Shared ground
Matthew presents Jesus as knowing and naming what is about to happen to him while he is still in Galilee. The sequence is explicit: the Son of Man will be “delivered up” into human hands, “they” will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised. The disciples’ immediate response is intense sorrow, not debate or curiosity.
Two things are held together in the wording: Jesus’ real vulnerability to human power (“into the hands of men”) and a real reversal after death (“raised on the third day”). The text also suggests the disciples feel the death prediction more sharply than the resurrection promise, since Matthew only reports grief.
Where interpretation differs
Who is included in “they will kill him.” Some read “they” as the same “men” whose hands he is delivered into (a general way to speak about human agents and authorities). Others take “they” to point more narrowly to the specific group(s) who will later arrest, condemn, and execute him.
What “delivered up” most directly refers to. Some take it broadly: being handed over through a chain of events (betrayal, arrest, transfers between authorities). Others argue Matthew mainly stresses the single fact of being placed under hostile human control, without specifying the steps here.
How much the disciples understood about “raised.” Some think the disciples likely heard the words but did not grasp what resurrection “on the third day” meant in concrete terms. Others think they understood the claim but were still overwhelmed by the prospect of his death.
Why the disagreement exists
The passage is brief and leaves key referents unnamed. Matthew does not identify the agents behind “delivered up” or “they,” and he records only the disciples’ emotion, not their thoughts. Because the story later fills in details, interpreters differ on how much of that later detail should be read back into these two verses.
What this passage clearly contributes
This scene advances Matthew’s repeated emphasis that Jesus’ path includes suffering and death before vindication. It frames Jesus’ death as something that happens through human action (“hands of men,” “they will kill him”) while also presenting resurrection as a definite event that follows (“raised on the third day,” using language of being raised G1453). It also shows the disciples are emotionally affected yet still not portrayed as fully processing the whole prediction.
