Matthew 16:1 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

The Pharisees also— Dr. Campbell reads the last verse of the last chapter and the prefect verse, Then having dismissed the multitude, he embarked, and sailed to the coast of Magdala. Thither some Pharisees and Sadducees repaired, who, to try him, desired that he would shew them a sign in the sky. Whilst Jesus wasinDalmanutha,orMagdala,thePharisees, having heard of the second miraculous dinner, and fearing that the whole body of the people would acknowledge him for the Messiah, resolved to confute his pretensions fully and publicly: for this reason they came forth with the Sadducees, who, though the opposers and rivals of the Pharisees in all other matters, joined them in their design of oppressing Jesus, and together with them demanded of him the sign from heaven. It seems that the Jews, from Daniel 7:13 expected that the Messiah would make his first appearance in the clouds of heaven, and take unto himself glory and a temporal kingdom. See the note on ch. Matthew 12:38-39. Agreeable to this, Josephus, describing the state of the affairs in Judaea under Felix, tells us, "That the deceivers and impostors pretending to inspiration, endeavouring to bring about changes, and so making the people mad, led them into the wilderness, as if it had been to shew them signs of liberty:" Wherefore when the Pharisees desired Jesus to shew them the sign from heaven, they certainly meant, that he should demonstrate himself to be the Messiah, by coming in a visible and miraculous manner from heaven with great pomp, and by wresting the kingdom out of the hands of the Romans. These hypocrites craftily feigned an inclination to believe, if he would but give them sufficient evidence of his mission: however, their true design was, that by his failure in the proof which they required, he should expose himself to general blame. It was upon the same principles that they continued their demands in the Apostles' time (see 1 Corinthians 1:22.); though so many signs from heaven had then been given, in the voice from thence, in the preternatural darkness at our Lord's crucifixion, in the descent of angels in repeated instances, and in that of the Holy Spirit in a visible form, as well as in most sensible effects. See Josephus's Jewish War, b. 2. 100. 12 and Lardner's Credibility, lib. 1. 100. 5.