And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem,
And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, х en (G1722) too (G3588) sumpleerousthai (G4845) tas (G3588) heemeras (G2250) tees (G3588) analeempseoos (G354) autou (G846)] - rather, 'when the days of His assumption were fulfilling,' or 'in course of fulfillment:' meaning not His death, as Calvin some others take it, but His exaltation to the Father, as Grotius, Bengel, de Wette, Meyer, Olshausen, Alford, van Osterzee understand it. It is a sublime expression, taking the sweep of His whole career, as if at one bound He was about to vault into glory. It divides the work of Christ in the flesh into two great stages; all that preceded this belonging to the one, and all that follows it to the other. During the one, He formally "came to His own," and "would have gathered them;" during the other, the awful consequences of "His own receiving Him not," rapidly revealed themselves.
He stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem, х kai (G2532) autos (G846) to (G3588) prosoopon (G4383) autou (G846) esteerixe (G4741)]. The "He" is emphatic here; and the spirit in which He "set (or fixed) his face steadfastly" [= suwm (H7760) paaniym (H6440), Jeremiah 21:10; Ezekiel 6:2, which in the Septuagint is the same as here] "to go to Jerusalem," is best expressed in His own prophetic language, "I have set my face like a flint" (Isaiah 50:7). See the note at Mark 10:32, and Remark 1 at the close of that section. Jerusalem was His goal; but the reference here to His final visit must be understood as including two preparatory visits to it, at the feasts of Tabernacles and of Dedication (John 7:2; John 7:10; John 10:22-23), with all the intermediate movements and events.