“As soon then as he had said unto them, I am he, they went backward, and fell to the ground.”
When Jesus said to them, 'I am he,' they stepped back and fell to the ground — The immediate, involuntary prostration of the armed cohort before Jesus' self-declaration reveals the power inherent in the name of God. No physical force is employed; the divine word itself causes the soldiers to fall back (apēlthon opisō, they went backward), an echo of similar responses to divine manifestation in Scripture (Psalm 27:2). This moment demonstrates that Jesus' arrest occurs by his permission, not his defeat.
Church Fathers on John 18:6
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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