Blessed are you, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood has not revealed it unto you, but my Father who is in heaven.
Read Chapter 16
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona. Simon is undoubtedly Sumeon, as written 2 Peter i. 1. Bariona is son of Jona, or John, an abridgment for Barioanna. Bar, in Chaldaic, is son; hence St. Peter is called, in John xxi, 16. and 17, Simon, son of John. It was customary with the Jews to add to a rather common name, for the sake of discrimination, a patronumikon, or patronymic, as appears from Matthew x. 3. and xxiii. 35; Mark ii. 14; John vi. 42. (Pastorini)
Yet surely unless he had rightly confessed Him, as begotten of the very Father Himself, this were no work of revelation; had he accounted our Lord to be one of the many, his saying was not worthy of a blessing. Since before this also they said, Truly He is Son of God, Matthew 14:33 those, I mean, who were in the vessel after the tempest, which they saw, and were not blessed, although of course they spoke truly. For they confessed not such a Sonship as Peter, but accounted Him to be truly Son as one of the many, and though peculiarly so beyond the many, yet not of the same substance.
And Nathanael too said, Rabbi, You are the Son of God, You are the King of Israel; John 1:49 and so far from being blessed, he is even reproved by Him, as having said what was far short of the truth. He replied at least, Because I said unto you, I saw you under the fig-tree, do you believe? You shall see greater things than these. John 1:50
Why then is this man blessed? Because he acknowledged Him ver...
. He calls Peter blessed for having received knowledge by divine grace. And by commending Peter, He thereby shows the opinions of other men to be false. For He calls him "Bar Jona," that is, "son of Jona," as if saying, "Just as you are the son of Jona, so am I the Son of My Father in heaven, and of one essence with Him." He calls this knowledge "revelation," speaking of hidden and unknown things that were disclosed by the Father.
