From that time forth An important note of time. Now that the disciples have learned to acknowledge Jesus to be the Messiah, He is able to instruct them in the true nature of the Kingdom.

elders and chief priests and scribes=the Sanhedrin. See ch. Matthew 2:4, and Matthew 26:3.

be killed As yet there is no mention of the Roman judge or of the death upon the cross; this truth is broken gradually, see Matthew 16:24.

be raised again the third day How can the plainness of this intimation be reconciled with the slowness of the disciples to believe in the Resurrection? Not by supposing that obscure hints of the Passion were afterwards put into this explicit form; but rather (1) partly by the blindness of those who will not see; (2) partly by the constant use of metaphor by Jesus. "Might not," they would argue, "this -death and rising again" be a symbol of a glorious visible kingdom about to issue from our present debasement?"

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