Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
Judas . . . knew the place, for Jesus ofttimes--see John 8:1; Luke 21:37.
resorted thither with his disciples--The baseness of this abuse of knowledge in Judas, derived from admission to the closest privacies of his Master, is most touchingly conveyed here, though nothing beyond bare narrative is expressed. Jesus, however, knowing that in this spot Judas would expect to find Him, instead of avoiding it, hies Him thither, as a Lamb to the slaughter. "No man taketh My life from Me, but I lay it down of Myself" (John 10:18). Besides, the scene which was to fill up the little breathing-time, the awful interval, between the Supper and the Apprehension--like the "silence in heaven for about the space of half an hour" between the breaking of the Apocalyptic Seals and the peal of the Trumpets of war (Revelation 8:1) --the AGONY--would have been too terrible for the upper room; nor would He cloud the delightful associations of the last Passover and the first Supper by pouring out the anguish of His soul there. The garden, however, with its amplitude, its shady olives, its endeared associations, would be congenial to His heart. Here He had room enough to retire--first, from eight of them, and then from the more favored three; and here, when that mysterious scene was over, the stillness would only be broken by the tread of the traitor.
BETRAYAL AND APPREHENSION OF JESUS. (John 18:1-13)
over the brook Kedron--a deep, dark ravine, to the northeast of Jerusalem, through which flowed this small storm brook or winter torrent, and which in summer is dried up.
where was a garden--at the foot of the Mount of Olives, "called Gethsemane; that is, olive press (Matthew 26:30, Matthew 26:36).
Other commentary entries containing this verse:
Luke 22:39
John 18:1-3
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