“They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saith unto them, I am he. And Judas also, which betrayed him, stood with them.”
They answered, 'Jesus of Nazareth.' Jesus said to them, 'I am he.' Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them — The identification "Jesus of Nazareth" marks the ordinary, human designation. Jesus responds with "I am he" (ego eimi), or perhaps simply "I am" (ego eimi without predicate), invoking the divine self-identification of Exodus 3:14 and earlier Johannine claims (8:58, 13:19). The resonance with God's covenant name transforms the arrest into theophany.
Church Fathers on John 18:5
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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