So ended the first scene in the terrible drama of that night. __________________________________________________________________
[5818] Ps. cxv. to cxviii.
[5819] Zech. xiii. 7.
[5820] St. Matt. xxvi. 32; St. Mark. xiv. 28.
[5821] St. John xxi. 2.
[5822] St. Matt. xxviii. 16.
[5823] u. s. vv.18-20.
[5824] St. Luke xxii. 31.
[5825] It is very probable that the basis of the figure is Amos ix. 9.
[5826] St. John vi. 68.
[5827] St. Matt. xvi. 16.
[5828] St. John xxi. 15-17.
[5829] This even philologically, and in all the passages in which the word is used. Except in St. Matt. ix. 38, it occurs only in the writings of St. Luke and St. Paul.
[5830] Curiously enough, Roman Catholic writers see in the prediction of his fall by implication an assertion of Peter's supremacy. This, because they regard Peter as the representative and head of the others.
[5831] St. John xvii. 15.
[5832] This crowing of the cock has given rise to a curious controversy, since, according to Rabbinic law, it was forbidden to keep fowls in Jerusalem, on account of possible Levitical defilements through them (Baba K. vii. 7). Reland has written a special dissertation on the subject, of which Schöttgen has given a brief abstract. We need not reproduce the arguments, but Reland urges that, even if that ordinance was really in force at the time of Christ (of which there is grave doubt), Peter might have heard the cock crow from Fort Antonia, occupied by the Romans, or else that it might have reached thus far in the still night air from outside the walls of Jerusalem. But there is more than doubt as to the existence of this ordinance at the time. There is repeated mention of cock-crow' in connection with the Temple-watches, and if the expression be regarded as not literal, but simple a designation of time, we have in Jer. Erub. x. 1 (p. 26 a, about middle) a story in which a cock caused the death of a child at Jerusalem, proving that fowls must have been kept there.
[5833] St. Matthew speaks of this night,' St. Mark and St. Luke of this day,' proving, if such were needed, that the day was reckoned from evening to evening.
[5834] St. Luke xxii. 35-38.
[5835] Omit the article.
[5836] Jos. War iii. 3, 2.
[5837] The objection has been raised, that, according to the Mishnah (Shabb. vi. 4), it was not lawful to carry swords on the Sabbath. But even this Mishnah seems to indicate that there was divergence of opinion on the subject, even as regarded the Sabbath, much more a feast-day.
[5838] St. Matt. xxvi. 36.
[5839] St. Mark v. 37.
[5840] St. Matt. xvii. 1.
[5841] We mark a climax. The last word (demonen) used both by St. Matthew and St. Mark seems to indicate utter loneliness, desertion, and desolateness.
[5842] Heb. v. 7.
[5843] St. Luke xxii. 41.
[5844] Comp. Acts. xxi.
[5845] The Vulgate renders: avulsus est.' Bengel notes: serio affectu.'
[5846] St. Matt. xxvi. 39, 42.
[5847] St. Jerome notes: dicitque blandiens: Mi Pater.'
[5848] St. Mark xiv. 36.
[5849] This explains the p ts elabeas of Hebr. v. 7.
[5850] St. Matt. xxvi. 40.
[5851] Bengel: Signum bibendi calicis.'
[5852] The pathological phenomenon of blood being forced out of the vessels in bloody sweat, as the consequence of agony, has been medically sufficiently attested. See the Commentaries.
[5853] No one who has seen it, can forget the impression of Carlo Dolce's picture, in which the drops as they fall kindle into heavenly light.
[5854] They probably knew of the Bloody Sweat by seeing its marks on His Brow, though those who did not follow Him on His capture may have afterwards gone, and in the moonlight seen the drops on the place where He had knelt.
[5855] It will be noticed that we place an interval of time, however brief, between St. Matt. xxvi. 45 (and similarly St. Mark xiv. 41) and the following verse. So already St. Augustine.