“Judas then, having received a band of men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, cometh thither with lanterns and torches and weapons.”
So Judas brought a detachment of soldiers together with police from the chief priests and the Pharisees, and they came there with lanterns and torches and weapons — The armed cohort (speira, likely a Roman century of 600, or a smaller detachment of 200) combines Roman soldiers with Jewish temple police, indicating coordinated Jewish-Roman action against Jesus. The equipment—lanterns, torches, weapons—reveals fear and expectation of resistance, yet Jesus presents no physical opposition. The irony: those bearing light carry spiritual darkness.
Church Fathers on John 18:3
The Evangelist had strewn how Judas had found, out the place where Christ was, now he relates how he went there. Judas then, having received a band of men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, comes there with lanterns and torched and weapons.
It was a band not of Jews, but of soldiers, granted, we must understand, by the Governor, with legal authority to take the criminal, as He was considered, and crush any opposition that might be made.
But how could they persuade the band? By hiring them; for being soldiers, they were ready to do anything for money.
Read all 15 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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