John 18:1-11

First Section: 18:1-11. The Arrest of Jesus.

John omits here the account of the agony of Jesus in Gethsemane; but he clearly assigns to this fact its place by these words of John 18:1: where there was a garden into which he entered. In reading these words, no Christian, in possession of the first three Gospels, could fail to think of that narrative. The reason of this omission, as well as of the omission of the accounts of the transfiguration, the institution of the Holy Supper, and so many others, is that John knew that this scene was sufficiently well known in the church, and that it had no special relation to the end which he set before himself. There cannot be a dogmatic design in this omission; this is proved by the story in John 12:24-27, which belongs exclusively to John, and in which he has preserved for us the moral essence of the scene in Gethsemane.

Strauss exclaims: “Every attempt to insert in John's narrative, between chs. 17 and 18 the agony of Gethsemane is an attack upon the moral elevation and even the manly character of Jesus.” According to this, John would have been the first to commit an outrage of this kind (John 12:27). Strauss concludes from this that the Synoptic narrative is “a more naive poetic fiction” than that of John, which presents to us “a more well-considered and carefully contrived poetic fiction.” Thus those who relate, lie in relating; he who omits, lies in omitting! This is the point at which criticism arrives by pursuing its course even to the end. It destroys itself.

ADDITIONAL NOTES BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR.

Vv. 1-11.

1. The word ἐξῆλθεν, for the reasons suggested in Note 38.7, above, is to be understood as referring to the departure from the room. There can be no doubt that the place here indicated is the garden of Gethsemane, and thus that this Gospel represents Jesus and the apostles as going after the supper to this spot, which belonged probably to one of the friends of Jesus.

2. The σπεῖρα or detachment from the Roman cohort was called upon to accompany the officers of the Sanhedrim for the purpose, apparently, of intimidation, and of assistance in case of any attempt at rescue. They were thus a secondary and attendant body, and, after John 18:13, where Jesus was led to the house of Annas, they disappear. When Jesus was thus securely in the possession of the Jewish authorities, these Roman soldiers had accomplished their work, and they then returned, doubtless, to the place where they were stationed by the civil government. The body which went forth for the arrest took the lanterns and torches, as well as their arms, for the purpose of impression. The fact that the full moon was shining would make no difference in such a case.

3. Godet, Meyer and others think that ἐξῆλθεν of John 18:4 means that Jesus went out of the garden. This may be the meaning, but it cannot be regarded as certainly so. Weiss holds, and this is not improbably the right view, that He came forth from the depth of the garden, or, with perhaps less probability, from the circle of the disciples. Westcott thinks that the ἐξῆλθεν is opposed to the εἰσῆλθεν of John 18:1; this, however, is questionable.

4. There is a certain difficulty in bringing John's narrative in John 18:5 f. into accordance with Matthew 26:49 f., but it may probably be due to the brevity of the narrative in the latter case, or even in both cases. The approach of Judas to Jesus with a kiss and the words of Jesus in answer must be placed before the allusion to Judas in John 18:5 of this chapter.

5. The “falling to the ground” which is mentioned in John 18:6 can scarcely be explained, except by some special influence exerted by Jesus' supernatural power. Roman soldiers would hardly have been thus prostrated by the mere dignified or innocent bearing of an ordinary man, or by the unexpected calmness of Jesus' demeanor.

6. The words of the 9th verse, when connected with those to which they refer in John 17:12, must include more than the idea of a loss occasioned by arrest or death. The result of the arrest of the disciples, or any of them, He feared might be a danger to their faith and thus to their salvation, and so His mind turns again here to what had been His thought in the latter part of ch. 15 and elsewhere.

7. The last words of John 18:11 present a similar thought to that of the prayer in Gethsemane as recorded in the other Gospels. It seems not unnatural that the mind of Jesus should have been full of this thought on this last night.