Then said Jesus unto him,
Put up again your sword into its place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.
All Commentaries on Matthew 26:52 Go To Matthew 26
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
Then Jesus saith to him, Put up again thy sword into his place. Christ here reproves Peter"s rashness in drawing his sword against His wish. Peter"s sin, then, was twofold: first in striking against Christ"s wish, and next, because this was an act not so much of defence as of revenge, which did not help to deliver Christ from the soldiers, but rather excited them the more against Him. But Peter, says S. Chrysostom, was hurried on by his eagerness to protect Christ, and did not think of this, but remembered rather His words, that Christ had ordered them to take two swords, inferring that it was for His defence. And accordingly he thought that in striking the servant he was acting according to the mind of Christ, "Let revenge cease, let patience be exhibited," says the Interlinear Gloss.
For all they that take the sword (without proper authority). To strike, i.e, and wound others. To take the sword by public authority to punish the guilty, or in a just war, is lawful and honest.
Shall perish with the sword. Deserve thus to perish ( Genesis 9:6) (see Aug. Qust. V. and N. T, cap. civ.). Homicides, moreover, and gladiators very often die violent deaths in war or by casualties (see Acts 28:4).
And Christ here insinuates that the Jews would perish by the swords of the Romans. S. Luke adds that Christ said, "Suffer ye thus far." "Cease to draw your swords, ye have contended sufficiently," just as we part two combatants. But Cajetan explains otherwise, "Suffer the Jews to rage against Me, while their hour lasts, and the power of darkness." Hence Maldonatus and others infer that the other Apostles, when they saw S. Peter"s zeal, wished to fight for Him also, but were forbidden by Christ. For, says S. Ambrose (in Luke xxii.), He who wished to save all by His own wounds, wished not to be saved by the wounding of His persecutors. Whence the motto, "Health by wounds," which is specially applicable to Christ, by whose stripes we are healed ( 1 Peter 2:24).
