Judas then, having received a band of men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, came there with lanterns and torches and weapons.
All Commentaries on John 18:3 Go To John 18
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
It was a band not of Jews, but of soldiers, granted, we must understand, by the Governor, with legal authority to take the criminal, as He was considered, and crush any opposition that might be made.
As soon then as He said To them, I am He, they went backward. Where now is the band of soldiers, where the terror and defence of arms? Without a blow, one word struck, drove back, prostrated a crowd fierce with hatred, terrible with arms. ForGod was hid in the flesh, and the eternal day was so obscured by His human body, that Hewas sought for with lanterns and torches, to be slain in the darkness. What shall He do when He comes to judge, Who did thus when He was going to be judged? And now even at the present time Christ says by the Gospel, I am He, and an Antichrist is expected by the Jews: to the end that they may go backward, and fall to the ground; because that forsaking heavenly, they desire earthly things.
They had heard at the first, I am He, but had not understood it; because He who could do whatever He would, willed not that they should. But had He never permitted Himself to betaken by them, they would not have done indeed what they came to do; but neither would He what He came to do. So now having strewn His power to them when they wished to take Him and could not, He lets them seize Him, that they might be unconscious agent, of His will; If you seek Me, let these go their way.
He commands His enemies, and they do what He commands; they permit them to go away, whom He would not have design.
But were the disciples never to die? Why then would He lose them, even if they died then? Because they did not yet believe in Him in a saving way.
