Chú giải Kinh Thánh

Matthew 26:49. κατεφίλησεν, kissed Him heartily. In late Greek there was a tendency to use compounds with the force of the simple verb, and this has been supposed, to be a case in point (De Wette). But coming after φιλήσω, Matthew 26:48, the compound verb is plainly used with intention. It occurs again in Luke 7:38; Luke 7:45; Luke 15:20, obviously with intensive force. What a tremendous contrast between the woman in Simon’s house (Luke 7) and Judas! Both kissed Jesus fervently: with strong emotion; yet the one could have died for Him, the other betrays Him to death. Did Jesus remember the woman at that moment?

Matthew 26:50. ἑταῖρε: so might a master salute a disciple, and disciple or companion is, I think, the sense of the word here (so Elsner, Palairet, Wolf, Schanz, Carr, Camb. N. T.). It answers to ῥαββί in the salute of Judas.—ἐφʼ ὃ πάρει, usually taken as a question: “ad quid venisti?” Vulg[140] Wherefore art thou come? A. V[141] “Wozu bist du da?” Weizsäcker. Against this is the grammatical objection that instead of ὃ should have been τὶ. Winer, § 24, 4, maintains that ὃς might be used instead of τίς in a direct question in late Greek. To get over the difficulty various suggestions have been made: Fritzsche renders: friend, for what work you are come! taking ὃ = οἷον. Others treat the sentence as elliptical, and supply words before or after: e.g., say for what you are come (Morison), or what you have come for, that do, R. V[142], Meyer, Weiss. The last is least satisfactory, for Judas had already done it, as Jesus instinctively knew. Fritzsche’s suggestion is ingenious, and puts a worthy thought into Christ’s mouth. Perhaps the best solution is to take the words as a question in effect, though not in form. Disciple, for which, or as which you are present? Comrade, and as a comrade here? So Judas pretended, and by the laconic phrase Jesus at once states and exposes the pretence, possibly pointing to the crowd behind in proof of the contrary. So in effect Beng.: “hoccine illud est cujus causa ades?”; also Schanz. The point is that the Master gives the false disciple to understand that He does not believe in his paraded affection.

[140] Vulgate (Jerome’s revision of old Latin version).

[141] Authorised Version.

[142] Revised Version.

Matthew 26:51-54. Blood drawn.—ἰδού, introducing a second scene connected with the apprehension (cf. Matthew 26:47); the use of a weapon by one of Christ’s disciples. A quite likely occurrence if any of them happened to have weapons in their hands, though we may wonder at that. It might be a large knife used in connection with the Paschal feast. Who used the weapon is not said by the Synop. Did they know? The article before μάχαιραν might suggest that the whole party were armed, each disciple having his sword. The fear that they might be explains the largeness of the band following Judas.

Matthew 26:52. ἀπόστρεψον: Jesus could not encourage the use of arms by His disciples, and the order to sheathe the weapon He was sure to give. The accompanying word, containing a general legal maxim: draw the sword, perish with the sword (the subsequent history of the Jewish people a tragic exemplification of its truth), suitably enforces the order. Weiss thinks that this word recorded here was spoken by Jesus at some other time, if at all, for it appears to be only a free reproduction of Revelation 13:10 (Meyer, ed. Weiss). This and the next two verses are wanting in Mk. and Lk.

Matthew 26:53 gives another reason for not using the sword: if it were God’s will that His Son should be rescued it could be done in a different way. he way suggested is described in military language, the verbs παρακαλεῖν and παριστάναι being both used in classics in connection with military matters, and the word λεγεῶνας suggesting the battalions of the Roman army.—δώδεκα, twelve legions, one for each of the twelve disciples.—πλείω, even more than that vast number, Divine resources boundless. The free play of imagination displayed in this conception of a great army of angels evinces the elasticity of Christ’s spirit and His perfect self-possession at a critical moment.

Matthew 26:54. πῶς οὖν: refers to both forms of aid, that of the sword and that of angels (Grotius, Fritzsche); rescue in any form inconsistent with the predicted destiny of Messiah to be a sufferer.—ὅτι οὕτω, etc., the purport of all prophetic scripture is that thus it should be: apprehension and all that is to follow.

Matthew 26:55-56. Jesus complains of the manner of His apprehension.—ἐν ἐκ. τ. ὥρᾳ, connects with ἐκράτησαν αὐτόν in Matthew 26:50. Having said what was necessary to the bellicose disciple, Jesus turns to the party which had come to arrest Him, here called τοῖς ὄχλοις.—ὡς ἐπὶ λῃστὴν, etc.: the words may be taken either as a question or as a statement of fact. In either case Jesus complains that they have arrested Him as if He were a robber or other criminal. A robber as distinct from a thief (vide Trench, Synonyms) is one who uses violence to possess himself of others’ property, and Christ’s complaint is in the first place that they have treated Him as one who meant to offer resistance. But the reference to His past habit in the sequel seems to show that He has another complaint in His mind, viz., that they have regarded Him as one hiding from justice. The allusion is to the invasion of His privacy in the garden, and the implied suggestion that they have put a false construction on His presence there. They think He has been seeking escape from His fate when in fact He has been bracing Himself up for it! To what misconstruction the holiest and noblest actions are liable, and how humiliating to the heroic soul! It was thoroughly characteristic of Jesus that He should feel the humiliation, and that He should at once give expression to the feeling. This against Brandt (p. 6), who thinks this utterance in no respect appropriate to the situation.—καθʼ ἡμέραν, etc.: Jesus asks in effect why they did not apprehend Him while, for several days in succession, He sat in the temple precincts teaching. To this it might be replied that that was easier said than done, in midst of a miscellaneous crowd containing not a few friends of the obnoxious teacher (so Brandt). But what Jesus is concerned to point out is, not the practicability of arrest in the temple, but that His behaviour had been fearless. How could they imagine that a man who spoke His mind so openly could slink away into hiding-places like an evil-doer? Brandt remarks that the complaint is addressed to the wrong persons: to the underlings rather than to the hierarchs. It is addressed to those who actually apprehended Jesus, whoever they were. Who composed that crowd it would not be easy in the dark to know.

Matthew 26:56. τοῦτο δὲ, etc.: a formula of the evangelist, introducing another reference by Jesus to the prophecies in these terms, ἵνα πληρωθῶσιν, etc. Jesus reconciles Himself to the indignity in the manner of His arrest, as to the arrest itself, and all that it involved, by the thought that it was in His “cup” as described by the prophets. The prophetic picture of Messiah’s experience acted as a sedative to His spirit.—τότε, then, when the apprehension had been effected, and meekly submitted to by Jesus.—πάντες, Peter included.—ἔφυγον, fled, to save themselves, since their Master could not be saved. This another bitter drop in the cup: absolute loneliness.