Whom seek ye? St John Chapter xviii. 1-5

St John Chapter xviii : Verses 1-5

Contents

• St John Chapter xviii : Verses 1-5
   Douay-Rheims (Challoner) text, Greek (SBLG) & Latin text (Vulgate); 
• Annotations based on the Great Commentary of Cornelius A Lapide (1567-1637)

St John Chapter xviii : Verses 1-5

A band of soldiers and servants with lanterns, torches & weapons.
J-J Tissot. Brooklyn Museum.

1 When Jesus had said these things, he went forth with his disciples over the brook Cedron, where there was a garden, into which he entered with his disciples.  

2 And Judas also, who betrayed him, knew the place; because Jesus had often resorted thither together with his disciples.  

3 Judas therefore having received a band of soldiers and servants from the chief priests and the Pharisees, cometh thither with lanterns and torches and weapons.  

4 Jesus therefore, knowing all things that should come upon him, went forth, and said to them: Whom seek ye?  

5 They answered him: Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saith to them: I am he. And Judas also, who betrayed him, stood with them.

1 Ταῦτα ⸀εἰπὼν Ἰησοῦς ἐξῆλθεν σὺν τοῖς μαθηταῖς αὐτοῦ πέραν τοῦ χειμάρρου ⸀τοῦ Κεδρὼν ὅπου ἦν κῆπος, εἰς ὃν εἰσῆλθεν αὐτὸς καὶ οἱ μαθηταὶ αὐτοῦ.

1 Haec cum dixisset Jesus, egressus est cum discipulis suis trans torrentem Cedron, ubi erat hortus, in quem introivit ipse, et discipuli ejus. 

2 ᾔδει δὲ καὶ Ἰούδας ὁ παραδιδοὺς αὐτὸν τὸν τόπον, ὅτι πολλάκις ⸀συνήχθη Ἰησοῦς ἐκεῖ μετὰ τῶν μαθητῶν αὐτοῦ.

2 Sciebat autem et Judas, qui tradebat eum, locum : quia frequenter Jesus convenerat illuc cum discipulis suis.  

3 ὁ οὖν Ἰούδας λαβὼν τὴν σπεῖραν καὶ ἐκ τῶν ἀρχιερέων καὶ ⸂ἐκ τῶν⸃ Φαρισαίων ὑπηρέτας ἔρχεται ἐκεῖ μετὰ φανῶν καὶ λαμπάδων καὶ ὅπλων.

3 Judas ergo cum accepisset cohortem, et a pontificibus et pharisaeis ministros, venit illuc cum laternis, et facibus, et armis.  

4 Ἰησοῦς ⸀οὖν εἰδὼς πάντα τὰ ἐρχόμενα ἐπ’ αὐτὸν ⸂ἐξῆλθεν, καὶ λέγει⸃ αὐτοῖς· Τίνα ζητεῖτε;

4 Jesus itaque sciens omnia quae ventura erant super eum, processit, et dixit eis : Quem quaeritis?  

5 ἀπεκρίθησαν αὐτῷ· Ἰησοῦν τὸν Ναζωραῖον. λέγει ⸀αὐτοῖς· Ἐγώ εἰμι. εἱστήκει δὲ καὶ Ἰούδας ὁ παραδιδοὺς αὐτὸν μετ’ αὐτῶν.

5 Responderunt ei : Jesum Nazarenum. Dicit eis Jesus : Ego sum. Stabat autem et Judas, qui tradebat eum, cum ipsis.

Annotations

    1. When Jesus had said these things, he went forth with his disciples over the brook Cedron, where there was a garden, into which he entered with his disciples. Jesus had now finished that glowing, and long discourse, in which He bade His disciples farewell, and was hastening to His Passion and Death. In fact, He offered Himself to it, voluntarily, by going into the garden, and there waiting for Judas and the Jews, by whom He knew He was to be taken. He gave thus an example of boldness of mind, by first choosing for Himself the very spot in which He was about to contend with death, sin, and the devil, as though sure of victory and triumph. It is hence inferred that Jesus, as soon as He had finished His discourse, crossed the Brook, and that the dispute of the Apostles about precedence (Luke xxii. 24) took place, not after this discourse (as S. Augustine thinks) but before it. When the hymn was sung is uncertain, for S. Matthew seems to intimate that it was sung at the end of the discourse (Matt. xxvi. 30). But reason seems to suggest that it was sung before it, as being a giving of thanks which was sung immediately after the supper, and the Eucharist, and before this discourse. So Chrysostom, Theophylact, Euthymius on Matt. xxvi., and Ribera on this passage.

    he went forth. From the house, where He began and finished the whole discourse. But F. Lucas and others think that the latter part of the discourse (from xiv. 31) was spoken after He had left the house on the way to the Brook Cedron. But then “went forth” must be interpreted “passed over.”

    over the brook Cedron. “The torrent” flowing in winter, dry in summer. The torrent signifies the violence of the attack made on Christ at His Passion. And He passed through the torrent, to signify that He was going into a torrent of sufferings, says Jansenius, as the Psalm has it, “He shall drink of the torrent in the way: therefore shall he lift up the head.” (Ps. CIX. 7). And hence some think that Jesus was brought back through the Brook, and thrown into it (see Adrichom. num. 207), as in Ps. LXVIII.2-3: SAVE me, O God: for the waters are come in even unto my soul. I stick fast in the mire of the deep: and there is no sure standing.

    Cedron. So called from the cedars growing there. S. Thomas and the Syriac and Arabic version. But it is a Hebrew word signifying darkness. See S. Jerome in Locis Hebr. It was dark as being a shady place, or from the blackness of the waters, or from the smoke from the burning of bodies. Cedron is a singular, and not a plural, word. It lies between Jerusalem and Mount Olivet, and runs through the valley of Jehosaphat. It was the common burial-place, and the Turks are now buried there. And it is in this valley that all men will be gathered together at the last judgment. St. John mentions it, (1.) To establish historical accuracy. (2.) As it was figurative, for as David, fleeing from Absalom, crossed the Brook Cedron, so did Christ cross the same Brook, not indeed as flying from the Jews, but as going forth to meet them. (3.) To show that He was going to expiate, not His own sins, but those of Adam and his posterity, however monstrous, such as those committed in this valley, where parents burnt their children alive in honour of Moloch. (4.) That He might turn the place of His suffering into one of triumph: For it was from the neighbouring Mount Olivet that He rose in triumph after His Resurrection. And when He returns to judge the world, it is there that He will be seated as Judge, and recompense all men according to their deserts.

    where there was a garden, into which he entered with his disciples. Because Adam sinned in a garden, Christ began to expiate His sin in a garden. “For all things had to revert to their pristine state,” says S. Cyril. S. Chrysostom adds, “For He tarries in the garden, as in a prison.” “To save trouble,” says Theophylact, “to the Jews who were seeking Him;” adding also another reason, “for He used to seek solitary places which gender silence,” that we should do the same. (See Matt. xxvi.)

    Symbolically. Observe that Christ first went into the desert, afterwards into the corn-fields, and at last into the garden, to teach us to go into the harvest-fields of preaching, and thence to the Passion and the Cross. Hear S. Ambrose in Luc. lib. iv. “Behold,” says he, “by what ways we are brought back to paradise. Christ is first in the desert: He guides, He instructs, He informs, He exercises man. He anoints him with spiritual oil. When He sees that he is stronger He leads him through corn-fields and fruitful places (as when the Jews complained that His disciples plucked the ears of corn on the Sabbath day), for He had then placed the Apostles in cultivated ground, and in a profitable work. And afterwards He planted them in paradise, at the time of His Passion, when He crossed the Brook Cedron, where was a garden.”

    4. Jesus therefore, knowing (the word “knowing” is added, that no one should suppose that He had fallen without knowing it, and unwillingly, into the hands of the Jews, but that He knowingly and willingly gave Himself up to them, and also went forward to meet them) all things that should come upon him, went forth, and said to them: Whom seek ye? Judas had already kissed Jesus, and had thus given a sign to the band that they should take Him. But Jesus did not wish to be taken when that sign was given, lest He should seem to be taken against His will. He then by the almighty power of His Godhead held back the soldiers, and fixed them to the spot, so that when the sign was given they did not dare to rush forward to take Him, and indeed could not. Christ accordingly boldly stepped forward of His accord to meet them, and challenged them, as it were, to seize Him, by asking, Whom seek ye?

    5. They answered him: Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saith to them: I am he.  They said not, “We seek Thee,” but they say, “We seek Jesus.” And therefore they did not recognise Him, though pointed out by the traitor’s kiss (because Jesus had smitten them with blindness), and though the officers of the chief Priests had often seen and heard Him before this. So S. Chrysostom says: “Thou seest His irresistible power, that standing in the midst of them He smote them with blindness.” And S. Cyril, “His Divine Power shone forth, for though He put Himself in their way, He was not recognised by those who were seeking Him.”

And Judas also, who betrayed him, stood with them. Judas had preceded the soldiers in order to betray Jesus, but finding that they did not rush forward to take Him, he became conscious of his perfidy, and turned back in obstinate impenitence, not to the disciples, but to the soldiers, in order to be defended by them against Jesus, whose power he feared, and was therefore struck to the ground with them. So S. Augustine. But Euthymius and Ribera think that Judas came up to Christ and kissed Him, after he had been struck down. This is probable, and only proves the greater shamelessness of Judas.

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The Vladimirskaya Icon. >12th century.

SUB tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix. Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen.

 

 

 

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.