Mark 14:33 — Community Reflections

MARK 14:33 — KING JAMES VERSION 0

“And he taketh with him Peter and James and John, and began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy;”

He took Peter, James and John along with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled — the inner three are taken further in — the same three who were at the transfiguration. Deeply distressed and troubled (ekthambēisthai kai adēmonein) — the two words together communicate the most acute emotional distress described in the Gospel: anguish and horror. The Gethsemane prayer is the emotional center of the passion narrative.

Church Fathers on Mark 14:33

After that the Lord had foretold the offence of His disciples, the Evangelist gives an account of His prayer, in which He is supposed to have prayed for His disciples; and first describing the place of prayer, he says, 'And they came to a place which was named Gethsemane.'
Gloss (Glossa Ordinaria) · medieval compilation

The place Gethsemane, in which the Lord prayed, is shewn up to this day at the foot of the Mount of Olives. The meaning of Gethsemane is, the valley of the fat, or of fatness. Now when our Lord prays on a mountain, He teaches us that we should when we pray ask for lofty things; but by praying in the valley of fatness, He implies that in our prayer humility and the fatness of interior love must be kept. He also by the valley of humility and the fatness of charity underwent…
Bede · 8th century

In the valley of fatness also, the fat bulls beset Him. There follows, 'And He saith to His disciples, Sit ye here, while I shall pray;' they are separated from Him in prayer, who are separated in His Passion; for He prays, they sleep, overcome by the sloth of their heart.
Pseudo-Jerome · 5th century

Read all 19 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain

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