And they kept that saying - This verse is wanting in two MSS. and one of the Itala.

What the rising from the dead should mean - Ὁταν εκ νεκρων αναϚῃ, When he should arise from the dead, is the reading of D, six others, Syriac, all the Persic, Vulgate, all the Itala, and Jerome. Griesbach approves of it. There is nothing that answers to this verse either in Matthew or Luke.

And they kept that saying with themselves,.... "They retained it in their own mind", as the Persic version renders it; "they kept it close", as Luke says, Luke 9:36, among themselves, and acquainted no man with it: and which refers either to the whole of Christ's charge, relating to the vision on the mount; or else only to what he said about his resurrection from the dead; and which they took notice of particularly, and laid hold upon, as the word will bear to be rendered; and so the Ethiopic version does render it, "and they observed his saying"; what he last said concerning the son of man's rising from the dead;

questioning with one other what the rising from the dead should mean: they inquired, disputed, and reasoned with one another, what should be the meaning of such an expression: not that they were ignorant of the general resurrection of the dead; for this was the hope of Israel, and the general sense of the Jewish nation: but they did not know what he meant by his particular rising from the dead: whether he meant it in a literal sense, which supposed his death; and that though he had lately told them of, they knew not how to reconcile to the notions they had of a long and flourishing temporal kingdom of the Messiah; or whether he meant a and interest, in such manner as they expected.

And they {d} kept that saying with themselves, {e} questioning one with another what the rising from the dead should mean.

(d) Though just barely as it were.

(e) They did not question together concerning the general resurrection, which will be in the latter day, but they did not understand what he meant when he spoke of his own special resurrection.

9:1-13 Here is a prediction of the near approach Christ's kingdom. A glimpse of that kingdom was given in the transfiguration of Christ. It is good to be away from the world, and alone with Christ: and how good to be with Christ glorified in heaven with all the saints! But when it is well with us, we are apt not to care for others, and in the fulness of our enjoyments, we forget the many wants of our brethren. God owns Jesus, and accepts him as his beloved Son, and is ready to accept us in him. Therefore we must own and accept him as our beloved Saviour, and must give up ourselves to be ruled by him. Christ does not leave the soul, when joys and comforts leave it. Jesus explained to the disciples the prophecy about Elias. This was very suitable to the ill usage of John Baptist.