Judas approached with a band of armed servitors of the Sanhedrim and a part of a Roman cohort from the garrison, the latter as a guard against a disturbance from the sympathy of the people. Probably the traitor alone knew who was to be apprehended;
[763] as there was good reason (supposed, at least) for secrecy in the procedure. Jesus did not wait for Judas and the band to enter the garden. With majestic calmness he went to meet them, and asked, "Whom seek ye?" His sudden appearance in calm majesty, associated with the impressions of his life and the authority of his name as, at least, a prophet, so deeply affected a part of the band (not the Roman soldiers
[764] ) that they recoiled and fell on the ground before him. In their perplexity they then prepared to seize the disciples, perhaps because they made show of defending their Master. The rash Peter hastily gave way to impulse;. without waiting to know the Master's will, he made use of the sword. Christ sharply rebuked his precipitancy: "All that take the sword (uncalled, as here, in resistance to authority that is to be respected as the ordinance of God) shall perish by the sword (as a judgment for rebellion against the order of God; a warning against the use of force to defend his cause against the state); thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve
[765] legions of angels? (This he could only have done had the Divine will been so.) The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?
[766] (not the human choice, but the higher necessity, must prevail.)"
Turning then to the band, he said to them, more than once, "I am he whom ye seek; let these go their way." And this saying -- supported by that authority which had so impressed them that they would not have ventured to lay hands on him had he not given himself up -- this saying caused them to let the disciples go, and to take no vengeance on Peter, exasperated as they were by his resistance. [767]
When the person of Jesus was secured, he said, further, "Are ye come out, as against a thief, with armed bands, to take me? When I was daily with you in the Temple, ye stretched forth no hands against me; but this is your hour, and the power of darkness." [768] During his public teaching none ventured to assail him. The power of darkness shuns the light of day. The Sanhedrim found the night the fitting time to execute their schemes; the policy that springs from darkness, and serves it, must not show itself in open day. Perhaps the words also allude to the brief duration of the power of evil. [769]