Aloha brother Chette,
I'm with you 100% on this issue.
How can anyone explain away that even His disciples
"understood none of these things" and
"knew not"?
Luke 18:31 Then he took unto him the twelve, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished.
32 For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on:
33 And they shall scourge him, and put him to death: and the third day he shall rise again.
34 And they understood none of these things: and this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken.
John 20:9 For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead.
[Luke 24:13-48]
Luke 24:45 Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures,
Unless the Lord opens a man's eyes to
understand the Holy Scriptures - the Truth will be "hid" from them, just like it was for the Lord's disciples and the Prophets of the Old Testament.
No one fully "understood" the death, burial, and resurrection, until the Lord "revealed" the "mysteries" (hidden in times past) to the Apostle Paul!