In that same hour Jesus said to the multitudes: You are come out as it were to a robber with swords and clubs to apprehend me. I sat daily with you, teaching in the temple, and you laid not hands on me.

“Having commanded Peter to put up his sword, which was an instance of patience, and having (as another Evangelist writes [Luke 22:51.]) healed the ear that was cut off, which was an instance of the greatest mercy, and of Divine power, it now follows, In that hour said Jesus to the multitudes, to the end that if they could not remember His past goodness, they might at least confess His present,) Are ye come out as against a thief with swords and staves for to take me?”

“Above were set down the preparations for the Passion, namely the institution of the sacrament and the prayer of Christ; but here he sets down the Passion as regards those things which were inflicted by the Jews. And first he shows how he is captured; second, how he is examined; third, how he is condemned. The second at "the chief priests," etc.; the third at "then the chief priests," and so on. Concerning the first he does three things. First he treats of the betrayal; second, of the capture; third, how he was led away after the capture. The second at "then they came up"; the third at "but they, laying hold of him," and so on. Concerning the first he does three things. First he describes the person of the betrayer; second, the sign of the betrayal; third, the completion. The second at "now he who betrayed him," etc.; the third at "and immediately," and so on. He describes the betrayer from three things: first from his name; second from his dignity; third from his company. From his name: "while he was yet speaking, behold, Judas," and so on. That is, while he was speaking these words, by which he was inspiring confidence in them, "behold, Judas" — who is interpreted "confessing." There were two Judases, of whom one is evil, the other good, to signify that some who would confess in the Church would be good — Romans 10:10: "but confession is made with the mouth unto salvation" — and some would be evil; Titus 1:16: "they confess that they know God, but by their deeds they deny him." Next he is described from his dignity: "one of the twelve" — because although he had been established in so great a dignity, he nevertheless fell into so great a crime. In which an example is given that no one ought to trust in his own state. The Apostle, 1 Corinthians 10:12: "let him who stands take heed lest he fall"; John 6:71: "did I not choose you twelve, and one of you is a devil?" And why did he choose him, since he knew that he would be evil? One reason is that he might give an example to prelates, that they should not be despondent. Again he is described from his company: "and with him came a great crowd," and so on. Just as he had a cruel mind, so too a cruel company, because every animal seeks out its like. And this is described because it says "many." In this it is noted that they were fools, for fools exist in a multitude; Ecclesiastes 1:15: "the number of fools is infinite." And they were indeed fools, because they were contradicting wisdom. Again they were armed, for it says "with swords and clubs." And what is the reason? Origen says that many believed in him, and therefore they feared lest the crowd should snatch him away from them. Again, because they had said above, in chapter 12, that he cast out demons by Beelzebub, therefore, so that no power should protect him, they came armed. Again he is described by authority, because they had been sent "from the chief priests and the elders of the people"; hence they were furnished with their authority, so that no one would contradict them, so that what is said in Psalm 2:2 might be fulfilled: "the kings of the earth stood up, and the princes gathered together in one against the Lord and against his Christ." Next the sign of the betrayal is treated: "now he who betrayed him gave them a sign, saying," and so on. But here there is a question. Since he was known in Judea, why did they seek a sign? There can be a twofold reason. One, because Judas had heard that Christ had been transfigured on the mountain, and he believed that this had been done by magic art; therefore he wished to forestall him by the sign of a kiss, before he could transfigure himself. Jerome gives this explanation. But Origen speaks thus: that just as the manna in the desert tasted to each person according to what he supposed it to be, so Christ appeared to each person according to the opinion he held of him; therefore it was necessary that a sign be given. He gave a remarkable sign, for: "whomsoever I shall kiss, he it is, hold him." He made the sign of friendship the sign of betrayal; Proverbs 27:6: "better are the wounds of one who loves than the deceitful kisses of an enemy." "And immediately coming to Jesus, he said: hail, Rabbi, and he kissed him." Here the completion of the betrayal is set down. And first he showed the signs; second he began to act. And he shows this first by word, when it says "hail, Rabbi"; second by deed, "and he kissed him." A similar case is found in 2 Kings 10:1, where Joab held Amasa's chin, and killed him. But why did he not come to him at once, but first greeted him? One reason is on account of reverence for the master. Again he first greeted him, because he feared lest, before he had made him manifest, he might transfigure himself first. "And Jesus said to him: friend, why have you come?" And this can be read either interrogatively, or gently. If interrogatively, then it can be read as spoken by way of reproach, as if he were saying: you show friendship by a kiss, and have you come to destroy me? According to Psalm 27:3: "they speak peace with their mouth, but evil is in their hearts." And he said "friend." As often as he calls someone "friend," he speaks by way of reproach. Hence it was said above in chapter 22:12: "friend, how did you come in here, not having a wedding garment?" And elsewhere, chapter 20:13: "friend, I do you no wrong," and so on. 1 John 4:19: "for we did not love him first, but he first loved us." Or it can be read gently, and it is not a word of rebuke, but of permission: "friend, why have you come" — according to John 13:27: "what you do, do quickly." And he calls him friend as far as it depends on himself, because "with those who hated peace, I was peaceable," Psalm 119:7. And although he knew that he was going to kiss him, nevertheless he went to meet him. "But they, laying hold, laid hands on Jesus." Now the capture is treated. And first the severity of the capture is set down; second, the testimony; third, the rebuke of the disciple. Concerning the first he does three things: for first he tells how the ministers seize him; second, how a certain disciple wished to hinder them; third, that Christ rebuked him. He says therefore: "but they, laying hold, laid hands on Jesus." Isaiah 1:15: "your hands are full of blood." For he himself handed himself over; Jeremiah 12:7: "I have given my beloved soul into the hands of her enemies." Then it is set down how one disciple assailed the assailants: "and behold, one of those who were with Jesus, stretching out his hand, drew his sword." Who was this? It must be said that it was Peter. Hence just as above, in 16:22, he wished to hinder the Passion of Christ, so also here. From where did he have the occasion? From what is found in Luke 22:36, where the Lord commanded that they buy swords, and understanding this they believed that swords were necessary; hence they had a knife for cutting the lamb. Therefore Peter had one. "Striking the servant of the high priest, he cut off his ear." Do not believe that he had time for deliberation to cut off the ear; rather he threw the blow, and when he wanted to strike him to death, it happened that he cut off the ear. The name of this man was Malchus, which is interpreted "king." And this signifies the cutting off of the kingdom from the Jewish people, and yet it was made the servant of the chief priests, that is, of the Romans; from this man Peter cut off the ear. By the ear, hearing is signified; and this is twofold, namely the right, by which eternal life is signified, and the left, by which temporal life. He cut off his ear, because he cut off from the Jewish people the doctrine of spiritual things; and this happened as an occasion for the Gentiles to receive the right ear, because Peter first preached to the Gentiles; and thus he cut off the right, drawing the Gentiles to the faith. "Then Jesus said to him: put your sword back into its place." Here the rebuke is set down. And first he rebukes Peter; second, the ministers: "in that hour Jesus said to the crowds," and so on. And first he sets down the admonition, second he assigns the reason for the admonition: "for all who take the sword shall perish by the sword." It says: "then Jesus said to him: put your sword back into its place." He had come to suffer voluntarily, therefore he did not wish to be defended. And in this he gave an example that martyrs suffering for Christ should not defend themselves. Then he assigns the reason: first from the penalty; second from the will of Christ; third from authority. The second at "do you think that I cannot ask my Father," etc.; the third at "how then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled?" First he mitigates by the terror of the penalty, saying: "all who take the sword shall perish by the sword." But Augustine raises a question, because not all who strike with the sword perish by the sword, but sometimes by fever; therefore it can be explained in three ways, according as the sword is threefold: material, concerning which in Psalm 36:14: "the sinners have drawn out the sword." Again, the sword of divine judgment, concerning which Jeremiah 19:7: "I will overthrow them by the sword." Again, of the divine word; Ephesians 6:17: "and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." It can therefore be understood of all these. Of the material sword, because he who kills with the sword will perish by the sword, that is, by his own, not another's. Hence Psalm 36:15: "let their sword enter into their own hearts." Again it can be explained of the sword of condemnation, concerning which it is found in Genesis 3:24, that the Lord placed a turning sword before Paradise. Hence those who condemn others will be condemned by divine judgment. Or some take up by their own authority what they do not have from another, and such perish by the sword. "Do you think that I cannot ask my Father," and so on. Here he assigns the reason to mitigate the spirit of Peter, giving him to understand that he was suffering voluntarily, and that he could escape. And because he saw him presuming, therefore he says: "can I not ask my Father?" And he does not say "I cannot call," or "bring," but "ask": for he speaks the words of a man, because to ask is proper to a man. "And he will presently furnish me with more than twelve legions of angels?" And this was said according to the weakness of Peter's mind. Peter conducted himself in this way, that he ought to defend him, and that he needed the help of men; therefore he wishes to say that if he could be defended by the help of men, much more by that of angels. But it was not necessary, because rather the angels are sustained by him. But what is the meaning of his saying "twelve legions of angels"? It must be said that a company is called among the Greeks a "phalanx," among the Romans a "legion," and it had six thousand men; hence twelve legions are seventy-two thousand, and there are that many languages of men, as is found from Genesis 11. Hence he wishes to say: if all men should rise up against me, the Lord could send a thousand angels against each language; and if one angel destroyed so many thousands, as is evident from Isaiah 37, much more will a thousand be able to kill the men of one language. Job 25:3: "is there any numbering of his soldiers?" And Daniel 7:10: "thousands of thousands ministered to him, and ten thousand times a hundred thousand stood before him." Remigius speaks thus: whoever do the will of God can be called angels, that is, messengers; Isaiah 18:2: "go, swift messengers, to a nation rent and torn apart." For whoever obey God are called angels; Psalm 103:4: "who makes his angels spirits, and his ministers a burning fire." Therefore by "legion" the legion of the Romans can be understood. Hence the Lord could bring in and provoke the legions of the Romans to destroy the Jews, just as afterward was done under Titus and Vespasian. And at this passage certain men have destroyed the opinion of those who said that the Lord could not do other than what he does; for if he could summon legions, which he did not summon, it is established that he can do many things which he does not do. "How then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled?" Here the third reason is set down, why he ought not to be hindered: because the Scriptures have said so; and therefore it must happen thus. And he does not say which Scriptures, because all the prophets spoke either hiddenly or openly. Hence Luke, last chapter, 26: "was it not necessary that Christ should suffer, and so enter into his glory?" "In that hour Jesus said to the crowds." In this part he rebukes the ministers, and he does two things. First he recalls the deed; second, the unreasonableness of the deed, when he says: "as against a thief have you come out with swords and clubs to seize me." Job 16:10: "he has gnashed his teeth against me" — because they went out as if he were a thief, but they themselves rather came as thieves. A thief hides so as not to be caught; but Christ offers himself openly. And thieves, if they wish to do harm, do not do harm in public; but Christ offered himself. Hence he says: "daily I was with you teaching in the temple, and you did not seize me"; therefore you have come as thieves. For in order to give them the opportunity, he went out of the city. "Daily I was with you teaching in the temple." A similar thing is found in John 18:20: "I have spoken nothing in secret." And he says "teaching in the temple." This was always his custom, to teach in the temple. "And you did not seize me." Hence it is clear that you have come like thieves. Next the testimony is set down: "but all this was done, that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled." And he does not say of whom, because it is found as it were in all of them; Psalm 21:17: "they have dug my hands and my feet, and they have numbered all my bones." And Isaiah 53:3: "we esteemed him the last of men, a man of sorrows." And he says "that they might be fulfilled." The word "that" can be taken causatively, and thus it is not taken here; or consecutively, and thus it is taken here. For it did not happen because the prophets said it; but rather they foretold it because it was bound to happen. Hence the sense is "that it might be fulfilled," that is, by this deed there was fulfilled what had been foretold through the prophets. "Then all the disciples, leaving him, fled" — so that what is said in Psalm 37:12 might be fulfilled: "my friends and my neighbors have forsaken me." But why did they not forsake him from the beginning? Jerome answers: because it is written in John 7:30, that they sought him, and no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come. Hence from the beginning they believed that he could free himself, and would defend himself; but when they saw that he was captured, and that he did not wish to defend himself, they fled and forsook him.”

“But all this was done, that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled,.... Some have thought these to be the words of the evangelist, making this remark upon what was said and done; but by what both Mark and Luke record, Mar 14:49, they appear to be the words of Christ himself; who observes this, partly to make himself, as man, easy under the treatment he met with; and partly, to fortify the minds of his disciples against offence at it; and also to throw conviction, or confusion, into the minds of his enemies. The Scriptures of the prophets he refers to, as having, or about to have, by this conduct, their accomplishment, were such, as regarded the betraying him by Judas, the taking him in this secret, private, insidious, yet violent manner; in all which he showed great meekness, calmness, and submission, as Psa 41:9. As also what respected the scattering, and hasty flight of his disciples from him, Zac 13:7, which in the next clause is shown to be accomplished, Then all the disciples forsook him and fled; not only went away from him, and left him alone, as he foretold they would, Joh 16:32, but they ran away from him in a precipitant manner, like timorous sheep, the shepherd being about to be smitten; and they fearing, lest Peter's rash action should be imputed to them all, and they suffer for it; or lest they should be laid hold on next, and bound, as their master was, or about to be. Every thing in this account is an aggravation of their pusillanimity, and ingratitude; as that they were the "disciples" of Christ that forsook him, whom he had called, and sent forth as his apostles to preach his Gospel; and to whom he had given extraordinary gifts and powers; who had forsaken all and followed him, and had been with him from the beginning; had heard all his excellent discourses, and had seen all his miracles, and yet these at last forsake him, and even "all" of them: John the beloved disciple, that leaned on his bosom, and Peter, that professed so much love to him, zeal for him, and faith in him; the three that had just seen him in his agony and bloody sweat, and everyone of them left him; not one stood by him, and this too, after they had had a fresh instance of his power, in striking the men to the ground, that came to take him; and when he was sueing for them with their enemies, to let them go peaceably and safely: so that they had no need to have fled in such haste; and to leave him "then", in the midst of his enemies, in his great distress and trouble, was very unkind and ungrateful: and to this account of the evangelist, pretty much agrees what the Jews themselves say of it; for they report (p), that "when his disciples saw that he was taken, and that they could not fight against them, , "they ran away on foot", and lift up their voice and wept greatly. Though they also pretend, that the citizens of Jerusalem killed many of them, and that the rest "fled" to the mountain, which is false, (p) Toldos Jesu, p. 16, 17.”

“In that same hour, &c. The reason why the Jewish princes did not seize our Lord in the temple, was, because they feared the multitude; on which account Jesus retired, that he might give them an opportunity, both from the circumstances of place and time, to apprehend him: thus shewing us, that without his permission they could not so much as lay a finger upon him. The evangelist informs us in the following verse of the reason of this conduct; that the writings of the prophets might be fulfilled. (St. Chrysostom) See Luke xxii. 53.”