The climactic moment of Matthew 11:2–16:20 is Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Messiah (16:16). In response to Jesus’s question about his identity as perceived by others, the disciples provide a range of responses (16:13–14; including John the Baptist in line with Herod’s belief at 14:2). Peter speaks on behalf of the disciples, rightly identifying Jesus as “the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (16:16). Although Matthew tells his readers that Jesus is the Messiah from the very beginning of the Gospel (1:1), this is the first occasion in which a character within the story identifies Jesus as the Messiah. The additional “Son of the living God” was likely understood as a messianic title within first-century Judaism (see “Theological Themes” in the introduction; also 26:63). Matthew’s …