Luke 24:21

ἡμεῖς δὲ, but we, on the other hand, as opposed to the priests and rulers. ἠλπίζομεν, were hoping; the hope dead or in abeyance now. But how wide asunder these disappointed ones from the rulers, ethically, in that they could regard such an one as Jesus as the Redeemer of Israel! λυτροῦσθαι is to be taken in the sense of Luke 1:68; Luke 1:74. ἀλλά γε : these two particles stand together here contrary to the ordinary usage of Greek writers, who separate them by an intervening word. It is not easy to express the turn of feeling they represent. Does the ἐστιν in the previous clause mean that they think of Him as still living, hoping against hope on the ground of the women's report, mentioned in the following clause, and does the ἀλλά γε express a swing of feeling away in the opposite direction of hopelessness? = we hoped, we would like to hope still; yet how can we? He is dead three days, and yet again on the other hand (ἀλλά καὶ, Luke 24:22) there is a story going that looks like a resurrection. How true to life this alternation between hope and despair! σὺν πᾶσι τούτοις, in addition to all these things, i.e., all that caused them to hope: prophetic gifts, marvellous power in word and work, favour with the people: there is the hard fact making hope impossible. ἄγει : probably to be taken impersonally = agitur, one lives this third day since. So Grotius and many others. Other suggestions are that χρόνος or ὁ Ἰησοῦς is to be understood (cf. Acts 19:38).