Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - Matthew 26:45 - 26:45
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Mat_26:45. The annoyance at finding the disciples asleep (Mat_26:40 : οὕτως οὐκ ἰσχύσατε , κ . τ . λ .) now deepens into an intensely painful irony: “sleep on now, and have out your rest” (the emphasis is not on τὸ λοιπόν , but on καθεύδετε κ . ἀναπ .)! He had previously addressed them with a γρηγορεῖτε , but to how little purpose! and, accordingly, He now turns to them with the sadly ironical abandonment of one who has no further hope, and tells them to do quite the reverse sleep on, etc. Comp. Euthymius Zigabenus, Beza, Münster, Erasmus, Calvin, Er. Schmid, Maldonatus, Bengel, Jansen, Michaelis, Fritzsche, Keim, Ewald. On λοιπόν and τὸ λοιπόν , for the rest of the time, in the sense of jam (Vulgate), henceforward (Plat. Prot. p. 321 C), see Schaefer, ad Long. p. 400; Jacobs, ad Philostr. p. 663. Comp. on Act_27:20. To object, as is frequently done, that the ironical view does not accord with the frame of mind in which Jesus must have been, is to fail to appreciate aright the nature of the situation. Irony is not inconsistent even with the deepest anguish of soul, especially in cases where such anguish is also accompanied with such clearness of judgment as we find in the present instance; and consider what it was for Jesus to see such an overpowering tendency to sleep on the part of His disciples, and to find everything so different from what He needed, and might reasonably have expected! Winer, p. 292 [E. T. 391], following Chrysostom, Theophylact (who, however, admits the plausibility of the ironical view), and Grotius, excludes the idea of irony, and interprets thus: “sleep on, then, as you are doing, and take your rest,” which words are supposed to be spoken permissively in accordance with the calm, mild, resigned spirit produced by the prayers in which He had just been engaged. This is also substantially the view of Kuinoel, de Wette, Morison, Weiss on Mark; and see even Augustine, who says: “verba indulgentis eis jam somnum.” But the idea that any such indulgence was seriously intended, would be incompatible with the danger referred to at Mat_26:41, and which He knew was threatening even the disciples themselves. There are others, again, who are disposed to take the words interrogatively, thus: are ye still asleep? Such is the view of Henry Stephens, Heumann, Kypke, Krebs, in spite of the ordinary usage with regard to τὸ λοιπόν , to understand which in the sense of “henceforth” (Bleek, Volkmar) would be entirely out of keeping with the use of the present here. If, however, the mark of interrogation be inserted after καθεύδετε , and τὸ λοιπὸν καὶ ἀναπαύεσθε be then taken imperatively (Klostermann), in that case καί would have the intensive force of even; but its logical position would have to be before τὸ λοιπόν , not before ἀναπαύεσθε , where it could be rendered admissible at all only by an artificial twisting of the sense (“now you may henceforth rest on, even as long as you choose”).
While Jesus is in the act of uttering His καθεύδετε , κ . τ . λ ., He observes the hostile band approaching; the painful irony changes to a painful earnestness, and He continues in abrupt and disjointed words: ἰδοὺ , ἤγγικεν , κ . τ . λ . The ἡ ὥρα should be taken absolutely: hora fatalis, Joh_17:1. The next clause describes in detail the character of that hour.
εἰς χεῖρας ἁμαρτ .] into sinners’ hands. He refers to the members of the Sanhedrim, at whose disposal He would be placed by means of His apprehension, and not to the Romans (Maldonatus, Grotius, Hilgenfeld), nor to both of these together (Lange). The παραδιδούς is not God, but Judas, acting, however, in pursuance of the divine purpose, Act_2:23.