Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Mark 10:34

"and they shall mock him, and shall spit upon him, and shall scourge him, and shall kill him; and after three days he shall rise again." — Mark 10:34 (ASV)

This is the third major prediction of the Passion (cf. 8:31; 9:31). It is more detailed and precise than the others, containing six details. Jesus is to be (1) betrayed; (2) sentenced to death; (3) handed over to the Gentiles; (4) mocked, spit on, and flogged; (5) executed; and (6) resurrected. To claim (as some do) that these verses are a post-resurrection church tradition put in the mouth of Jesus denies that Jesus, as the unique Son of God, could predict his passion in detail. That the events did not take place historically in the chronological sequence in which they are given in v.34 would tend to cast doubt on the thesis that the prediction was shaped by the passion narrative in chs. 14–16.

The climax of the passage is the prediction of the Resurrection. Mark does not record any response by the disciples to this startling statement. Luke (18:34), however, says, “The disciples did not understand any of this.”