Mark 14:34 — Community Reflections

MARK 14:34 — KING JAMES VERSION 0

“And saith unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death: tarry ye here, and watch.”

My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death, he said to them. Stay here and keep watch — the self-report is explicit: overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. The language draws on Psalm 42:5–6 and 43:5 (why, my soul, are you downcast?). The sorrow is not merely anticipatory grief but the full weight of what Jesus is about to bear — the cup of divine judgment for human sin. Stay here and keep watch: the disciples are commissioned to vigilance that they will immediately fail.

Church Fathers on Mark 14:34

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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