John 18:2

2. Jesus ofttimes resorted thither Where, beneath shadowing olive trees, he held discourse with his followers. Hence this is the place where Judas, whom we last saw departing from the supper-table, (xiii, 30,) was again to meet his Master. At this point, according to the other Evangelists, is to be inserted the narrative of the agony of Gethsemane. By a ruthless criticism, Strauss and others infer from the silence of John and the triumphant tone of the valedictory and prayer of the previous chapters, that the agony never took place. We apprehend that the answers are ample. Why should John insert what had been so fully given by his predecessors? And who cannot see that the sorrows of Gethsemane are truly preluded by the sad undertone, mentioned in our closing note to the last chapter, both of the valedictory and the prayer? Nor are we able to conceive how a scene so wonderful in its conception, so unparalleled and mysterious in its character, so surpassing any passage of classic antiquity, could have been framed without the basis of truth, either by the genius of the Evangelists or the mind of the early Christian Church. No truly Christian heart needs any defence of this passage from a criticism so utterly uncritical.