As they were gathering: two reasons favor identifying they as “the disciples” (Good News Translation): (1) the disciples are the last group previously mentioned in the context (verse 19); and (2) in the other two accounts of the prediction of the passion, Matthew specifies the disciples as the ones to whom Jesus made the announcement (16.21; 20.17). Thus the clause may be translated either “When the disciples all came together” (Good News Translation) or “When Jesus and all his disciples came together.” As RSV’s footnote indicates, some Greek manuscripts have the equivalent of “were living” in place of were gathering, but most translations prefer the wording which Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation have in the text. Three exceptions are An American Translation (“were going about”), Phillips (“went about together”), and Barclay (“were moving about”), all of which give an alternative interpretation of the verb “were living.”
The phrase were gathering can make it sound in some languages as if the disciples were scattered before they gathered together again. In cases like these, translators may have to say “The disciples met together.” “Were together” will not be correct, since the verb does carry some sense of “coming” or “gathering.”
For comments on Son of man, see 8.20.
Is to be (Good News Translation “is about to be”) translates the same verb used in 16.27; 17.12. It may designate either an indefinite future or an immediate future, as in Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch (“Soon the Son of Man will be handed over to men”). It may be preferable to shift to an active construction: “Soon the enemies (or, some enemies) of the Son of Man will hand him over to men 23 who will kill him….”
Delivered: see 4.12, where it also means “had been arrested.” The verb is the same, but “arrested” does not fit this context as well as “handed over to” or “taken and put under the authority of.”
Into the hands of men is a Hebraic idiom meaning “to the power of men.” A similar expression, “into the hands of sinners,” is used in 26.45.
The text does not say who the men are to whom Jesus will be delivered; it says simply men. Some translators have thought this meant men in general, that is human beings, and so have rendered the verse “The Son of Man will be delivered (by God) over to the power of men, and they will kill him.” More common (and more likely in our opinion) is the interpretation that men simply means “certain people,” so that a possible translation is “The Son of Man will be handed over to be under the power of some people (or, certain people) who will kill him.”
Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .