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The Resurrection of Jesus: Part One

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Scripture Used to Create “The Resurrection of Jesus” Splice Series

 

Matthew 28:1-20 (Greek Text Analysis starting with Matthew 28:1)

Mark 16:1-20 (Greek Text Analysis starting with Mark 16:1)

Luke 24:1-53 (Greek Text Analysis starting with Luke 24:1)

John 20 (Greek Text Analysis starting with John 20:1)

John 21 (Greek Text Analysis starting with John 21:1)

Acts 1:1-14 (Greek Text Analysis starting with Acts 1:1)

 

Need to catch up first? To read the Splice “The Burial of Jesus”, click here.

 

Acts 17:31
“…because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.”

 

THE SPLICE

 

Now on the 1 first day of the week, when the Sabbath was over, while it was still 2 dark, as it began to dawn before sunrise, Mary Magdalene and 3 Mary the mother of James, and 4 Salome5 bought spices, and brought the spices that 6 they had prepared to the tomb, so that they might come and anoint Jesus and they also wanted to look at the grave. Before the women arrived at the tomb, 7 a severe earthquake had occurred, because an angel of the Lord descended from Heaven and came and rolled away the stone. He then sat down upon the stone. And8 this angel’s appearance was like lightning, and his clothing was as white as pure snow. 9 The guards were so afraid of the angel, that they were shaking and then they became like they were dead men.

As the women were walking to the tomb, 10 they were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?” When they got there, they were looking up towards it, and they saw that the stone had already been rolled away and taken away from the tomb, although the stone was extremely large. Entering the tomb, the women did not find the body of the Lord Jesus and were perplexed about this. Two men suddenly stood near them, with one wearing a white robe, and both in 11 dazzling clothing; one of them, a  12 young man wearing the white robe, then was sitting at the right. The women were amazed; and as the women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living One among the dead? He is not here, but He has risen. Remember how 13 He spoke to you while He was still in Galilee, saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.” And the women remembered Jesus’s words. The specific words of the angel sitting to the right in the white robe were, “Do not be amazed; Do not be afraid; for I know that you are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who has been crucified. He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said. Come, see the place where He was lying; behold, here is the place where they laid Him. But go quickly, tell His disciples and Peter that He has risen from the dead and behold, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee; there you will see Him, 14 just as He told you. Behold, I have told you.”’ Then, Mary Magdalene, with the other women, ran and returned from the tomb to the place where the disciples were gathered and came to Simon Peter and to the 15 other disciple whom Jesus loved, and reported all these things to the 16 eleven and to all the rest. And Mary Magdalene said to them, “They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him.” The women told everyone in attendance that they had also seen a vision of angels who said that He was alive. Now the women were Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James; also 17 the other women with them were telling these things to the apostles. But these words appeared to the disciples and others as nonsense, and they would not believe the women. But Peter got up and with 18 the other disciple went forth, and they were going to the tomb. The two were running together; and the other disciple ran ahead faster than Peter and came to the tomb first; and stooping and looking in he saw the linen wrappings lying there; but he did not go in. And so Simon Peter also came, following him, and entered the tomb; and he saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the face-cloth which had been on His head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself. So the other disciple who had first come to the tomb then also entered, and he saw and believed. For as yet they did not understand 19 the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead. So the disciples went away again to their 20 own homes, Peter marveling at what had happened. It was after this that Jesus first appeared to Mary Magdalene (she was the first one He appeared to), from whom He had cast out seven demons. Here’s how His appearance to Mary happened: After Peter and John had left, Mary was standing outside the tomb weeping (we do not know where the other women were at the time); and as she wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been lying. And they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him.”  When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing Him to be the gardener, she said to Him, “Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and 21 I will take Him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to Him in Hebrew “Rabboni!” (which means, Teacher). Jesus said to her, “Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.’” At some point after this, the other women joined Mary, and together, they left the tomb quickly, trembling and fleeing in fear, astonishment and great joy and 22 they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid to tell anyone. And behold, Jesus met them and greeted them. And they came up and took hold of His feet and worshiped Him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and take word to My brethren to leave for Galilee, and there they will see Me.” Mary Magdalene went and reported this message. She announced to the disciples, the people who had been with Jesus during His ministry, while they were all mourning and weeping, “I have seen the Lord,” and that He had said these things to her. When they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they refused to believe it.

Now while the women had run to tell everyone that Jesus was risen and seen by them, some of the guard that had been at the tomb came into the city and reported to the chief priests all that had happened. And when they had assembled with the elders and consulted together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, and said, “you are to say, ‘His disciples came by night and stole Him away while we were asleep.’ And if this should come to the governor’s ears, 23 we will win him over and keep you out of trouble.” And the guards took the money and did as they had been instructed; and this story was widely spread among the Jews for at least 50 years (and even today, 2000 years later, it is still spread around as a “theory” by those who claim that the Gospel is false or that God does not exist).

When Jesus had died on the cross, the earth had shook and the rocks were split, as well as some tombs were opened. And many of His saints that had died had been buried in these opened tombs. Now that Jesus had been resurrected, those saints who had fallen asleep were also raised and were coming of out the tombs after His resurrection. 24 These raised saints went into Jerusalem, the holy city, and appeared to many.

 

Want to continue reading? To read the Splice “The Resurrection of Jesus: Part Two”, click here.

 

NOTES

 

1 first day of the week: The first day of the week is Sunday.  This particular Sunday would be Nissan/Abib 16. Both Nissan (Nisan) and Abib are correct names for the first month of the year. (Back)

2 dark, as it began to dawn before sunrise: Dawn and sunrise are not the same things. Sunrises happen at an exact moment, such as 5:42am. Dawn happens before sunrise and is a gradual event, taking around 15-20 minutes, ending at the moment of sunrise. April sunrises in Jerusalem, Israel occur at approximately 6:30am, give or take a few minutes. Since it is still dark and at early dawn when the women go to the tomb, it is fair to think that the ladies were setting out at around 6am, but we cannot know that for certain. These surmises on the timing assume that April sunrises were exactly the same 2,000 years ago as they are today. (Back)

3 Mary the mother of James: From Mark 16:1. She is possibly the same Mary who was the mother of both James the Less and Joseph/Joses (Matthew 27:56; Mark 15:40), but the Bible doesn’t say that. (Back)

4 Salome: Some Bible scholars insist that Salome is Zebedee’s wife (Zebedee is the father of James and John, the apostles, see Matthew 4:21; Mark 10:35). The Bible never mentions any children/husband for Salome. Salome is only mentioned twice in the Bible, both times in Mark (see Mark 15:40 and 16:1). Zebedee’s wife’s name is never mentioned, nor is John and James the disciples’ mother’s name given to us. The mother of John and James is also only mentioned twice in the Bible, both times in Matthew (see Matthew 2o:20-21 and 27:56). Salome could very well be Zebedee’s wife.  It’s also possible that Salome is not Zebedee’s wife. We have no idea who Zebedee’s wife is and to insist that Salome is Zebedee’s wife is making the Bible say something that it doesn’t say. It is incredibly important that we do not “help” God by filling in what we consider to be blank spaces or to take a “logical jump” in the Bible and state it as truth. It’s ok to add our logical jumps for pondering’s sake, as long as we are clear that we are giving our own opinion and not stating something found in the Bible. Besides, our logical jumps are no match for God (Isaiah 55:8-9). (Back)

5 bought spices, and brought the spices: Mark 16:1 tells us that Mary Mags, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices after the Sabbath. Luke 23:55-56 tells us that the women who had come with Jesus out of Galilee returned (presumably to where they were staying for the Passover week) and prepared spices and perfumes and on the Sabbath they rested. The simplest explanation is that the women had prepared some spices on Friday, and then for reasons unstated, bought some spices after the Sabbath ended. (Back)

6 they: The women already mentioned, plus Joanna and some other unnamed women, because of Luke 24:10.  (Back)

7 severe earthquake had occurred:  The earthquake happened before the ladies got to the tomb because of Luke 24:2.  It’s possible that the angel removed the stone in accordance with the earthquake (Matthew 28:2) as soon as Jesus was resurrected, but the Bible does not mention this as a truth. I believe the removal of the stone was not done to let Jesus out of the tomb because I believe that Jesus was instantly resurrected and vanished from the tomb, like He vanished from sight in Luke 24:31 or how He instantly appeared as in John 20:19, 26 or as John says, “revealed” Himself (Greek word phaneroó) in 21:1, 14. I think that the reason that the tomb stone was removed from the entrance of the tomb was to show that Jesus was no longer there in the tomb; to let people come in and see that He was risen. No Roman seal or Roman guards’ lies would put a stop to that (Matthew 27:62-66, 28:11-15). (Back)

8 his appearance: From Matthew 28:3. The Greek word used for appearance is idea meaning “form, countenance, appearance”. It is from the Greek word eido meaning “to perceive”. The Greek word used for lightning is astrapé and means “a flash of lightning, brightness, luster”. The Greek word for white is leukos and means “white, bright, brilliant”. I believe that the brightness and lightning, and the brilliant white are supernatural-looking, like Jesus’s appearance as described in Revelation 1:14-15. The writers of the books of the Bible only have human languages to describe things, but I believe these supernatural sights are supernatural indeed, and do not consist of “normal” lightning or “normal” whiteness, because of Mark 9:3. (Back)

9 The guards: The guards that were present at the tomb on Sunday are only mentioned in Matthew 28:4 and in Matthew 28:11-15. They could be a completely different set of guards from the ones mentioned in Matthew 27:65-66, but we don’t know. We don’t know when the guards stopped being like “dead men”. We know that they went into the city of Jerusalem to report to the chief priests while the women were on their way back to the disciples (Matthew 28:11). We don’t know if the women had any interactions with the guards. We do know that the women were not at the tomb when the angel rolled away the stone in front of the guards because of Mark 16:4. (Back)

10 They were saying to one another: I believe they held this conversation during the walk to the tomb somewhere along the line because of Mark 16:4. (Back)

11 dazzling clothing: Luke uses this descriptor in Luke 24:4. It is the same Greek word that Matthew uses in Matthew 28:3, astraptó, and means “to lighten, to flash, I flash (with lightning, like lightning), am lustrous”. (Back)

12 young man wearing the white robe: This is probably the same angel that removed the stone from the tomb, as Matthew 28:2-7 tells it. Matthew 28:2-7, Mark 16:5-7, Luke 24:4-7, and John 20:12-13 tell us about the angels and their conversations with the women. The Greek word used here for robe is stolé and the word is used to describe a long, flowing robe that was used for the wealthy/elite classes. The angels were dressed rather nicely.  (Back)

13 He spoke to you: Jesus told His disciples many times that He was to be crucified, see Matthew 10:38, 16:21; 20:17-19, 26:1-2, 12 and Mark 10:32-34. (Back)

14 just as He told you: Jesus tells the disciples that He will go ahead of them to Galilee when He has been resurrected in Matthew 26:32. (Back)

15 other disciple whom Jesus loved: This would be John, the Gospel writer, as well as the writer of 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, and Revelation. We know that the “disciple whom Jesus loved” is John because he is introduced as this disciple in John 21:24 after the conversation and then rumor of John 21:20-23. (Back)

16 eleven and to all the rest: From Luke 24:9. It is not clear whom “all the rest” is. We know that the eleven had other people with them because of Luke 24:33, however the wording is different for the two verses. Luke 24:9 says “…to all the rest” in the Greek, and Luke 24:33 says “…those with them”. There is a difference and it does matter. “All the rest” could mean that the women not only told the disciples at the place where they were staying, but that they also went to other believers’ homes/saw them on the street and told them the news. It isn’t even clear that the eleven were all staying in the same place. It seems they were gathering together some of the time at the very least, because of Mark 16:10 and Luke 24:33.
In John 20:10, the transliteral Greek says this: “Went away therefore again to their the disciples.” The Greek word for their is hautou and means “her own, his own, their own, themselves, they”. It could mean that the disciples all returned back to the place where they were all staying together, or it could mean that they returned to different places to stay. (Back)

17 the other women: Luke 24:10 says that there were “other women” there with Mary Mags: Mary the mother of James, and Joanna. Joanna (if this is the same person; it seems very likely) is mentioned in Luke 8:3 as being the wife of Herod’s steward. One of the other women that could have gone with to tell the disciples could be Salome, who was there at the start of the trip to the tomb (Mark 16:1). It could also be “the other Mary” (we don’t know which “Mary” Matthew is referring to in Matthew 28:1).  In short, we don’t really know how many women ran back to tell the group about Jesus’s “missing” body. (Back)

18 the other disciple: John is the other disciple, because of John 20:2. It is mentioned in John 20:3 that Peter is running with “the other disciple”. (Back)

19 the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead: Jesus told the disciples many times that He would be killed and then raised on the third day, see Note 13. The Old Testament Scripture reference that describes that Jesus would have to die could have been from Isaiah 53. (Back)

20 own homes: Not back to Galilee, but to where the disciples were staying for the Sabbath/Passover. Because of Luke 24:33, and John 20:19, they were meeting together for at least part of the time, possibly in the Jerusalem upper room from Thursday (see Matthew 26:17-19, Mark 14:13-16,Luke 22:7-13) because it was large and would hold many people (Mark 14:15).  Where they were actually staying and sleeping is debatable. (Back)

21 I will take Him away: I’m not sure how strong women were back in those days, but how does Mary plan to drag/carry a body of literal dead weight back to a tomb? In her grief, she doesn’t seem to care about that. The good news (for us all) is she wouldn’t have to figure it out. (Back)

22 they said nothing to anyone: From Mark 16:8. This phrasing is a little ambiguous. It could mean that they had planned on not saying anything to anyone, including the disciples, and then changed their minds when they met Jesus on the road or it could mean that they told no one that they saw on the road on their way back to the disciples. We do know that the women did tell the disciples, because Mark says so himself in Mark 16:10. (Back)

23 we will win him over and keep you out of trouble: These chief priests had already proven that they could get Pontius Pilate to do whatever they wanted, with enough pressure (see Matthew 27:20-24), but still, the guards are taking a large risk in spreading around a report that they fell asleep on the job. (Back)

24 These raised saints: This part of the account of events surrounding Jesus’s resurrection was told in Matthew 27:51-53. (Back)

 

The Betrayal and Illegal Arrest of Jesus

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Scripture Used to Create the Splice “The Betrayal and Illegal Arrest of Jesus”

Matthew 26:47-56 (Greek Text Analysis starting with Matthew 26:47)

Mark 14:43-52 (Greek Text Analysis starting with Mark 14:43)

Luke 22:47-53 (Greek Text Analysis starting with Luke 22:47)

John 18:2-11 (Greek Text Analysis starting with John 18:2)

 

Need to catch up first? To read the Splice “Prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane”, click here

 

Zechariah 11:13
Then the LORD said to me, “Throw it to the potter, that magnificent price at which I was valued by them.” So I took the thirty shekels of silver and threw them to the potter in the house of the LORD.

 

THE SPLICE

Now 1 Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, who was betraying Jesus, knew the place of Gethsemane, for 2 Jesus had often met there with His disciples. Immediately while Jesus was still 3 speaking to the disciples, 4 behold, Judas, who was one of the twelve, came up. Judas was leading the way, followed by a large crowd which was comprised of a Roman 5 cohort (he had received them from the chief priests, scribes, elders of the people and the Pharisees), some chief priests, elders, and officers. This large crowd was carrying weapons, specifically 6 swords and clubs. They also had torches and lanterns. Judas approached Jesus to 7 kiss Him. Now Judas, who was betraying Jesus, had at an unspecified time previous, gave the crowd 8 a sign, a signal saying, “Whomever I kiss, He is the one; seize Him and lead Him away under guard.” 9 Immediately Judas went up to Jesus saying, “Hail, 10 Rabbi!”. At the same time Judas was approaching Him, Jesus, knowing all the things that were coming upon Him, went forth and said to Judas, “Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss? 11 Friend, do what you have come for.” 12 And Judas kissed Him. Jesus turned His attention back to the crowd and said to the crowd, 13 “Whom do you seek?” They answered Him, “Jesus the Nazarene.” He said to them, “I am He.” And Judas was now standing with the crowd. So when He said to them, “I am He,” 14 they drew back and fell to the ground. Therefore He again asked them, “Whom do you seek?” And 15 they said, “Jesus the Nazarene.” Jesus answered, “I told you that I am He; so if you seek Me, let these go their way,” to fulfill the word which He spoke, “Of those whom You have given Me I lost not one.” When the disciples who were around Him saw what was going to happen, they said, “Lord, shall we strike with the 16 sword?” Then the crowd came forward and laid hands on Jesus and seized Him. 17 And Simon Peter, having a sword, reached and drew out his sword, and struck the slave of the high priest, and 18 cut off his right ear; and the slave’s name was 19 Malchus. Then Jesus answered, and said to Peter, “Stop! No more of this. Put your sword back into its place, into the sheath; 20 for all those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword. Or do you think I cannot appeal to My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels? The cup which the Father has given Me, shall I not drink it? How then will the Scriptures be fulfilled, which say that it must happen this way?” 21 And He touched Malchus’s ear and healed him. Then Jesus said to the chief priests and officers of the temple and elders who had come against Him, to this crowd, “Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest Me as you would against a robber? Every day I was with you; and while I was with you daily in the temple, I used to sit in the temple teaching, and you did not lay hands on Me and seize Me. But all this has taken place to fulfill the Scriptures of the prophets. This hour and the power of darkness are yours.” So the Roman cohort and the commander and the officers of the Jews, 22 arrested Jesus and bound Him. 23 Then all the disciples left Him and fled. 24 A young man was following Him, wearing nothing but a linen sheet over his naked body; and they seized him, too. But he pulled free of the linen sheet and escaped naked.

 

Want to keep reading? To read the Splice “Jesus Before the High Priest and Peter’s Denial” click here

 

NOTES

 

1  Judas Iscariot: It must be remembered that lots of people were named Judas, not just this infamous one, including a second disciple and Jesus’s half-brother. Judas in the Hebrew is “Yehudah” from a root word meaning “praised”. (Back)

2  Jesus had often met there with His disciples: See Luke 21:37 and 22:39. (Back)

3  speaking to the disciples: In the garden (Matthew 26:36-46; Mark 14:32-42; Luke 22:39-46). To see the Splice about the garden of Gethsemane, click here. (Back)

4  behold: The Greek word used in Matthew 26:47 for behold is horaó and means “to see, perceive, attend to, discern”. This word can be used to mean metaphorically “look” or physically “look”. (Back)

5  cohort: John 18:3 uses the word cohort. The Greek word for cohort is speira and means anything wound up or coiled, or a body of soldiers. It also means “a tenth part of a legion”. A legion is 6,000 men. A tenth of 6,000 is 600. The Bible does not specify the exact number of people that were there in the mob. (Back)

6  swords and clubs: The Greek word for sword used in Matthew 26:47 is machaira which is a short sword or dagger. The Greek word for club used in Matthew 26:47 is xulon meaning “wood”. The word xulon can be applied to anything made of wood or a piece of wood, such as a club, staff, the trunk of a tree, or even the wood used to support the crossbar of a cross in crucifixion. (Back)

7  kiss Him: Matthew 26:49 and Mark 14:45 use the Greek word kataphileó and it means “to kiss affectionately”. Luke 22:47 uses the Greek word phileó and it means “to love”. Kisses were used as signs of respect back in the ancient world. But this kiss was also done with (false) affection and friendship. (Back)

8  a sign, a signal: The signal was worked out presumably when Judas and his thugs were still with the chief priests at their unspecified location, since Mark 14:43 says that Judas immediately went to Jesus as they walked up. The sign was established either when Judas worked out the price of the betrayal with the chief priests (Matthew 26:14-16; Mark 14:10-11; Luke 22:3-6) or that night when he left the disciples and Jesus to go get his mob (John 13:30). Matthew, Mark and Luke don’t mention when Judas leaves supper to betray Jesus. John says that Judas left after receiving the morsel (see John 13:26-30). (Back)

9  text in italics: For the entire section in italics: this section of the event may have happened all at the same time, or in quick succession or in a different order. We can’t be sure because the Bible isn’t clear on the order or timing. (Back)

10  Rabbi: Matthew 26:49 and Mark 14:45 tell us that Judas used the word rabbi. The Greek word for rabbi is rhabbi and means “my master” or “my teacher”. (Back)

11  Friend, do what you have come for: From Matthew 26:50. The Greek word used here for friend is hetairos which means “a companion”. This can also mean “comrade”. (Back)

12  And Judas kissed Him: See Note 7. By using the Greek word kataphileó (meaning “to kiss fervently”), this allows for the possibility of Judas kissing Him repeatedly. (Back)

13  “Whom do you seek?”: Only John 18:4-8 tells us about this exchange. No one dragged Jesus off, Jesus didn’t try to hide, He didn’t even try to defend Himself; He simply stepped forward. He could have walked away, had He wanted to (Matthew 26:53). (Back)

14  they drew back and fell to the ground: People who don’t want to believe God will not believe no matter how much proof you give them, even with falls to the ground (John 18:6) and the healing of cut off ears (Luke 22:50-51). People who hate God and don’t want God in their lives would attribute these things to hallucinations or to a dream—anything but Jesus Himself. It’s good to remember that salvation and faith are gifts from God and we cannot conjure up such faith on our own (Ephesians 2:8-9). (Back)

15  they said, “Jesus the Nazarene”: I think a spokesman from the crowd said this (perhaps a Roman guard or someone with the authority to perform the arrest) or perhaps several people answered at once, some saying “Jesus” some saying “Jesus the Nazarene”, some saying something else, maybe even “The Rabbi”. People didn’t say the exact same thing in unison back then, just like they don’t today. Whenever the writers in the Bible say “they said,” I always assume a spokesperson said what everyone else was in agreement with, or else several people were talking over each other or at each other, speaking about the same idea while using their own words, all meaning the same thing and the writer picked the phrase that best described the idea at hand. (Back)

16  sword: It is nonsense to say that Jesus had the disciples carrying the swords to defend themselves against humans or even animals. Jesus had no use for any weapon and didn’t need one, Matthew 26:53. People carried these short swords (Greek: machaira, see John 18:10, Luke 22:49, Mark 14:47, Matthew 26:51) for usage other than as a weapon, like someone might carry a pocket knife today. The disciples had two of these short swords/daggers (see Luke 22:38) available to them. (Back)

17  And Simon Peter, having a sword, reached and drew out his sword: Matthew 26:51, Mark 14:47, Luke 22:49-50, John:18:10. It doesn’t seem that Peter waited for an answer from Jesus to the question “Lord, shall we strike with the sword?” The question and the action could have been taking place at the same time. Also, it says in Luke that Jesus answers (Greek word: apokrinomai meaning “to answer or take up the conversation”) after the use of the sword (Luke 22:49-51). Only Luke mentions that the disciples asked Jesus if they should strike with the sword and it doesn’t say which disciples spoke out loud. They all could have been saying something out loud and meaning the same thing, speaking over each other in the panic of seeing a weaponized crowd grabbing at Jesus.  (Back)

18  cut off his right ear: There are some that say Peter was aiming for Malchus’s head or neck in order to decapitate him, but missed and caught his ear. This could be entirely true, but the Bible doesn’t say that. We do not know if Peter was an experienced swordsman or just a “slash and hack” kind of a guy. We do not know if there were enough lanterns/torches present in Peter’s vicinity to make the area bright enough to see someone’s ear or neck. We don’t even know if Peter was aiming for Malchus and we don’t know how close Peter was to Malchus. In any case, the point is that Peter took a sword and maimed Malchus by cutting off and completely removing his ear, and Jesus either put the ear back or regenerated a new ear or a little of both and healed it.  (Back)

19  Malchus: Later on that night one of Malchus’s relatives will see Peter at Jesus’s trial before the priests and give Peter a little trouble (see John 18:26). (Back)

20  for all those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword: See Genesis 9:6 and Revelation 13:10 for more on this idea. There is nothing in the Bible justifying any sort of lethal defense, even to save the life of Jesus, much less ourselves. (Back)

21  And He touched Malchus’s ear and healed him: How does this crowd see this action, (as well as being knocked to the ground when Jesus speaks to them) and still go ahead with the arrest? And why wasn’t Peter arrested for cutting someone? Was this not an arrestable offense? Was the fact that the ear was healed a mitigating factor? Or were they all just so caught up in arresting Jesus that an assault didn’t matter enough to report it to the owner of Malchus (who was Caiaphas the high priest: see Luke 22:50 and Matthew 26:57 naming Caiaphas as the high priest)? Peter was the one who committed a crime that night and he went without an arrest—Jesus saved him from jail. I also wonder if Malchus turned to Christ after this happened or sometime later, when he perhaps thought about what happened that night. Most people didn’t seem to give Jesus a second thought after they got what they wanted from Him, but that wasn’t always the case (see Luke 17:17-18). (Back)

22  arrested Jesus and bound Him: This arrest was illegal, as well as the trial by the high priest and the conviction. Not one charge was brought up nor one point proved to make this disaster a legal and proper proceeding. Also, it was conducted in the middle of the night and not during the day when legal proceedings took place. (Back)

23  Then all the disciples left Him and fled: This was prophesied by Jesus in John 16:32. See John 18:10-12, to note that this fact of fleeing is missing. Matthew, the other gospel-writing eyewitness to the arrest (along with the possibility of Mark being an eyewitness, but we can’t be sure) however, does mention it in Matthew 26:56. (Back)

24  A young man: This information is from Mark 14:51-52. Many people think this was Mark himself. We can’t be sure.  If it was Mark, why didn’t he just write that he himself was there as an eyewitness to the travesty of this arrest? If it isn’t Mark, why would he include the information at all? It can be certain that the information wasn’t included for comedy relief, but it was included to show the franticness and seriousness of the situation. One point to remember: it was cold out. It’s April, and there is mention of the cold in Mark 14:54, 67, Luke 22:55, John 18:18, 25. This young man was in such a hurry that he threw a linen sheet around himself (instead of getting fully dressed when it is cold out) to see what this crowd was up to, perhaps as they were marching themselves out of Jerusalem. At the mountain, the situation turned serious, and it was enough to run away from this crowd, abandoning the previously mentioned sheet. I heard a pastor say the young man was already on the mountain, sleeping, when this crowd came along to arrest Jesus but that doesn’t make sense. He wouldn’t have been “naked” with just a sheet on himself out on a cold mountain. He would have been fully dressed, using his cloak as a blanket. (Back)