Matthew 17:22

And while they abode in Galilee, Jesus said unto them, The Son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of men:

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(22) While they abode in Galilee.—Better, as they went to and fro. The journeyings were apparently, like that to the coasts of Tyre and Sidon (Matthew 15:21), unconnected with the work of His ministry. Our Lord was still, as before, taking His disciples apart by themselves, and training them by fuller disclosures of His coming passion. “He would not that any man should know” of their presence (Mark 9:30), for at that crisis, as was shown only too plainly by what followed, their minds were in a state of feverish excitement, which needed to be controlled and calmed. St. Luke adds (Luke 9:44) the solemn words with which this second announcement of His death was impressed on their thoughts, “Let these sayings sink down into your ears” (literally, place these things). The substance of what they heard was the same as before, but its repetition gave it a new force, as showing that it was not a mere foreboding of disaster, passing away with the mood of sadness in which it might have seemed to originate.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

17:22,23 Christ perfectly knew all things that should befall him, yet undertook the work of our redemption, which strongly shows his love. What outward debasement and Divine glory was the life of the Redeemer! And all his humiliation ended in his exaltation. Let us learn to endure the cross, to despise riches and worldly honours, and to be content with his will.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

See also Mark 9:30-33; Luke 9:43-45.

And while they abode in Galilee - Galilee, the northern part of Palestine. See the notes at Matthew 2:22.

The Son of man shall be betrayed ... - To betray means to deliver up in a treacherous manner. This was done by Judas Iscariot, called for that act the traitor, Matthew 26:14-16, Matthew 26:47-50. A traitor, or betrayer, is one who makes use of confidence reposed in him for the purpose of delivering him up who puts that confidence in him to the hands of enemies.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

22. And while they abode in Galilee, Jesus said unto them—Mark (Mr 9:30), as usual, is very precise here: "And they departed thence"—that is, from the scene of the last miracle—"and passed through Galilee; and He would not that any man should know it." So this was not a preaching, but a private, journey through Galilee. Indeed, His public ministry in Galilee was now all but concluded. Though He sent out the Seventy after this to preach and heal, He Himself was little more in public there, and He was soon to bid it a final adieu. Till this hour arrived, He was chiefly occupied with the Twelve, preparing them for the coming events.

The Son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of men … And they were exceeding sorry—Though the shock would not be so great as at the first announcement (Mt 16:21, 22), their "sorrow" would not be the less, but probably the greater, the deeper the intelligence went down into their hearts, and a new wave dashing upon them by this repetition of the heavy tidings. Accordingly, Luke (Lu 9:43, 44), connecting it with the scene of the miracle just recorded, and the teaching which arose out of it—or possibly with all His recent teaching—says our Lord forewarned the Twelve that they would soon stand in need of all that teaching: "But while they wondered every one at all things which Jesus did, He said unto His disciples, Let these sayings sink down into your ears; for the Son of man shall be delivered," &c.: "Be not carried off your feet by the grandeur you have lately seen in Me, but remember what I have told you, and now tell you again, that that Sun in whose beams ye now rejoice is soon to set in midnight gloom." Remarkable is the antithesis in those words of our Lord preserved in all the three narratives—"The son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of men." Luke adds (Lu 9:45) that "they understood not this saying, and it was hid from them, that they perceived it not"—for the plainest statements, when they encounter long-continued and obstinate prejudices, are seen through a distorting and dulling medium—"and were afraid to ask Him"; deterred partly by the air of lofty sadness with which doubtless these sayings were uttered, and on which they would be reluctant to break in, and partly by the fear of laying themselves open to rebuke for their shallowness and timidity. How artless is all this!

Matthew Poole's Commentary

See Poole on "Matthew 17:23".

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And while they abode in Galilee,.... Munster's Hebrew Gospel reads it "and while they were walking in Galilee", for they passed through it, when they departed from hence; see Mark 9:30 and as they were going to Capernaum, and so onward, to the coasts of Judea, in order to be at Jerusalem at the feast of the passover; where, and when, Christ was to suffer: and observing that the time of his death drew nigh, he inculcates it again to his disciples a third time, that they might be prepared for it, and not be discouraged and terrified by it;

Jesus said unto them, the son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of men: some copies read, "sinful men"; and so the angels report the words, in Luke 24:7 by whom may be meant the Gentiles, who, by the Jews, were reckoned very wicked men, and called sinners of the Gentiles. Now Christ intimates, that the son of man, meaning himself, should be betrayed by the Jews, into the hands of the Gentiles; than which, with the Jews, nothing was reckoned a fouler action, or a viler crime; their canons run thus (h):

"It is forbidden to betray an Israelite into the hands of the Gentiles, whether in his body or in his substance; and though he may be a wicked man, and a ringleader in sin, and though he may have oppressed and afflicted him; and everyone that betrays an Israelite into the hands of the Gentiles, whether in his body, or in his substance, has no part in the world to come.''

They forgot this rule, when they delivered Christ to Pontius Pilate. They go on to observe, that

"it is lawful to kill a betrayer in any place, even at this time, in which they do not judge capital crimes; and it is lawful to kill him before he betrays; but when he says, lo! I am about to betray such an one in his body, or in his substance, though his substance is small, he exposes himself to death; and they admonish him and say to him, do not betray: if he is obstinate, and says I will betray him, it is commanded to kill him; and he that is first to kill him, is a worthy man,''

(h) Maimon. Hilch. Chobel Umazzik, c. 8. sect. 9, 10.

Geneva Study Bible

{5} And while they abode in Galilee, Jesus said unto them, The Son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of men:

(5) Our minds must be prepared more and more for the offence of the cross.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Matthew 17:22-23. Comp. Mark 9:30 ff.; Luke 9:43 ff.

While they were still in Galilee (ἀναστρεφ., Xen. Cyr. viii. 8. 7, Mem. iv. 3. 8; Thuc. viii. 94; Joshua 5:5), and before they entered Capernaum (Matthew 17:24), Jesus once more (comp. Matthew 16:21) intimated to His disciples His approaching sufferings, death, and resurrection. This is not a meaningless repetition of Matthew 16:21 (Köstlin, Hilgenfeld); but this matter was introduced again because Jesus knew how much they required to be prepared for the impending crisis.

εἰς χεῖρας ἀνθρ.] into men’s hands, uttered with a painful feeling, sensible as He was of the contrast between such a fate and what He knew to be His divine dignity. It was in keeping with the feelings now present to the mind of Jesus, not to indicate that fate with so much detail as on the former occasion (Matthew 16:21).

ἐλυπήθησαν σφόδρα] therefore not impressed by the announcement of the resurrection, although it is said to have been made with so much clearness and precision. This announcement, however, is not found in Luke. See note on Matthew 16:21.

Expositor's Greek Testament

Matthew 17:22-23. Second announcement of the Passion (Mark 9:30-31; Luke 9:44-45).

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

22, 23. The Second Announcement of the Passion

Mark 9:31; Luke 9:44Both St Mark and St Luke add that the disciples “understood not this saying.” It was difficult for them to abandon cherished hopes of an earthly kingdom, and “might not Jesus be speaking in parables of a figurative death and resurrection?” See note, ch. Matthew 16:21.

Bengel's Gnomen

Matthew 17:22. [796] Μέλλει—παραδίδοσθαι, shall be betrayed—εἰς χεῖρας ἀνθρώπων, into the hands of men) What a grievous condition! Thus was He delivered up who exhibited such great authority in Matthew 17:18.

[796] Ἐν τῇ Γαλιλαίᾳ, in Galilee) As yet abiding in a place separated by a long distance from the scene of His passion.—V. g.

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 22, 23. - Second official announcement of the Passion and Resurrection. (Mark 9:30-32; Luke 9:43-45.) Verse 22. - While they abode (ἀναστρεφομένων, went to and fro; conversantibus, Vulgate) in Galilee. After some weeks spent in the extreme north, Jesus and his disciples had returned secretly to Galilee (Mark 9:30), and were approaching the neighborhood of Capernaum. The privacy was connected with the special instruction which he was now giving to his disciples. The Son of man shall be betrayed... men. There is a reference to the preparation thus mercifully afforded to the twelve in the angel's address to the women at the sepulchre, "Remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee" (Luke 24:6). Jesus reiterates the prediction continually in order to familiarize his followers with the unwelcome, the incredible, reality. But the Messiah's Passion, death, and resurrection were ideas that they could not at once receive; so impossible they seemed in the very nature of things, so contrary to all their hopes and expectations. Shall be betrayed (μέλλει παραδιδοσθαι). Is ordained, in the counsels of God, to be betrayed. Tradendus est (Vulgate). Men. He had before named the chief priests (Matthew 16:21), afterwards he mentions the Gentiles (Matthew 20:19), as the agents in his death. So St. Peter, in his great sermon (Acts 2), says to the Jews, "Ye have taken him, and by wicked hands ['by the hand of lawless men,' Revised Version] have crucified and slain." Matthew 17:22