It was in this extreme Agony of Soul almost unto death, that the Angel appeared (as in the Temptation in the wilderness) to strengthen' and support His Body and Soul. And so the conflict went on, with increasing earnestness of prayer, all that terrible hour. [5850] For, the appearance of the Angel must have intimated to Him, that the Cup could not pass away. [5851] And at the close of that hour - as we infer from the fact that the disciples must still have seen on His Brow the marks of the Bloody Sweat [5852] - His Sweat, mingled with Blood, [5853] fell in great drops on the ground. And when the Saviour with this mark of His Agony on His Brow [5854] returned to the three, He found that deep sleep held them. While He lay in prayer, they lay in sleep; and yet where soul-agony leads not to the one, it often induces the other. His words, primarily addressed to Simon,' roused them, yet not sufficiently to fully carry to their hearts either the loving reproach, the admonition to Watch and pray' in view of the coming temptation, or the most seasonable warning about the weakness of the flesh, even where the spirit was willing, ready and ardent (prthumon).
The conflict had been virtually, though not finally, decided, when the Saviour went back to the three sleeping disciples. He now returned to complete it, though both the attitude in which He prayed (no longer prostrate) and the wording of His Prayer - only slightly altered as it was - indicate how near it was to perfect victory. And once more, on His return to them, He found that sleep had weighted their eyes, and they scarce knew what answer to make to Him. Yet a third time He left them to pray as before. And now He returned victorious. After three assualts had the Tempter left Him in the wilderness; after the threefold conflict in the Garden he was vanquished. Christ came forth triumphant. No longer did He bid His disciples watch. They might, nay they should, sleep and take rest, ere the near terrible events of His Betrayal - for, the hour had come when the Son of Man was to be betrayed into the hands of sinners.
A very brief period of rest this, [5855] soon broken by the call of Jesus to rise and go to where the other eight had been left, at the entrance of the Garden - to go forward and meet the band which was coming under the guidance of the Betrayer. And while He was speaking, the heavy tramp of many men and the light of lanterns and torches indicated the approach of Judas and his band. During the hours that had passed all had been prepared. When, according to arrangement, he appeared at the High-Priestly Palace, or more probably at that of Annas, who seems to have had the direction of affairs, the Jewish leaders first communicated with the Roman garrison. By their own admission they possessed no longer (for forty years before the destruction of Jerusalem) the power of pronouncing capital sentence. [5856] It is difficult to understand how, in view of this fact (so fully confirmed in the New Testament), it could have been imagined (as so generally) that the Sanhedrin had, in regular session, sought formally to pronounce on Jesus what, admittedly, they had not the power to execute. Nor, indeed, did they, when appealing to Pilate, plead that they had pronounced sentence of death, but only that they had a law by which Jesus should die. [5857] It was otherwise as regarded civil causes, or even minor offences. The Sanhedrin, not possessing the power of the sword, had, of course, neither soldiery, nor regularly armed band at command. The Temple-guard' under their officers served merely for purposes of police, and, indeed, were neither regularly armed nor trained. [5858] Nor would the Romans have tolerated a regular armed Jewish force in Jerusalem.