Biblion Bible Commentary
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Going Up to Jerusalem
Matthew 20:17-19
17 As Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside, and on the way he said to them, · WEB
The third announcement, and this one names the method of execution.
As Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside, and on the way he said to them Matthew 20:17.
The third announcement is the most detailed of the three, and it is given privately, on the road, with the city ahead of them.
"The Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and will hand him over to the Gentiles to mock, to scourge, and to crucify; and the third day he will be raised up" Matthew 20:18–19.
Each announcement has added something. The first named the city and the parties Matthew 16:21; the second added the passive delivered up Matthew 17:22; this one lays out the whole sequence in order and gets it exactly right — a Jewish condemnation with no power to execute, a handover to Rome, mockery, flogging, and a cross. Everything in that list happens, in that order, within the week the book is about to describe.
The word crucify has not been used of him before. He has spoken of a cross twice, as the thing a follower carries Matthew 10:38 Matthew 16:24, and only now says the word about himself.
And the sentence still ends where the other two ended. The third day he will be raised up. Three times, unvaried, always last, always ignored — because the very next paragraph is a request about seating arrangements in the kingdom.
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