Jesus reiterated His question : ' Whom are ye seeking 1 ' and, when they answered again : ' Jesus the Nazarene,' He once more gave Hiinself up to arrest, adding an intercession for the Eleven : ' If ye are seeking inc, let these men go their way.' Recovering themselves, tho soldiers seized Him, and, as they were proceeding to bind Him, the more roughly perhaps that they were ashamed of their wealoiess, the indignation of the disciples mastereil their alarm, and Peter, with the courage of despair, drew a sword which he carried under his cloak II and, assailing a slave of the high priest named Malchus, cut of!' his right ear. An uproar ensued, and the disciples must have paitl the of the rash act had not Jesus intervened.
penalty
(Vorking His liaiuls free from the cords and crav- ing a brief ii.li_-:i>e: 'Let me go— just thus far,' He tourhud t \t<- w <juiiiled ear and healed it.lT The miraL-l(Mi(i:i -iinHil :\ iliversion; and, while his mates were cniwilin- .ili. mt Malchus, Jesus reasoned with His cMiicil i.ill.>\\ors. 'Put the sword into its sheath,' II. ■ .(Minnanded Peter. 'The cup which my FiilliiT liaih L;iveu me, shall I not drink it? Dost thou suppose that I cannot appeal to my
» Mt SO^JiJ = Jlk 14JJ « (f,Xr,«-a, nxTiflkyia-tv. Cf. Lk T**- «. t Euth. Zig. TO oi .y Z (Tisch. , WH i<l' ») tript, cU ipany,!acT,K£l ctvayvuB-TioV iyivMaxi yctp lip' Z frotpiyiviTo' iAX' ctrofKVTixui.
I Alt Prlncipiaiii Exptan.' Jfsalm. xliv. it I'lut. C. Mar. § 39.
II Cf. Lk 2233. Chrysostom thinks that these /
knO'e) which
may mean either sword - Peter and John"(cf. Lk 2'28) had used in slayii „ the Pasclial lamb. It evinces their sense of impending perd that they carried the /j.xx<^'fxi despite the legal prohibition.
•^ Tins miracle is recorded by Luke alone, but the immunity of Peter from instant vengeance is inexplicable \
ithoul i
120
ART
Father, and he will even now send to my support more than twelve legions of angels {i.e. one for Himself and one for each of the Eleven) ? How then are the scriptures to be fulfilled that even thus it must come to pass ? ' St. Chrysostom * finds here an allusion to the destruction of Sennacherib's army (2 K 19"°) : If a single angel smote that host of 185,000 armed men, what could this rabble do against 72,000 angels ?
Anxious to avert attention still further from the Eleven, Jesus addressed Himself to the Jewish rulers who with their officers had accompanied the soldiers. 'As though against a brigand,' He said scornfully, ' have ye come forth with swords and cudgels? Daily in the temple I was wont to sit teaching, and ye did not arrest me.' What had kept them from arresting Him in the temple- court? It was fear of the multitude (cf. Mt 2S'-^= Mk 14'"°= Lk 22''°). And they were cowards still, coming forth with an armed band against a de- fenceless man. It was a stroke of biting sarcasm, and they felt the sting of it. Apparently it ])io- voked them to violence. At all events the Eleven were at that moment stricken with sudden panic, and 'all forsook him and fled.'
They made good their escape, but the infuriated rulers t laid hands on one who, though not a follower of Jesus, was evidently a friend and sympathizer. St. Mark alone has recorded the incident. A solitary figure (efs ns) strangely attired had been liovering near during the reti- contre — 'a young man arr.ayed in a linen sheet J over liis undress.' When the Eleven took to flight the rulers laid hold on him ; and, dropping his garment, he left it in their grasp and escaped un- dressed. §
"Who was he? and why should the Evangelist have recorded an incident which seems merely to introduce an incongruous element of comedy into the tragic narrative ? Of all the con- jectures which have been offered, || the most reasonable seems to be that he was St. Mark himself (Olshaus., Godet). The conjec- ture is of recent date, but long ago it was alleged that he w.as from the house where Jesus had eaten the Passover (Euth. Zig., Theophyl.) ; and it may well have been, as Ewald suggests, the house of Mary, that widow lady who resided in Jerusalem with her son John Mark, and showed hospitality to the Apostles in after days C.\c 1212). Probably Mark had gone to rest that evening after the celebration of the Passover by his household, and, with a foreboding of trouble, had lain awake. He had heard Jesus and the Eleven descend after nii.lniL-lil from the upper room andqnittlie house, and, h;i-l;l\ n-:]ij ,. , 1 i ipping his sheet about hint, had anxiouslj' f-!l i..\- I i- r i, i, .m,! witnessed all that passed in Gethsein.-ut- \: I ■ tliat
the incident was less trivial than it api'i i[ I : < i, - st.
Mark bore a singular epithet. He \\,i^ I ;' iimp-
lingered,' 1 and in the absence of an .\' !■■ I — : ' .n -jf
the epithet it may, perhaps, be conj-i :i I . ■ ■ ■ ; tlie scuffle in Gethsemane his finger had In-ih 1 lit^h
of a sword (see £a:po8. 1st ser. i. [ISTfil pi^ ,^.