- 30 And they departed thence, and passed through Galilee; and he would not that any man should know it. 31 For he taught his disciples, and said unto them, The Son of man is delivered into the hands of men, and they shall kill him; and after that he is killed, he shall rise the third day. 32 But they understood not that saying, and were afraid to ask him.
- Compare: Matthew 17:22-23; Luke 9:43-45
The Son of Man Must Suffer & Die
Once again Jesus is traveling through Galilee — but unlike his previous travels, this time he takes precautions to avoid being noticed by passing “through Galilee” without also passing through various cities and villages. Traditionally this chapter is seen as the beginning of Jesus’ final trip to Jerusalem where he would be killed, so this second prediction of his death takes on added importance.
Why does Jesus feel compelled to predict again that he would die? Wasn’t once enough? Perhaps not — his disciples have demonstrated a consistent inability to understanding anything that goes on around them, so it wouldn’t be reasonable to think that they have figured things out yet.
Indeed, even after this second prediction the text states that “they understood him not,” but didn’t say anything about that because they were “afraid.” This is not an unreasonable concern — such continual thick headedness would be enough to outrage even the most mild-mannered deity.
Who is it that is with Jesus and being taught here? The text refers to his “disciples” and we should try to keep in mind that there is a difference between “disciples” and “apostles.” The former refers to any close followers of Jesus whereas the latter refers only to the twelve he specifically called in chapter 3.
Thus, the reference to “disciples” here indicates that Jesus is informing more than just his twelve apostles that he will die and will rise again after three days. Just how many become aware of this, even if they don’t understand or believe it? Unfortunately there is no indication as to how many disciples he might have had — it could have been another dozen, it could have been two dozen. There is also no indication about their genders — where they all male, like the apostles, or were some female?
