Verse 45
Then cometh he to the disciples, and saith 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.
The expression "sleep on now ..." is difficult, for, almost in the same moment, he said, "Arise, let us be going" (Matthew 26:46). Dummelow viewed it as reproachful irony, "`You have slept through my agony; sleep also through my betrayal and capture.'"[14] Broadus viewed the passage as a permissive imperative.
He has no further need of their keeping awake; his struggles in the solitude close by are past. So far as concerns the object for which he desired them to watch and pray, they may now yield to sleep.[15]
To be sure, they did not long enjoy the permission. Immediately, perhaps even as he spoke, came the sudden onset of his arrest and capture.
[14] J. R. Dummelow, op. cit., p. 713.
[15] John A. Broadus, Commentary on the New Testament (Philadelphia: The American Baptist Publishing Society, 1886), p. 539.
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