Matthew 16:14 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

And they said, Some, &c.— Perhaps those who held Christ to be Elias, did not think him the Messiah, but only his forerunner; this being the received opinion of the whole nation, that Elias was to come before the Messiah, and anoint him when he came. Those who thought that he was John the Baptist risen from the dead, spoke suitably to the opinion of the Pharisees, "who (says Josephus) held that there was for good men an easy return to life." That he was Jeremiah, or one of the prophets, was the consequence of an opinion which prevailed, that the Messiah was to come not from the living, but from the dead: As they thought noneof that age of piety sufficient to bear him, and that the resurrection was to begin with his kingdom, they might easily be induced to think that he would be one who should rise from the dead; and as God had said of Jeremiah, that he was set to root out, pull down, and destroy kingdoms, &c. ch. Matthew 1:5-10.; and as it was their opinion that the great business of the king Messiah was to pull down all the nations whichruled over them, and make them tributaries and servants to the Jews; they might on this account pitch on him, as the fittest person to be the Messiah. See Whitby, Craddock's Harmony, and Malachi 2:5a 2:5. Messrs. Beausobre and Lenfant think, that they mentioned Jeremiah rather than any other prophet, because the ancient Jews used to place Jeremiah at the head of the prophets. It seems to follow, both from the question in the preceding and in the following verse, that Jesus had not as yet directly assumed the title of the Messiah at least in their hearing.