(y") The omission of the agony in the garden. Keim says, if St. John's account of the imperial bearing of Jesus in the garden and at; the arrest be historical, then the Synoptic narrative is 'pulverized.' Renan, B. Weiss, and others are ready on the other hand to allow that we owe to this Gosj>el historic traits which throw mucli light upon the incidents of the passion. In John's account we have a more definite description of the [jlace (ktjttos) than in Mt and Mk with their x"?'"". <"■ Lk with the indefinite tottos. The ' garden ' was a ' place '
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•to which Jesus often resorted with his disciples.' Moreover, if the Syuop. narrative be historical, Jolin must have been with His Lord in the depth of the olive shade. He must even have witnessed what Luke {22*'- **, see below) describes of an agony insupportable, of the exceeding bitter cry, ol the cup wliich the Father gave the Son of His love to drink, of the bloody sweat, and of the supernatural rally when, having called from the depths of a divine despair to Him who was able to save Him from death. He was heard because of His godly fear. But this apostle must have seen as no other reporter saw so distinctly, the lanterns and torches which accompanied the temple-guard as they descended into the Kidron Valley by the steep side of the hill bilow the city wall; he knew the name, Malelius, of the servant of the high priest, whose riff/il ear Peter smote. Note, in addition to all this, how Jesus, according to John, rebukes Simon Peter for his rash mani- festation of physical courage, in words which remind us of the bitterest experience of Geth- Beniane. We must admit that little trace of the prostration of that awful scene presents itsrlf when the God-man (according to the Kouith Gospel) faces the enemy. He there appears to be a match for all the treachery of Judas, the malice of the chief pritsts, and even the military power of Rome. He meets the serried ranks of evil in the imperial calm of the intercessory prayer. It is the manner of this evangelist, and of other scrip- tural writers, to leave une-xjilained gai)S in the midst of what seems to be continuous narrative. Such a manifest hicuna occurs here between the close of the valedictory discourse and the arrest of the Son of Man. Ilut we see even from the Synop- tists th.nt the great agony was over, and that the angel had strengthentd Him (Lk 22", whose enuineness is indeed <loubtful ; see WH's note). he cry, ' Thj' will be ilone,' had linked the Father's purpose of redemption with the bleeding heart of man. He had now the energy to rebuke the rabble that gathered round llim. He drove Judiis to despair with words of incomparable re- proach. He moved forwards, in the face of false witness, to the a.ssertion of the highest claims of Messiahship and divine authority. Even accord- ing to the Synoptists, the agony of the garden ia compatible with the most stupendous claims.
Moreover, it should not be forgotten that the Fourth Gosjiel never ignores the vicarious sorrow or the sacrificial agony of the Son of God. Not onlv does the author show in the valedictory atlilress and prayer the keenest appreciation of BuHering (see IG^-*-" 17" IS'"""'- and U*"), but he gives a parallel scene of surpassing intensity in 12^'", when a fearful looking for of deviation from the Father's will is surmounted by ' Father, glorify thy name!' The moral .signihcance and the culminating intensity of the sacrifice is really placed chronologically before (not after) the ex- perience of the upper chanilx.-r. Cf. also the strange blendings of humiliation ukl victory in the story of the resurrection of Lazaras. We must admit that as the temptation, the trr.nsliguration, and the Eucharist are suggested throughout the Fourth (Jospel, so also is the agony of Gethsemane, and, we may aild, the bodily ascension of the Lord. The question arises : is the Synoptic narrative, which preifents these themes in tableaux visions or revelations, or is the Fourth Gospel, which gives the some teaching in a group of objective facts and recorded words, the more liistorical ?
To John's eye the grand syntliesis of majesty and mercy, of diWnity and humanity, of the ideal and the actual, the olending of the mystery of pain with the hrightnes-sof the glory, was present in all the word and work of the Logos incarnate.
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To the Synoptic tradition, the universally diffused sj'iithesis is gathered up into scenes and acts of a drama which readers have no power to blend without philosophical and theological hj'potheses. If we are right here, much of the current anti- theological criticism of the Fourth Gospel vanishes.
C. There are numerous correspondences between the two documents which merit special considera- tion.
(a) The broad facts, the leading outlines of the life of the Only-begotten are the same. The namt of ' Jesus,' tlie jdnre of His early residence (Nazaretli), the indisputable reference to 'father,' ' mother,' ' brethren,' and ' sisters,' the signili- canie of this in connexion with the confession of His birth from the Spirit and of His having come down from heaven, belong to the two sources. The birth at Bethlehem (Jn 7^-) is assumed to be true by the refusal to explain away a cliarge actual!}- made. Tlie reader knows th.at the Synop. tradition lias already forestalled the objection which John, for special reasons, reported. Both sources of tradition agree that Capernaum was cliosen by Jesus as the scene of special ministry. The ilill'erent treatment of the Baptist is due to the obvious fact tliat tlie Fourth Gospel takes up his story where tlie Sj-noptics lay it down. After tlie wondrous manifestation in the Jordan, and the conlidences between Jesus and John after the temiitation, the Baptist was dazzled with a vi.sion bolli of His glory and of His sacrilice. He pene- trated the reality of both, and used the mighty names of 'Son of God,' 'Lamb of God,' and ' Bridegroom ' of the veritable Israel. All this was perfectly compatible with the fact that the previous knuirledije of Jesus by John — even a Knowledge sufficient to justify the exclamation, 'I have need to be baptized ol thee' (Mt 3) — was as star-light to sun-light.