<p>10:17&nbsp;<em>But beware of men</em>- As in 10:16, this is an appeal to not be like sheep in their naivety. The apostles were going to suffer, ultimately. Therefore, they should beware of trusting men too quickly, because the aggression towards them was going to be far greater than they imagined. The apostles likely didn&rsquo;t think that the Jewish religious leadership were as bad as the Lord knew them to be, and they were initially too concerned not to upset them (Mt. 15:12). The &ldquo;men&rdquo; of whom they were to &ldquo;beware&rdquo; were surely the Pharisees, because elsewhere the Lord teaches the disciples to &ldquo;beware&rdquo; of them (Mt. 7:15; 16:6,11,12; Lk. 20:46); and He goes on in this verse to speak of &ldquo;<em>their</em>&nbsp;synagogues&rdquo;, showing that &ldquo;men&rdquo; are in fact the Jewish religious leadership.</p>
<p><em>For they will deliver you up to councils-&nbsp;</em>Their Sanhedrin. The language of &lsquo;handing over&rsquo;, Sanhedrin and scourging is all relevant to the sufferings of the Lord Jesus. He is teaching here that the preaching of His Gospel is an incarnation of Himself, and will result in our suffering the essence of His own sufferings and death. To go out on the road of missionary witness is to walk the path of the cross. It&rsquo;s not anything glamorous- if done properly as He intended.</p>
<p><em>And in their synagogues they will scourge you</em>- Scourging was usually only practiced for blasphemy or breaching public order. Maybe we are to read this in the context of the Lord asking His preachers to be as snakes and doves, to not be provocative and not seek to create public showdowns with the Jewish leadership. Perhaps the Lord foresaw that some of His men would fail in this, and suffer accordingly. Or perhaps He foresaw how belief in Him as God&rsquo;s Son would be classified as the ultimate blasphemy. And yet synagogues could only scourge those who were members. The Lord foresaw that His preachers would remain within the synagogue system rather than leave it totally. The fact Paul was scourged in synagogues (2 Cor. 11:25) shows that in being a Jew to the Jews, he opted to remain within the synagogue system. This fact shows that the Lord Jesus didn&rsquo;t intend His people to formally break with the synagogue system, even though it was apostate in doctrine and practice. This indicates that there was absolutely no sense within Him of &lsquo;guilt by association&rsquo; nor a demand for His people to leave apostate systems- they were to remain there until they were cast out of the synagogues (Jn. 16:2) (See references to the Jewish laws in W. D. Davies and Dale C. Allison,&nbsp;<em>Matthew</em>&nbsp;(Edinburgh: T &amp; T Clark, 1988) Vol. 2 p. 183).&nbsp;</p>