x. 24, 25):
"Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long dost
thou make us to doubt: If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly." The
occasion here was different from any of the rest; and it was indirect.
We only discover Christ's conduct through the upbraidings of his
adversaries. But all this strengthens the argument. I had rather at any
time surprise a coincidence in some oblique allusion than read it in
broad assertions.
VI. In our Lord's commerce with his disciples, one very observable
particular is the difficulty which they found in understanding him when
he spoke to them of the future part of his history, especially of what
related to his passion or resurrection. This difficulty produced, as was
natural, a wish in them to ask for further explanation: from which,
however, they appear to have been sometimes kept back by the fear of
giving offence. All these circumstances are distinctly noticed by Mark
and Luke, upon the occasion of his informing them (probably for the
first time) that the Son of man should be delivered into the hands of
men. "They understood not," the evangelists tell us, "this saying, and
it was hid from them, that they perceived it not; and they feared to ask
him of that saying.
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