Luke 22:51 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Suffer ye thus far.— The sense which has been affixed to this passage is various. Some have understood it as a request from Jesus, that the persons who had apprehended him, would oblige him so far as to let him go to the wounded man; and the context seems to countenance this opinion, representing him as immediately touching the ear, and healing it. Others, and among them the Syriac, suppose it to be spoken to the disciples, and to contain a prohibition against their offering any more violence; in which sense they paraphrase the words, "It is enough that you have opposed their violence so far; go no farther, but stop here." The circumstance of our Lord's healing Malchus's ear by touching it, seems to imply, that he created a new part in the room of that which was cut off; or if he performed the cure any other way, he equally demonstrated both his goodness and power. No wound or distemper whatever was incurable in the hand of Jesus, neither was any injury so great that he could not forgive it; and as this was an act of great compassion and forgiveness, so likewise was it an act of singular wisdom; for it would effectually prevent those reflections and censures on Jesus, which the rashness of Peter's attack might otherwise have occasioned. See the Inferences on Mark 14.