Biblion Bible Commentary
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The Arrest
Matthew 26:47-56
47 While he was still speaking, behold, Judas, one of the twelve, came, and with him a great multitude with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and elders of the people. · WEB
A kiss for a signal, a sword drawn and put back, and twelve legions that are not called.
While he was still speaking, behold, Judas, one of the twelve, came, and with him a great multitude with swords and clubs Matthew 26:47.
The phrase one of the twelve is used a third time. The arrest is told in the earlier account Mark 14:43–72.
"Whoever I kiss, he is the one" Matthew 26:48. The signal is necessary because it is dark and because the arresting party does not know him by sight, which says something about how little the men who ordered this had to do with him. And the sign chosen is a disciple's ordinary greeting to his teacher. "Greetings, Rabbi!" — the title again, and the kiss.
"Friend, why are you here?" Matthew 26:50. The word is the same cool address given to the grumbling laborer and the man without wedding clothes Matthew 20:13 Matthew 22:12. It is not warmth and it is not abuse; it is a door left very slightly open, and the question is a real one.
One of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword, and struck the servant of the high priest, and cut off his ear Matthew 26:51. Someone finally does something, and it is the wrong thing. He is aiming for a head in the dark and the man moved.
"Put your sword back into its place, for all those who take the sword will die by the sword" Matthew 26:52. Matthew alone carries the saying, and it is stated as a general law rather than as a rule for that night — a description of what violence does to the people who reach for it.
"Or do you think that I couldn't ask my Father, and he would even now send me more than twelve legions of angels?" Matthew 26:53. A legion was six thousand men, and twelve of them is one for each disciple and to spare. The point is not the arithmetic but the tense: they are available now, on request, and the request is not made. What holds him is not the ropes.
"Have you come out as against a robber with swords and clubs to seize me? I sat daily in the temple teaching, and you didn't arrest me" Matthew 26:55. The armed party is exposed as theater. He was available every day in public, and they came at night with clubs.
Then all the disciples left him and fled Matthew 26:56. Six words, and the prediction of an hour earlier is complete.
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