Luke 22:39-53

Luke's account presents here new and striking details, although it is briefer than those of Matthew and Mark. In telling of our Lord's agony, Luke alone mentions the distance to which He withdrew, the angelic assistance and the physical results. In the account of the betrayal there are interesting peculiarities.

Luke 22:43-44 are omitted in some old and important manuscripts and by some of the fathers. But they are well supported and now received by nearly all scholars. Over-zealous Orthodoxy failed to understand them and hence expunged them in some copies.