Verse 4
4. Knowing all… that should come John leaves to the other Evangelists to describe the humiliations of the garden and of the Judas kiss, and seizes those points in which the foreknowledge and majesty of Jesus appear rising above the inflictions he suffered. It is the same upper tone of triumph as reigns through the previous discourses, heightened to sublimity by the recollection of the degradations which the previous Gospels disclose.
John’s Gospel is therefore a supplement, not merely in external facts, but in grand views and sublime truths.
Went forth After the traitor’s kiss, the traitor himself retreats among the band that follow him, who stand in hesitation. Jesus steps forward in firm majesty to meet the men, who appear more like culprits to be arraigned than like officers coming to arrest him.
Whom seek ye? Not that he did not know whom they sought. Not that their leaders did not know him by the traitor’s signal. He speaks to make them confess their object, and then to show that they can attain it only by his actual permission. It is the word by which he commences the display of power exhibited in John 18:6.
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