Chapter VII: Part 7

Meanwhile the offended and provoked dignitaries of Judaism were fast making arrangements to crush the daring innovator, who had done so much to bring their learning and their power into contempt. Some of the most fiery spirits among them, were for defying all risks, by seizing the Nazarene openly, in the midst of his audacious denunciations of the higher orders; and the attempt was made to execute this act of arbitrary power; but the mere hirelings sent upon the errand, were too much awed by the unequaled majesty of the man, and by the strong attachment of the people to him, to be willing to execute their commission. But there were old heads among them, that could contrive safer and surer ways of meeting the evil. By them it was finally determined to seize Jesus when alone or unattended by the throngs which usually encompassed him,――to hurry him at once secretly through the forms of law necessary for his commitment, and then to put him immediately into the hands of the Roman governor, as a condemned rioter and rebel, who would be obliged to order his execution in such a way as that no popular excitement would rescue the victim from the grasp of the soldiery. This was the plan which they were now arranging, and which they were prepared to execute before the close of the passover, if they could get intelligence of his motions. These fatal schemes of hate could not have been unknown to Jesus; yet the knowledge of them made no difference in his bold devotion to the cause for which he came into the world. Anxious to improve the few fast fleeting hours that remained before the time of his sufferings should come on, and desirous to join as a Jew in this great national festival, by keeping it in form with his disciples, he directed his two most confidential apostles, Peter and John, to get ready the entertainment for them in the city, by an arrangement made with a man already expecting to receive them. This commission they faithfully executed, and Jesus accordingly ate with his disciples the feast of the first day of the passover, in Jerusalem, with those who sought his life so near him. After the supper was over, he determined to use the brief remnant of time for the purpose of uprooting that low feeling of jealous ambition which had already made so much trouble among them, in their anxious discussions as to who should be accounted the greatest, and should rank as the ruler of the twelve. To impress the right view upon their minds most effectually, he chose the oriental mode of a ceremony which should strike their senses, and thus secure a regard and remembrance for his words which they might fail in attaining if they were delivered in the simple manner of trite and oft spoken oral truisms. He therefore rose after supper, and leaving his place at the head of the table, he laid aside his upper garments, which, though appropriate and becoming him as a teacher in his hours of public instruction, or social communion, were yet inconvenient in any active exertion which needed the free use of the limbs. Being thus disrobed, he took the position and character of a menial upon him, and girding himself with a towel, he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet in it, wiping them with his towel. He accordingly comes to Simon Peter, in the discharge of his servile office; but Peter, whose ideas of the majesty and ripening honors of his Master were shocked at this extraordinary action, positively refused to be even the passive instrument of such an indignity to one so great and good,――first inquiring “Lord, dost thou wash my feet?” Jesus in answer said to him, “What I do, thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter.” That is, “this apparently degrading act has a hidden, useful meaning, at this moment beyond your comprehension, but which you will learn in due time.” Peter, however, notwithstanding this plain and decided expression of Christ’s wise determination to go through this painful ceremony, for the instruction of those who so unwillingly submitted to see him thus degraded,――still led on by the fiery ardor of his own headlong genius,――manfully persisted in his refusal, and expressed himself in the most positive terms possible, saying to Jesus, “Thou shalt never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.” This solemn remonstrance had the effect of checking Peter’s too forward reverence, and in a tone of deeper submission to the wise will of his Master, he yielded, replying however, “Lord, wash not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.” Since so low an office was to be performed by one so venerated, he would not have the favor of his blessed touch confined to the baser limbs, but desired that the nobler parts of the body should share in the holy ablution. But the high purpose of Jesus could not accommodate itself to the whims of his zealous disciple; for his very object was to take the humblest attitude before them, by performing those personal offices which were usually committed to slaves. He therefore told Peter, “He that is washed needs not save to wash his feet, but is clean in every part;”――a very familiar and expressive illustration, alluding to the circumstance that those who have been to a bath and there washed themselves, will on their return find themselves wholly clean, except such dust as may cling to their feet as they have passed through the streets on their return. And any one may feel the force of the beautiful figure, who has ever gone into the water for the purposes of cleanliness and refreshment, on a warm summer’s day in this country, and has found by experience that after all possible ablution, on coming out and dressing himself, his wet feet in contact with the ground have become loaded with dirt which demands new diligence to remove it; and as all who have tried it know, it requires many ingenious efforts to return with feet as clean as they came to the washing; and in spite of all, after the return, an inspection may forcibly illustrate the truth, that “he that is washed, though he is clean in every part, yet needs to wash his feet.” Such was the figure with which Jesus expressed to his simple-minded and unlettered disciples, the important truth, that since they had been already washed, (baptized by John or himself,) if that washing had been effectual, they could need the repurification only of their feet――the cleansing away of such of the world’s impure thoughts and feelings as had clung to them in their journeyings through it. So, after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments and sat down again, he said to them, “Know ye what I have done to you? Ye call me Master and Lord; and ye say well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you this as an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. Truly the servant is not greater than his lord, neither is he that is sent greater than him that sent him. If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.”――A charge so clear and simple, and so full, that it needs not a word of comment to show any reader the full force of this touching ceremony.

Shortly after, in the same place and during the same meeting, Jesus speaking to them of his near departure, affectionately and sadly said, “Little children, but a little while longer am I with you. Ye shall seek me; and as I said to the Jews, ‘whither I go, ye cannot come,’――so now I say to you.” To this Simon Peter soon after replied by asking him, “Lord whither goest thou?” Jesus answered him, “Whither I go thou canst not follow me now, but thou shalt follow me afterwards.” Peter, perhaps beginning to perceive the mournful meaning of this declaration, replied, still urging, “Lord, why cannot I follow thee now? I will lay down my life for thy sake.” Jesus answered, “Wilt thou lay down thy life for my sake? I tell thee assuredly, the cock shall not crow till thou hast denied me thrice.”――Soon after, at the same time and place, noticing the confident assurance of this chief disciple, Jesus again warned him of his danger and his coming fall. “Simon! Simon! behold, Satan has desired to have you (_all_) that he may sift you as wheat; but I have prayed for _thee_ (_especially_) that _thy_ faith fail not; and when _thou_ art converted, strengthen thy brethren.” Never before had higher and more distinctive favor been conferred on this chief apostle, than by this sad prophecy of danger, weakness and sin, on which he was to fall, for a time, to his deep disgrace; but on him alone, when rescued from ruin by his Master’s peculiar prayers, was to rest the task of strengthening his brethren. But his Master’s kind warning was for the present lost on his immovable self-esteem; he repeated his former assurance of perfect devotion through every danger, “Lord, I am ready to go with thee into prison and to death.” Where was affectionate and heroic devotion ever more affectingly and determinedly expressed? What heart of common man would not have leaped to meet such love and fidelity? But He, with an eye still clear and piercing, in spite of the tears with which affection might dim it, saw through the veil that would have blinded the sharpest human judgment, and coldly met these protestations of burning zeal with the chilling prediction again uttered, “I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day, before thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me.” Then making a sudden transition, to hint to them the nature of the dangers which would soon try their souls, he suddenly reverted to their former security. “When I sent you forth without purse, or scrip, or shoes, did ye need any thing?” And they said “Nothing.” Then said he to them “But now, let him that has a purse, take it, and likewise his scrip; and let him that has no sword sell his cloak and buy one.” They had hitherto, in their wanderings, every where found friends to support and protect them; but now the world was at war with them, and they must look to their own resources both for supplying their wants and guarding their lives. His disciples readily apprehending some need of personal defense, at once bestirred themselves and mustered what arms they could on the spot, and told him that they had two swords among them, and of these it appears that one was in the hands of Peter. It was natural enough that among the disciples these few arms were found, for they were all Galileans, who, as Josephus tells us, were very pugnacious in their habits; and even the followers of Christ, notwithstanding their peaceful calling, had not entirely laid aside their former weapons of violence, which were the more needed by them, as the journey from Galilee to Jerusalem was made very dangerous by robbers, who lay in wait for the defenseless traveler wherever the nature of the ground favored such an attack. Of this character was that part of the road between Jerusalem and Jericho, alluded to in the parable of the wounded traveler and the good Samaritan,――a region so wild and rocky that it has always been dangerous, for the same reasons, even to this day; of which a sad instance occurred but a few years ago, in the case of an eminent English traveler, who going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, fell among thieves and was wounded near the same spot mentioned by Christ, in spite of the defenses with which he was provided. It was in reference to such dangers as these, that two of his disciples had provided themselves with hostile weapons, and Peter may have been instigated to carry his sword into such a peaceful feast, by the suspicion that the danger from the chief priests, to which Christ had often alluded, might more particularly threaten them while they were in the city by themselves, without the safeguard of their numerous friends in the multitude. The answer of Jesus to this report of their means of resistance was not in a tone to excite them to the very zealous use of them. He simply said, “It is enough,” a phrase which was meant to quiet them, by expressing his little regard for such a defense as they were able to offer to him, with this contemptible armament.

Some have conjectured that this washing of feet (page 97) was
a usual rite at the Paschal feast. So Scaliger, Beza, Baronius,
Casaubon and other learned men have thought. (See Poole’s
Synopsis, on John xiii. 5.) But Buxtorf has clearly shown the
falsity of their reasons, and Lightfoot has also proved that it
was a perfectly unusual thing, and that there is no passage in
all the Rabbinical writings which refers to it as a custom. It
is manifest indeed, to a common reader, that the whole peculiar
force of this ablution, in this instance, consisted in its being
an entirely unusual act; and all its beautiful aptness as an
illustration of the meaning of Jesus,――that they should cease
their ambitious strife for precedence,――is lost in making it
anything else than a perfectly new and original ceremony, whose
impressiveness mainly consisted in its singularity. Lightfoot
also illustrates the design of Jesus still farther, by several
interesting passages from the Talmudists, showing in what way
the ablution would be regarded by his disciples, who like other
Jews would look upon it as a most degraded action, never to
be performed except by inferiors to superiors. These Talmudic
authorities declare, that “Among the duties to be performed by
the wife to her husband, this was one,――that she should wash
his face, his hands and his feet.” (_Maimonides on the duties of
women._) The same office was due from a son to his father,――from
a slave to his master, as his references show; but he says he
can find no precept that a disciple should perform such a duty
to his teacher, unless it be included in this, “The teacher
should be more honored by his scholar than a father.”

He also shows that the feet were never washed separately, with
any idea of legal purification,――though the Pharisees washed
their hands separately with this view, and the priests washed
their hands and feet both, as a form of purification, but
never the feet alone. And he very justly remarks upon all this
testimony, that “the farther this action of Christ recedes from
common custom, the higher its fitness for their instruction,
――being performed not merely for an example but for a precept.”
(Lightfoot’s Horae Hebraica in Gospel of John xiii. 5.)

_Laid aside his garments._――The simple dress of the races of
western Asia, is always distinguishable into two parts or sets
of garments,――an inner, which covered more or less of the body,
fitting it tightly, but not reaching far over the legs or arms,
and consisted either of a single cloth folded around the loins,
or a tunic fastened with a girdle; sometimes also a covering for
the thighs was subjoined, making something like the rudiment of
a pair of breeches. (See Jahn Archaeologia Biblica § 120.) These
were the permanent parts of the dress, and were always required
to be kept on the body, by the common rules of decency. But the
second division of the garments, (“_superindumenta_,” Jahn,)
thrown loosely over the inner ones, might be laid aside, on any
occasion, when active exertion required the most unconstrained
motion of the limbs. One of these was a simple oblong, broad
piece of cloth, of various dimensions, but generally about
three yards long, and two broad, which was wrapped around the
body like a mantle, the two upper corners being drawn over the
shoulders in front, and the rest hanging down the back, and
falling around the front of the body, without any fastenings
but the folding of the upper corners. This garment was called by
the Hebrews שמלה or שלמה, (_simlah_ or _salmah_,) and sometimes
בגד; (_begedh_;)――by the Greeks, ἱματιον. (_himation_.) Jahn
Archaeologia Biblica. This is the garment which is always
meant by this Greek word in the New Testament, when used in
the singular number,――translated “cloak” in the common English
version, as in the passage in the text above, where Jesus
exhorts him that has no sword to sell his _cloak_ and buy one.
When this Greek word occurs in the plural, (ἱματια, _himatia_,)
it is translated “garments,” and it is noticeable that in most
cases where it occurs, the sense actually requires that it
should be understood only of the outer dress, to which I have
referred it. As in Matthew xxi. 8, where it is said that the
people spread their _garments_ in the way,――of course only their
outer ones, which were loose and easily thrown off, without
indecent exposure. So in Mark xi. 7, 8: Luke xix. 35. There is
no need then, of supposing, as Origen does, that Jesus took off
all his clothes, or was naked, in the modern sense of the term.
A variety of other outer garments in common use both among the
early and the later Jews, are described minutely by Jahn in his
Archaeologia Biblica, § 122. I shall have occasion to describe
some of these, in illustration of other passages.

My exegesis on the passage “He that is washed, needs not,” &c.
may strike some as rather bold in its illustration, yet if great
authorities are necessary to support the view I have taken,
I can refer at once to a legion of commentators, both ancient
and modern, who all offer the same general explanation, though
not exactly the same illustration. Poole’s Synopsis is rich in
references to such. Among these, Vatablus remarks on the need
of washing the feet of one already washed, “_scil. viae causa_.”
Medonachus says of the feet, “quos calcata terra iterum inquinat.”
Hammond says, “he that hath been initiated, and entered into
Christ, &c. is _whole clean_, and hath no need to be so washed
again, all over. All that is needful to him is the daily
ministering of the word and grace of Christ, to cleanse and
wash off the frailties, and imperfections, and lapses of our
weak nature, those feet of the soul.” Grotius says, “Hoc tantum
opus ei est, ut ab iis se purget quae ex occasione nascuntur.
Similitudo sumpta ab his _qui a balneo nudis pedibus abeunt_.”
Besides these and many others largely quoted by Poole, Lampius
also (in commentary in Gospel of John) goes very fully into the
same view, and quotes many others in illustration. Wolfius (in
Cur. Philology) gives various illustrations, differing in no
important particular, that I can see, from each other, nor from
that of Kuinoel, who calls them “contortas expositiones,” but
gives one which is the same in almost every part, but is more
fully illustrated in detail, by reference to the usage of the
ancients, of going to the bath before coming to a feast, which
the disciples no doubt had done, and made themselves clean in
all parts except their feet, which had become dirtied on the
way from the bath. This is the same view which Wolf also quotes
approvingly from Elsner. Wetstein is also on this point, as on
all others, abundantly rich in illustrations from classic usage,
to which he refers in a great number of quotations from Lucian,
Herodotus, Plato, Terence and Plutarch.

_Sift you as wheat._――The word σινιαζω (_siniazo_) refers to the
process of _winnowing_ the wheat after threshing, rather than
_sifting_ in the common application of the term, which is to
the operation of separating the flour from the bran. In oriental
agriculture the operation of winnowing is performed without any
machinery, by simply taking up the threshed wheat in a large
shovel, and shaking it in such a way that the grain may fall
out into a place prepared on the ground, while the wind blows
away the chaff. The whole operation is well described in the
fragments appended to Taylor’s editions of Calmet’s dictionary,
( Hund. i. No. 48, in Vol. III.) and is there illustrated
by a plate. The phrase then, was highly expressive of a
thorough trial of character, or of utter ruin, by violent and
overwhelming misfortune, and as such is often used in the Old
Testament. As in Jeremiah xv. 7. “I will fan them with a fan,”
&c. Also in li. 3. In Psalm cxxxix. 2. “Thou winnowest my path,”
&c.; compare translation “Thou _compassest_ my path.” The same
figure is effectively used by John the Baptist, in Matthew iii.
12, and Luke iii. 17.

_Galilean pugnacity._――Josephus, who was very familiar with the
Galileans by his military service among them, thus characterizes
them. “The Galileans are fighters even from infancy, and are
every where numerous, nor are they capable of fear.” Jewish War,
book III. chapter iii. section 2.

_From Jerusalem to Jericho._――The English traveler here referred
to, is Sir Frederic Henniker, who in the year 1820, met with
this calamity, which he thus describes in his travels, pp.
284‒289.

“The route is over hills, rocky, barren and uninteresting; we
arrived at a fountain, and here my two attendants paused to
refresh themselves; the day was so hot that I was anxious to
finish the journey, and hurried forwards. A ruined building
situated on the summit of a hill was now within sight, and I
urged my horse towards it; the janissary galloped by me, and
making signs for me not to precede him, he rode into and round
the building, and then motioned me to advance. We next came to
a hill, through the very apex of which has been cut a passage,
the rocks overhanging it on either side. Quaresmius, (book vi.
chapter 2.) quoting Brocardus, 200 years past, mentions that
there is a place horrible to the eye, and full of danger,
called Abdomin, which signifies blood; where he, descending
from Jerusalem to Jericho, fell among thieves. I was in the act
of passing through this ditch, when a bullet whizzed by, close
to my head; I saw no one, and had scarcely time to think, when
another was fired some distance in advance. I could yet see no
one,――the janissary was beneath the brow of the hill, in his
descent; I looked back, but my servant was not yet within sight.
I looked up, and within a few inches of my head were three
muskets, and three men taking aim at me. Escape or resistance
were alike impossible. I got off my horse. Eight men jumped down
from the rocks, and commenced a scramble for me; I observed also
a party running towards Nicholai. At this moment the janissary
galloped in among us with his sword drawn.

* * * * *

“A sudden panic seized the janissary; he cried on the name of
the Prophet, and galloped away. As he passed, I caught at a rope
hanging from his saddle. I had hoped to leap upon his horse, but
found myself unable;――my feet were dreadfully lacerated by the
honey-combed rocks――nature would support me no longer――I fell,
but still clung to the rope. In this manner I was drawn some few
yards, till, bleeding from my ancle to my shoulder, I resigned
myself to my fate. As soon as I stood up, one of my pursuers
took aim at me, but the other casually advancing between us,
prevented his firing; he then ran up, and with his sword, aimed
such a blow as would not have required a second; his companion
prevented its full effect, so that it merely cut my ear in
halves, and laid open one side of my face; they then stripped me
naked.

* * * * *

“It was now past mid-day, and burning hot; I bled profusely,
――and two vultures, whose business it is to consume corpses,
were hovering over me. I should scarcely have had strength to
resist, had they chosen to attack me. At length we arrived about
3 P. M. at Jericho.――My servant was unable to lift me to the
ground; the janissary was lighting his pipe, and the soldiers
were making preparations to pursue the robbers; not one person
would assist a half-dead Christian. After some minutes a few
Arabs came up and placed me by the side of the horse-pond, just
so that I could not dip my finger into the water. This pool is
resorted to by every one in search of water, and that employment
falls exclusively upon females;――they surrounded me, and seemed
so earnest in their sorrow, that, notwithstanding their veils, I
almost felt pleasure at my wound. One of them in particular held
her pitcher to my lips, till she was sent away by the Chous;――I
called her, she returned, and was sent away again; and the third
time she was turned out of the yard. She wore a red veil, (the
sign of not being married,) and therefore there was something
unpardonable in _her_ attention to any man, especially to a
Christian; she however returned with her mother, and brought me
some milk. I believe that Mungo Park, on some dangerous occasion
during his travels, received considerable assistance from the
compassionate sex.”

THE SCENES OF GETHSEMANE.

After much more conversation and prayer with his disciples in the supper-room, and having sung the hymn of praise which usually concluded the passover feast among the Jews, Jesus went with them out west of the city, over the brook Kedron, at the foot of the Olive mount, where there was a garden, called Gethsemane, to which he had often resorted with his disciples, it being retired as well as pleasant. While they were on the way, a new occasion happened of showing Peter’s self-confidence, which Jesus again rebuked with the prediction that it would too soon fail him. He was telling them all, that events would soon happen that would overthrow their present confidence in him, and significantly quoted to them the appropriate passage in Zechariah xiii. 7. “I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered.” Peter, glad of a new opportunity to assert his steadfast adherence to his Master, again assured him that, though all should be offended, or lose their confidence in him, yet would not he; but though alone, would always maintain his present devotion to him. The third time did Jesus reply in the circumstantial prediction of his near and certain fall. “This day, even this night, before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice.” This repeated distrustful and reproachful denunciation, became, at last, too much for Peter’s warm temper; and in a burst of offended zeal, he declared the more vehemently, “If I should die with thee, I will not deny thee in any wise.” To this solemn protestation against the thought of defection, all the other apostles present gave their word of hearty assent.

Illustration: VALLEY OF THE BROOK KEDRON
BETWEEN JERUSALEM AND THE MOUNT OF OLIVES.
John xviii. 1.

They now reached the garden, and when they had entered it, Jesus spoke to all the disciples present, except his three chosen ones, saying, “Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder.” He retired accordingly into some recess of the garden, with Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, James and John; and as soon as he was alone with them, begun to give utterance to feelings of deep distress and depression of spirits. Leaving them, with the express injunction to keep awake and wait for him, he went for a short time still farther, and there, in secret and awful woe, that wrung from his bowed head the dark sweat of an unutterable agony, yet in submission to God, he prayed that the horrible suffering and death to which he had been so sternly devoted, might not light on him. Returning to the three appointed watchers, he found them asleep! Even as amid the lonely majesty of Mount Hermon, human weakness had borne down the willing spirit in spite of the sublime character of the place and the persons before them; so here, not the groans of that beloved suffering Lord, for whom they had just expressed such deep regard, could keep their sleepy eyes open, when they were thus exhausted with a long day’s agitating incidents, and were rendered still more dull and stupid by the chilliness of the evening air, as well as the lateness of the hour of the night; for it was near ten o’clock. At this sad instance of the inability of their minds to overcome the frailties of the body, after all their fine protestations of love and zeal, he mildly and mournfully remonstrates with Peter in particular, who had been so far before the rest in expressing a peculiar interest in his Master. And he said to _Peter_, “Simon! sleepest _thou_? What! could ye not watch with me one hour? Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Well might he question thus the constancy of the fiery zeal which had so lately inspired Peter to those expressions of violent attachment. What! could not all that warm devotion, that high pride of purpose, sustain his spirit against the effects of fatigue and cold on his body? But they had, we may suppose, crept into some shelter from the cold night air, where they unconsciously forgot themselves. After having half-roused them with this fruitless appeal, he left them, and again passed through another dreadful struggle between his human and divine nature. The same strong entreaty,――the same mournful submission,――were expressed as before, in that moment of solitary agony, till again he burst away from the insupportable strife of soul, and came to see if yet sympathy in his sorrows could keep his sleepy disciples awake. But no; the gentle rousing he had before given them had hardly broken their slumbers. For a few moments the voice of their Master, in tones deep and mournful with sorrow, might have recalled them to some sense of shame for their heedless stupidity; and for a short time their wounded pride moved them to an effort of self-control. A few mutual expostulations in a sleepy tone, would pass between them;――an effort at conversation perhaps, about the incidents of the day, and the prospect of coming danger which their Master seemed to hint;――some wonderings probably, as to what could thus lead him apart to dark and lonely devotion;――very likely too, some complaint about the cold;――a shiver――a sneeze,――then a movement to a warmer attitude, and a wrapping closer in mantles;――then the conversation languishing, replies coming slower and duller, the attitude meanwhile declining from the perpendicular to the horizontal, till at last the most wakeful waits in vain for an answer to one of his drowsy remarks, and finds himself speaking to deaf ears; and finally overcome with impatience at them and himself, he sinks down into his former deep repose, with a half-murmured reproach to his companions on his lips. In short, as every one knows who has passed through such efforts, three sleepy men will hardly keep awake the better for each other’s company; but so far from it, on the contrary, the force of sympathy will increase the difficulty, and the very sound of drowsy voices will serve to lull all the sooner into slumber. In the case of the apostles too, who were mostly men accustomed to an active life, and who were in the habit of going to bed as soon as it was night, whenever their business allowed them to rest, all their modes of life served to hasten the slumbers of men so little inured to self-control of any kind. These lengthy reasons may serve to excite some considerate sympathy for the weakness of the apostles, and may serve as an apology for their repeated drowsiness on solemn occasions; for a first thought on the subject might suggest to a common man, the irreverent notion, that those who could slumber at the transfiguration of the Son of God on Mount Hermon, and at his agony in Gethsemane, must be very sleepy fellows. On this occasion these causes were sufficient to enchain their senses, in spite of the repeated exhortations of Jesus, for on his coming to them the second time, and saying in a warning voice, “Rise and pray, lest ye enter into temptation; why sleep ye?” they wist not what to answer him, for their eyes were very heavy, and they slept for sorrow. Still again he retired about a stone’s throw from them, as before, and there, prone on the ground, he renewed the strife with his feelings. Alone and unsympathized with by his friends, did the Redeemer of men endure the agonies of that hour, yet not wholly alone nor unsupported; for as Luke assures us, there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. At last the long struggle ceased. Distant voices coming over the glen through the stillness of the night, and the glare of torches flashing from the waters of the Kedron through the shades of the garden, gave him notice that those were near who came to drag him to a shameful death. Yet the repugnance of nature with which his late strife had been so dreadful, was now so overcome that he shrank not from the ♦approaching death, but calmly walked to meet it. Coming forward to his sleeping disciples, he said to them, “Sleep on now and take your rest; behold, the time is at hand when the son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Arise, let us be going.” The rush of the armed bands of the temple guards followed his words, and when the apostles sprung to their feet, their drowsiness was most effectually driven off by the appalling sight of a crowd of fierce men, filling the garden and surrounding them. As soon as the villainous leaders of the throng could overcome the reverence which even the lowest of their followers had for the majestic person of the Savior, they brought them up to the charge, and a retainer of the high priest, by name Malchus, with the forward officiousness of an insolent menial, laid hold of Jesus. Now was the time for Galilean spunk to show itself. The disciples around instantly asked, “Lord, shall we smite with the sword?” But without waiting for an answer, Peter, though amazed by this sudden and frightful attack, as soon as he saw the body of his adored Master profaned by the rude hands of base hirelings, foremost in action as in word, regardless of numbers, leaped on the assailants with drawn sword, and with a movement too quick to be shunned, he gave the foremost a blow, which, if the darkness had not prevented, might have been fatal. As it was, there could not have been a more narrow escape, for the sword lighting on the head of the priest’s zealous servant, just grazed his temple and cut off his ear. But this display of courage was after all, fruitless; for he was surrounded by a great body of men, armed in the expectation of this very kind of resistance; and in addition to this, the remonstrance of Jesus must have been sufficient to damp the most fiery valor. He said to his zealous and fierce defender, “Put up thy sword again into its sheath, for they that take the sword shall perish by the sword. The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink? Thinkest thou that if I should now pray to my Father, he would not instantly send me twelve legions of angels at a word? But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, which say that it must be thus?” Having thus stopped the ineffectual and dangerous opposition of his few followers, he quietly gave himself up to his captors, interceding however for his poor, friendless and unprotected disciples. “I am Jesus of Nazareth: if therefore you seek me, let these go their way.” This he said as it were in reference to a literal and corporeal fulfilment of the words which he had used in his last prayer with his disciples,――“Of them whom thou gavest me I lost none.” The disciples after receiving from Jesus such a special command to abstain from resistance, and perceiving how utterly desperate was the condition of affairs, without waiting the decision of the question, all forsaking him, fled; and favored by darkness and their familiar knowledge of the grounds, they all escaped in various directions.

♦ “ap-approaching” replaced with “approaching”

_Gethsemane._――This place has already been alluded to in the
description of Mount Olivet. [Note on p. 96.] From the same
source I extract a further brief notice of the present aspect of
this most holy ground. “Proceeding along the valley of Kedron,
at the foot of Mount Olivet, is the garden of Gethsemane:
an even plat of ground, not above fifty-seven yards square,
where are shown some old olive trees, supposed to identify the
spot to which our Lord was wont to repair. John xviii. 1, 2.”
[Modern Traveler, Palestine, p. 156.] It is also remarked by
Dr. Richardson, [p. 78 of the same work,] that “the gardens of
Gethsemane are still in the sort of a ruined cultivation; the
fences are broken down, and the olive trees decaying, as if the
hand that dressed and fed them was withdrawn.”

The etymology and meaning of the name Gethsemane, is given by
Lightfoot, (Centuria Chorographica in Matthew, chapter 41.)
The name is derived from the product of the tree which was
so abundantly raised there, and which gave name also to the
mountain. Gethsemane is compounded of גת, “a press,” and שמנא,
“olive oil,”――“an oil-press;” because the oil was pressed out
and manufactured on the spot where the olive was raised.

_Ten o’clock._――This I conclude to have been about the time,
because (in Matthew xxvi. 20) it is said that it was evening
already, (that is, about 6 o’clock,) when Jesus sat down to
supper with his disciples, and allowing time on the one hand for
the events at the supper-table and on the walk, as well as those
in the garden,――and on the other hand for those which took place
before midnight, (cock crowing,) we must fix the time as I have
above.

_The glare of torches._――John (xviii. 3.) is the only evangelist
who brings in this highly picturesque circumstance of the
equipment of the band with the means of searching the dark
shades and bowers of the garden.

HIS THREE-FOLD DENIAL.

Peter, however, had he not so soon forgot his zealous attachment to Jesus, as to leave him in such hands, without farther knowledge of his fate; but as soon as he was satisfied that the pursuit of the disciples was given up, he, in company with John, followed the band of officers at safe distance, and ascertained whither they were carrying the captive. After they had seen the train proceed to the palace of the high priest, they proceeded directly to the same place. Here John, being known to the high priest, and having friends in the family, went boldly in, feeling secure by his friendship in that quarter, against any danger in consequence of his connection with Jesus. Being known to the servant girl who kept the door, as a friend of the family, he got in without difficulty, and had also influence enough to get leave to introduce Peter, as a friend of his who had some curiosity to see what was going on. Peter, who had stood without the door waiting for the result of John’s maneuver, was now brought into the palace, and walked boldly into the hall where the examination of Jesus was going on, hoping to escape entirely unnoticed by keeping in the dimly lighted parts of the hall, by which he would be secure, at the same time that he would the better see what was going on near the lights. Standing thus out of the way in the back part of the room, he might have witnessed the whole without incurring the notice of anybody. But the servants and others, who had been out over the damp valley of the Kedron after Jesus, feeling chilled with the walk, (for the long nights of that season are in Jerusalem frequently in strong contrast with the warmth of mid-day,) made up a good fire of coal in the back part of the hall, where they stood looking on. Peter himself being, too, no doubt thoroughly chilled with his long exposure to the cold night air, very naturally and unreflectingly came forward to the fire, where he sat down and warmed himself among the servants and soldiers. The bright light of the coals shining directly on his anxious face, those who stood by, noticing a stranger taking such interest in the proceedings, began to scrutinize him more narrowly. At last, the servant girl who had let him in at the door, with the inquisitive curiosity so peculiarly strong in her sex, knowing that he had come in with John as his particular acquaintance, and concluding that he was like him associated with Jesus, boldly said to him, “Thou also art one of this man’s disciples.” But Peter, like a true Galilean, as ready to lie as to fight, thinking only of the danger of the recognition, at once denied him, forgetting the lately offensive prediction, in his sudden alarm. He said before them all, “Woman, I am not!――I know him not; neither do I understand what thou sayest.” This bold and downright denial silenced the forward impertinence of the girl, and for a time may have quieted the suspicions of those around. Peter, however, startled by this sudden attack, all at once perceived the danger into which he had unthinkingly thrust himself, and drawing back from his prominent station before the fire, which had made him so unfortunately conspicuous, went out into the porch of the building, notwithstanding the cold night air, preferring the discomfort of the exposure, to the danger of his late position. As he walked there in the open air, he heard the note of the cock sounding clear, through the stillness of midnight, announcing the beginning of the third watch. The sound had a sad import to him, and must have recalled to his mind some thought of his master’s warning; but before it could have made much impression, it was instantly banished altogether from his mind, by a new alarm from the inquisitiveness of some of the retainers of the palace, who, seeing a stranger lurking in a covert manner about the building at that time of night, very naturally felt suspicious enough of him to examine his appearance narrowly. Among those who came about him, was another of those pert damsels who seem to have been very numerous and forward about the house of the head of the Jewish faith. She, after a satisfactory inspection of the suspicious person, very promptly informed those that were there also about him, “This fellow also was with Jesus of Nazareth.” Peter’s patience being at last worn out with the pertinacious annoyances of these spiteful lasses, not only flatly contradicted the positive assertion of the girl, but backed his words with an oath, which seems to have had the decisive effect of hushing his female accusers entirely, and he considered himself to have turned off suspicion for a time so effectually, that, after cooling himself sufficiently in the porch, being distracted with anxiety about the probable fate of his beloved Master, he at last ventured again into the great hall of the palace, where the examination of Jesus was still going on. Here he remained a deeply interested spectator and auditor for about an hour, without being disturbed, when some of the bystanders who were not so much interested in the affair before them as to be prevented by it from looking about them, had their attention again drawn to the stranger who had been an object of such suspicion. There were probably more than one that recognized the active and zealous follower of the Nazarene, as Peter had been in such constant attendance on him throughout his whole stay in Jerusalem. But no one seems to have cared to provoke an irascible Galilean by an accusation which he might resent in the characteristic manner of his countrymen; till another of the servants of the high priest, a relation of Malchus, whose ear Peter had cut off, after looking well at him, and being provoked at the impudence of such a vagabond in thrusting himself into the home of the very man whom he had so shockingly mutilated and so nearly murdered, determined to bring the offender to punishment, and speaking to his fellow-servants, he indignantly and confidently affirmed, “This fellow also was with him, for he is a Galilean.” And turning to Peter, whom he had seen in Gethsemane, when engaged at the time of the capture of Jesus, he imperiously asked him, “Did I not see thee in the garden with him?” And others, joining in the charge, said decidedly to him, “Surely thou art one of them also: for thy very speech, thy accent, unquestionably, betrays thee to be a Galilean.” Peter began at last to see that his situation was growing quite desperate, and finding that his distress about his Lord had brought him within a chance of the same fate, determined to extricate himself by as unscrupulously using his tongue in his own defense as he had before used his sword for his Master. Besides, he had already told two flat lies within about three hours, and it was not for a Galilean in such a pass to hesitate about one more, even though seconded by a perjury. For he then began to curse and to swear, saying, “Man, I know not what thou sayest.――I know not the man of whom ye speak.” And immediately, while he was yet speaking, the cock crew the second time. At that moment, the Lord turned and looked upon Peter, and at the same sound the conscience-stricken disciple turning towards his Lord, met that glance. And what a look! He who cannot imagine it for himself, cannot conceive it from the ideal picture of another; but its effect was sufficiently dramatic to impress the least picturesque imagination. As the Lord turned and looked upon him, Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said to him, “Before the cock shall crow twice this night, thou shalt deny me thrice.” And thinking thereon, he went out, and wept bitterly. Tears of rebuked conceit,――of self-humbled pride, over fallen glory and sullied honor,――flowed down his manly cheeks. Where was now the fiery spirit once in word so ready to brave death, with all the low malice of base foes, for the sake of Jesus? Where was that unshaken steadiness, that dauntless energy that once won him from the lips of his Master, when first his searching eye fell on him, the name of the ROCK,――that name by which again he had been consecrated as the mighty foundation-ROCK of the church of God? Was this the chief of the apostles?――the keeper of the keys of the kingdom of heaven?――binding and loosing on earth what should be bound or loosed in heaven? Where were the brave, high hopes of earthly glory to be won under the warlike banners of his kingly Master? Where was that Master and Lord? The hands of the rude were now laid on him, in insult and abuse,――his glories broken and faded,――his power vain for his own rescue from sufferings vastly greater than those so often relieved by him in others,――his followers dispirited and scattered,――disowning and casting out as evil the name they had so long adored. The haughty lords of Judaism were now exulting in their cruel victory, re-established in their dignity, and strengthened in their tyranny by this long-wished triumph over their deadly foe. He wept for bright hopes dimmed,――for crushed ambition,――but more than all, for broken faith,――for trampled truth,――and for the three-fold and perjured denial of his betrayed and forsaken Lord. Well might he weep――

“There’s bliss in tears,
When he who sheds them inly feels
Some lingering stain of early years
Effaced by every drop that steals.
The fruitless showers of worldly woe
Fall dark to earth and never rise;
But tears that from repentance flow,
In bright exhalement reach the skies.”

_The soldiers_, &c.――It has been supposed by some that this
armed force was a part of the Roman garrison which was always
kept in Castle Antonia, close by the temple; (see note on page
95;) but there is nothing in the expressions of either of the
evangelists which should lead us to think so; on the contrary,
their statement most distinctly specifies, that those concerned
in the arrest were from a totally different quarter. Matthew
(xxvi. 47) describes them as “a great throng, with swords and
staves, from the chief priests and elders of the people.” The
whole expression implies a sort of half-mob of low fellows,
servants and followers of the members of the Sanhedrim,
accompanying the ordinary temple-guard, which was a mere band of
Levite peace-officers under the priests, whose business it was
to keep order in the courts of the temple――a duty hardly more
honorable than that of a sweeper or “doorkeeper in the house
of the Lord,” from which office, indeed, it was probably not
distinct. These watchmen and porters, for they were no better,
were allowed by the Roman government of the city and kingdom,
a kind of contemptuous favor in bearing swords to defend from
profane intrusion their holy shrine, which Gentile soldiers
could not approach as guards, without violating the sanctity of
the place. Such a body as these men and their chance associates,
are therefore well and properly described by Matthew, as a
“throng with swords and clubs;” but what intelligent man would
ever have thought of characterizing in this way, a regular
detachment of the stately and well-armed legion which maintained
the dignity and power of the Roman governor of Judea? Mark (xiv.
43) uses precisely the same expression as Matthew, to describe
them: Luke (xxii. 52) represents Jesus as speaking to “the chief
priests and _captains of the temple_ and the elders, who had
come against him, saying, ‘Have you come out as against a thief,
with swords and clubs?’” John (xviii. 3) speaks of the band
as made up in part of the servants of “the chief priests and
Pharisees,” &c. So that the whole matter, unquestionably, was
managed and executed entirely by the Jews; and the progress of
the story shows that they did not call in the aid of the heathen
secular power, until the last bloody act required a consummation
which the ordinances of Rome forbade to the Jews, and then
only did they summon the aid of the governor’s military force.
Indeed, they were too careful in preserving their few peculiar
secular privileges still left, to give up the smallest power of
tyrannizing, permitted by their Roman lords.

_The long nights in contrast with the heat of the day._――It
should be remembered, that according to a just calculation,
these events happened in the month of March, when the air
of Palestine is uncomfortably cold. Conder, in his valuable
topographical compilation, says, “during the months of May,
June, July and August, the sky is for the most part cloudless;
but during the night, the earth is moistened with a copious dew.
Sultry days are not unfrequently succeeded by intensely cold
nights. To these sudden vicissitudes, references are made in
the Old Testament. Genesis xxxi. 40: Psalm cxxi. 6.” [Modern
Traveler, Palestine, p. 14.]

The cold season, (קור _Qor_,) immediately following the true
winter, (חרפ _Hhoreph_,) took in the latter part of the Hebrew
month Shebeth, the whole of Adar, and the former half of
Nisan; that is in modern divisions of time,――from the beginning
of February to the beginning of April, according to the
_Calendarium Palestinae_, in the Critica Biblica, Vol. III:
but according to Jahn, (Archaeologia Biblica § 21,) from the
_middle_ of February to the _middle_ of April, the two estimates
varying with the different views about the dates of the ancient
Hebrew months.