Then came he to his disciples, and said unto them,
Sleep on now, and take your rest: behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.
Read Chapter 26
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Sleep on now. These were words spoken, as it were, ironically. The hour is come, that I am to be betrayed. (Witham)
It seems more probable that he then permitted them to sleep for some time, compassionating their weakness, and leaving them undisturbed. For, it is not very probable that after the agony he had just been in, he should address his disciples ironically; so that the words in the next verse, Rise, let us go, seem to have been spoken after he had permitted them to enjoy a short repose. (Jansenius)
St. Augustine also supposes that after our Lord said, sleep ye now, he was silent for some time, and only then added, it is enough, the hour is come.
Then he came to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.” All this belongs to the divine economy. “Into the hands of sinners” is said to make it clear that he was not liable to any charge but that this course of events was due to human wickedness. Finally he says, “Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.” By all these means he was teaching them that this course of events was not something that happens of necessity, without human willing or out of human weakness. It is all unfolding, without denying freedom, as God’s own secret dispensation. Even though he foreknew that Judas would come, so far was he from fleeing, he even went to meet him. The Gospel of Matthew, Homily
And wherefore came He the second time? In order to reprove them, for that they were so drowned in despondency, as not to have any sense even of His presence. He did not however reprove them, but stood apart from them a little, showing their unspeakable weakness, that not even when they had been rebuked, were they able to endure. But He does not awake and rebuke them again, lest He should smite them that were already smitten, but He went away and prayed, and when He has come back again, He says, Sleep on now, and take your rest. And yet then there was need to be wakeful, but to show that they will not bear so much as the sight of the dangers, but will be put to flight and desert Him from their terror, and that He has no need of their succor, and that He must by all means be delivered up, Sleep on now, He says, and take your rest; behold the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Matthew 26:45
He shows again that what is done belongs to a divine dis...
