Biblion Bible Commentary
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This Saying Was Hidden From Them
Luke 18:31-34
31 He took the twelve aside and said to them, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all the things that are written through the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be completed. · WEB
The fullest prediction yet, and the account says three times over that they did not take it in.
He took the twelve aside and said to them, "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all the things that are written through the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be completed" Luke 18:31.
The third announcement is given privately, on the road, with the city ahead. The prediction is treated in the earlier accounts Mark 10:32–52 Matthew 20:17–19, and its details prove exact within the week.
What is this telling's own is the frame around it. The announcement opens by referring the whole thing to the things that are written through the prophets — not merely predicting an outcome but locating it in a text. That is this book's characteristic move, and it will be made again on the Emmaus road, where the risen Christ opens the Scriptures from Moses and all the prophets Luke 24:27.
"For he will be delivered up to the Gentiles, will be mocked, treated shamefully, and spit on. They will scourge and kill him. On the third day, he will rise again" Luke 18:32–33. Six verbs of what will be done to him and one of what he will do. The indignities are itemized more fully here than in the earlier announcements, and every item happens.
They understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they didn't understand the things that were said Luke 18:34.
The verse says the same thing three times, which is not carelessness. It is a writer making sure nobody blames the disciples for missing a hint — there was no hint. The language was plain, the sequence was correct, and it went past them completely.
This saying was hidden from them is the middle clause and it is the strange one. Something was withheld, and the passive leaves the agent unnamed. It is the same condition as on the Emmaus road, where their eyes were kept from recognizing him Luke 24:16 until the moment came.
Which is worth holding onto. Their failure to understand the cross is not presented as stupidity or as a moral fault, and it is not held against them. It is presented as a thing that had to wait until after.
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