The son of man goeth
Meaning himself, not to the Mount of Olives, or Gethsemane, or the garden, whither he went a little after this, but out of the world, to his Father: the phrase is expressive of his death, as in ( Joshua 23:14 ) ( Psalms 39:13 ) , and denotes the voluntariness of it, and which is no ways inconsistent with the divine determinations about it: nor the violence that was offered to him by his enemies.
As it is written;
in the book of God's eternal purposes and decrees; for Luke says, "as it was determined" ( Luke 22:22 ) : or as it was recorded in the books of the Old Testament; in ( Psalms 22:1-31 ) , ( Isaiah 53:1-12 ) and ( Daniel 9:1-27 ) for Christ died for the sins of his people, in perfect agreement with these Scriptures, which were written of him:
but woe unto that man by whom the son of man is betrayed;
for God's decrees concerning this matter, and the predictions in the Bible founded on them, did not in the least excuse, or extenuate the blackness of his crime; who did what he did, of his own free will, and wicked heart, voluntarily, and to satisfy his own lusts:
it had been good for that man if he had not been born.
This is a Rabbinical phrase, frequently, used in one form or another; sometimes thus; as it is said F6 of such that speak false and lying words, and regard not the glory of their Creator, (amlel Nwtyy ald) (Nwl bj) , it would have been better for them they had never come into the world; and so of any other, notorious sinner, it is at other times said F7, (yrba ald hyl bj) , or F8, (arbn alv wl xwn) , "it would have been better for him if he had not been created"; signifying, that it is better to have no being at all, than to be punished with everlasting destruction; and which was the dreadful case of Judas, who fell by his transgression, and went to his own place.