108.

Matthew continues thus: "And Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi; and He asked His disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I, ¹ the Son of man, am? And they said, Some say that Thou art John the Baptist; some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets;" and so on, down to the words, "And whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." ² Mark relates this nearly in the same order. But he has brought in before it a narrative which is given by him alone,--namely, that regarding the giving of sight to that blind man who said to the Lord, "I see men as trees walking." ³ Luke, again, also records this incident, inserting it after his account of the miracle of the five loaves; ⁴ and, as we have already shown above, the order of recollection which is followed in his case is not antagonistic to the order adopted by these others. Some difficulty, however, may be imagined in the circumstance that Luke's representation bears that the Lord put this question, as to whom men held Him to be, to His disciples at a time when He was alone praying, and when His disciples were also with Him; whereas Mark, on the other hand, tells us that the question was put by Him to the disciples when they were on the way. But this will be a difficulty only to the man who has never prayed on the way. ⁵

Whom do men say that the Son of man is?