Matthew 26:51-53 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

And behold, one of them—drew his sword— None of the evangelists but John (John 18:10.) mentions the name of the high-priest's servant on this occasion, which perhaps the others omitted, lest it should expose them to any prosecution. But John, writing long after our Saviour's death, needed no such precaution. Jansenius justly observes, that it was a remarkable instance of the power of Christ over the spirits of men, that they so far obeyed his word, as not to seize Peter when he had cut off the ear of Malchus, or John while he stood by the cross, though they must know them to have been of the number of his most intimate associates. One would have thought, as Bishop Hall remarks, that Peter should rather have struck Judas; but the traitor perhaps on giving the signal had mingled with the crowd; or Peter might not understand the treacherous design of his kiss; or seeing Malchus more eager than the rest in his attack on Christ, he might postpone all other resentments, to indulgethe present sally of his indignation. Though this might seem a courageous action, it was really very imprudent; and had not Christ, by some secret influence, overawed their spirits, it is very probable that not only Peter, but the rest of the apostles, might have been cut to pieces. Accordinglyour Saviour ordered him to sheath his sword, telling him that his unseasonable and imprudent offence might prove the occasion of his destruction; or rather as Grotius interprets it, that there was no need of fighting in his defence, because God would punish the Jews for putting him to death; see Revelation 13:10 where this very expression is used, in predicting the destruction of the persecutors of true Christians. Our Lord told him further, that it implied both a distrust of the divine providence, and also a gross ignorance of the Scriptures, Matthew 26:53-54. The legion was a Roman military term, and as the band which now surrounded them was a Roman cohort, our Lord might make use of this term by way of contrast, to shew what an inconsiderable thing the cohort was, in comparison of the force that he could summon to his assistance;—more than twelve legions, not of soldiers) but of angels,—instead of twelve deserting timorous disciples. How dreadfully irresistible would such an army of angels have been, when one of the celestial spirits was able to destroy an hundred and eighty-five thousand Assyrians in one night. See Exodus 19:35 and the note on Matthew 26:56.