Mat 26:21 Verily I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me.
Alternative: Truly I tell you that one of you shall give me over.

This statement at the beginning of the Last Supper echoes the words used ealier in Mat 26:2 (discussion here), where Christ said that he would be "given over" and "staked."

In looking through all the other uses of the word by Christ that means "given over" (paradidômi ), I find that he uses it quite consistently to mean being given over to authorities, most often state authorities. This starts with a warning (Mat 5:25) that we should work out problems amongs ourselves rather than bring each other to court. Then it turns into a warning to his followers that they would be given over (Mat 10:17). Then Christ offers the contrasting idea that his followers were given over to him by the Father (Mat 11:27). The mane warnings about his own betrayal into the "hands of men" start in Mat 17:22. The many prophecies that his followers would be given over to authorities at the "end" of the age starts in Mat 24:9.

So the word is used once to describe us being given over to Christ by the Father and many, many times to describe being given over to state authorities. While the Gospels usually translate being given over to state authorities as "betrayal," that is not the translation used for being given over to Christ by God or falling into the hands of authorites through court action. The word, betrayal, adds a lot of baggage to the discussion. It raises an issue of that Christ's original words did not raise: whether turning over someone to authorities is itself a dishonest act.

For Christ, being given over to authorities was seen as a constant threat. Even if you don't teach or believe in an unpopular idea, a simple conflict with another person could lead to authorities taking away your physical freedom and even killing you. For Christ, that is what earthly authority, that is, the hands of men, do. Their early power comes from their ability to control people through force or the threat of force.

Christ's only antidote for the power of earthly authorities was that idea that it, like the physical body, is temporary. If we pay attention to our long-term role in the universe, this physical control, even torture and death, are relatively minor events. This is why such things can happen again and again. They are temporary.

The fact that the Father gave us over to Christ, that is, to the freedom of faith, is much more important fact. It needs to happen only once in history, our personal history or human history. Since this happens at a spiritual level, it lasts forever. If Christ did teach subtly in reincarnation as well as as a spiritual afterlife, this means that this spiritual transfer carries over from one life to the next. We can alway turn away from the truth, but that is ignroing the truth, not changing it.

"Betrayed" is from paradidômi (paradidomi), which means "to give over to another," "to transmit," "to hand down," "to grant," "to teach," and "to bestow."