Mat 26:47-58 | PNT | STEP | Judas, one of the twelve, came . Judas knew the place where the Lord would go to pass the night ( ). Compare . A great multitude . Roman soldiers ( ), the temple guard, "the captains of the temple" ( ), and possibly some priests and scribes. With swords . In the hands of the soldiers. Staves . Clubs. The rabble with the soldiers carried these. The chief priests and elders . The Sanhedrin.

Matthew 26:47-58

Judas, one of the twelve, came. Judas knew the place where the Lord would go to pass the night (Joh 18:2). Compare Mr 14:43-50 Lu 22:47-53 Joh 18:3-12.

A great multitude. Roman soldiers (Joh 18:3,12), the temple guard, "the captains of the temple" (Lu 22:52), and possibly some priests and scribes.

With swords. In the hands of the soldiers.

Staves. Clubs. The rabble with the soldiers carried these.

The chief priests and elders. The Sanhedrin. Gave them a sign. A kiss; a common method of salutation among intimate friends. A sign was needful to point Jesus out to the soldiers. Such a traitorous kiss was the depth of depravity--enmity under the guise of friendship. They . . . laid hands on Jesus. And bound him (Joh 18:12). One . . . drew his sword. Peter (Joh 18:26).

Struck a servant of the high priest's. As we learn from John, his name was Malchus (Joh 18:10). The Lord healed his wound (Lu 22:51). Peter asked, "Shall we smite with the sword"? and without waiting for an answer, struck the blow (Lu 22:49,50). They that take the sword shall perish with the sword. A general law. The violent usually die violent deaths. Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father? The Lord needed no human defenders, had it been the Divine purpose that he should not die.

More than twelve legions of angels? A Roman legion contained from 6,000 men upwards. The idea here is a mighty host. He and his eleven disciples are twelve. There is more than a legion for each one of them. He could have evaded the enemies had he chosen; the angels would have come to his rescue, if he had willed it, but he gave himself unto death. Are ye come out as against a thief? Not a thief, but a robber, a brigand. Among all the indignities heaped upon Jesus by his enemies, the only one that he complains of is that he should be bound like a robber. Then all the disciples forsook him, and fled. The eleven apostles who a little while before thought they never could forsake the Lord. As soon as the Lord was seized they fled into the darkness. Led [him] away to Caiaphas, the high priest. He was first examined by Annas, the former high priest, the father-in-law of Caiaphas, probably while the Sanhedrin was assembling in the darkness of the night (Joh 18:13). For the trial of Christ, compare Mr 14:53-64 Lu 22:54-71 Joh 18:13-18.

The scribes and the elders were assembled. Mark says the "chief priests" (Mr 14:53) also. It was a gathering of the Sanhedrin. Those who were favorable to Jesus, like Joseph and Nicodemus, were probably not called. Peter followed him . . . to the high priest's palace. The enclosed area, open to the sky, around which the palace was constructed, was called the court. The building extended all around this.