The Great Commentary (Mossman/Cobb English)

Three hundred pence. These were equivalent in value to thirty Roman aurei. So that for the thirty gold pieces which the miserable Judas accounted as lost in the anointing of Christ, he received thirty silver pieces for betraying Him. 436 S. MARK, C. XIV. Ver. ii. They were glad, “Not only that they were about to apprehend Him without tumult, being opportunely betrayed by Judas, but also because He was beginning to be hated by His own disciples.”

There shall meet you, “Observe the majesty of His Divinity,” says S. Ambrose (in Luc, xxil 8). “ He is speaking with His disciples, and yet He knows what is about to happen elsewhere.”

He began to fear and to be heavy : ixOafifiaoOai xai Afa fionft, i.e., to be affrighted and sore distressed. The Arabic is, to be very sorrowful and afraid

Abba Father: Gr. a/ 3 / 3 & 6 where Father is in the nominative, as Mark interprets the Syriac word A/ 3/3 by the Greek A-arijf ; or rather the nom. varjjf is put for the voc. irarcf. For by a mark of affection, with the deepest feeling of the heart, Christ repeated the word Abba, or Father. Wherefore the Syriac has Digitized by ^.ooQle ABBA. 437 Abba Abi , i.e., Father , My Father. The Arabic has O Father. S. Augustine (lib. de Consens. Evang. 1 . 4) thinks that Christ used both the Greek and the Syriac word ; and that He spoke precisely as Mark has it, namely, £/?/?& 6 Tarfy. For so the Apostle speaks, “In whom we cry, Abba Father” (Rom. viii. 15, Vulg.). “We must think,” says S. Augustine, “ that the Lord said ‘Abba Father' to intimate the mystery of His Church, which was to be gathered out of Jews and Gentiles.” And the Scholiast in S. Jerome says, “ He speaks in Hebrew and Greek, because there is no distinction between Jew and Greek.”

Lead Him away carefully: Gr. i.e., securely , safely. Arab. Fear ye concerning Him; lest, that is, He glide away out of your hands, as He has done upon other occasions

One of them, namely, Peter. “ Mark does not mention Peter's name,” says Theophylact, “ that he may not seem to praise his teacher, Peter, for his greater zeal for Christ.”

And a certain young man followed him having a linen doth cast round about his naked body ; and they laid hold on him. That is, he was clothed (amictus, Vulg.) with a linen vest over his naked body. It is plain, from the word amictus , that this piece of linen was a kind of linen garment, fitting the body, but so that it might easily be put on and off the back. This is also clear from Pollux, who calls the linen cloth « yfloXaw, Le., a veil, a cloak, a covering. You will ask who this young man was : ist S. Epiphanius (Hares. 78) and S. Jerome, or whoever the author is on Ps. xxxviii., think that he was James the Lord’s brother. 2nd. Bede and S. Chrysostom, S. Ambrose, S. Gregory, and Baronius think it was S. John; for he was a youth, and the youngest of the Apostles. But that it was neither John nor James, nor any of the Apostles, is plain from this, that Mark has just 438 3. MARK, C. XTV. before said, ver. 50, then all His disciples , meaning Apostles, forsook Him and fled. 3rd Theophylact and Euthymius think that the young man was some one from the house of John Mark, in which Christ had eaten the Passover. 4th. And more probably, Cajetan (in fentaculis) and others conjecture that this young man was a member or servant of a house adjacent to the garden, who, being awoke by the noise made by those who were apprehending Christ as they passed by, rose up from his bed, and ran to see what was being done. That he was a favourer or disciple of Christ appears from what Mark says, he followed Him . Wherefore also the officers laid hold of him, i.e., they wished to hold him by seizing his garment The Hebrew active verbs often signify commencement and effort

But he, casting off the linen cloth, fled from them naked. “As Joseph,” says the Scholiast, “left his garment in the hand of his immodest mistress, and fled from her naked.” Mark adds this incident in order to make it plain from this hasty flight of the young man how great was the trepidation about Christ, and how intense was the hatred and fury of the Jews against Christ, who even tried to seize a stranger who was following Him. Hence it is evident that far more would they have seized the Apostles, if they had not immediately fled away