Biblion Bible Commentary
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They Were Exceedingly Sorry
Matthew 17:22-23
22 While they were staying in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is about to be delivered up into the hands of men, · WEB
The second announcement of the death, and this time the response is recorded in three words.
While they were staying in Galilee, Jesus said to them, "The Son of Man is about to be delivered up into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and the third day he will be raised up" Matthew 17:22–23.
The second announcement is shorter than the first and adds one thing to it: delivered up. The verb is passive and it does not say by whom. It will be used of Judas Matthew 26:15, of the council handing him to Pilate Matthew 27:2, and of Pilate handing him over to be crucified Matthew 27:26 — a chain of men each passing him along, and the sentence here quietly places something above all of them.
The rest is what was said at Caesarea Philippi, in the same order, ending in the same place. The third day he will be raised up.
They were exceedingly sorry.
That is the whole of the response, and Matthew leaves it there. Grief is an improvement on the last reaction — nobody takes him aside to correct him this time, and the rebuke Peter earned has done its work. But it is still a response to half of what was said. The resurrection has now been stated twice, in plain words, as the end of the sentence, and the sorrow is the sorrow of men who heard the killing and stopped listening.
The earlier account notes that they did not understand and were afraid to ask Mark 9:30–50. That is the honest shape of it: something has been said that cannot be fitted into what they expect, and rather than open it they carry it quietly. It goes on until the morning of the resurrection, when the news arrives as a complete surprise to people who had been told three times.
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