Luke 9:45

But they understood not this saying, and it was hid from them, that they perceived it not: and they feared to ask him of that saying.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

9:43-50 This prediction of Christ's sufferings was plain enough, but the disciples would not understand it, because it agreed not with their notions. A little child is the emblem by which Christ teaches us simplicity and humility. What greater honour can any man attain to in this world, than to be received by men as a messenger of God and Christ; and to have God and Christ own themselves received and welcomed in him! If ever any society of Christians in this world, had reason to silence those not of their own communion, the twelve disciples at this time had; yet Christ warned them not to do the like again. Those may be found faithful followers of Christ, and may be accepted of him, who do not follow with us.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

It was hid from them - They had imbibed the common notions of the Jews that he was to be a prince and a conqueror, to deliver the nation. They could not understand how that could be, if he was soon to be delivered into the hands of his enemies to die. In this way it was hid from them - not by God, but by their previous false belief. And from this we may learn that the plainest truths of the Bible are unintelligible to many because they have embraced some belief or opinion before which is erroneous, and which they are unwilling to abandon. The proper way of reading the Bible is to lay aside all previous opinions and submit entirely to God. The apostles should have supposed that their previous notions of the Messiah were wrong, and should have renounced them. They should have believed that what Jesus "then" said was consistent with his being the Christ. So "we" should believe that "all" that God says is consistent with truth, and should forsake all other opinions.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

45. and they feared—"insomuch that they feared." Their most cherished ideas were so completely dashed by such announcements, that they were afraid of laying themselves open to rebuke by asking Him any questions.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

See Poole on "Luke 9:37"

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

But they understood not this saying,.... What was meant by being betrayed into the hands of men, and by his being put to death; they knew not, how these things could possibly be, for they could not by any means reconcile them with the notions they had of a temporal Redeemer, and victorious Messiah:

and it was hid from them, that they perceived it not; the true meaning of this saying was hid from their understanding, which was veiled with the above notion of the worldly grandeur of the Messiah, that they did not take it in;

and they feared to ask him of that saying, of the meaning of it; imagining that he had a secret mystical meaning in it, which they could not reach; lest he should reproach them with their dulness and stupidity; or should rebuke them with the like sharpness and severity he had reproved Peter not long ago, upon the same head.

Geneva Study Bible

But they understood not this saying, and it was hid from them, that they perceived it not: and they feared to ask him of that saying.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

5. shake off the very dust from your feet] See Acts 13:51; Acts 18:6.

45. they understood not] This ignorance and incapacity, so humbly avowed, should be contrasted with the boldness and fulness of their subsequent knowledge as one of the strongest proofs of the change wrought in them by the Resurrection and the Descent of the Holy Spirit.

Bengel's Gnomen

Luke 9:45. Αἴσθωνται, that they perceived it not) Ἐπίγνωσις, knowing a thing, or understanding it (referring to ἠγνόουν), produces αἴσθησις, sense, or perception and feeling of it: when the former is wanting, the latter is necessarily so.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 45. - And they feared to ask him of that saying. The "saying" was to them so utterly distasteful, perhaps inconceivable. It is possible that they thought this betrayal and death simply veiled for them some bit of teaching to be explained hereafter; it is possible they at once dismissed it from their minds, as men often do painful and mournful forebodings. At all events, they dreaded asking him any questions about this dark future of suffering which he said lay before him. Luke 9:45