MARK 14:45 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
“And as soon as he was come, he goeth straightway to him, and saith, Master, master; and kissed him.”
Going at once to Jesus, Judas said, rabbi! and kissed him — the rabbi address is the disciples' standard respectful title for Jesus, used here as the cover for betrayal. The kiss (katephilēsen, he kissed him warmly, possibly repeatedly) is the full enactment of the signal. The intimacy of the greeting makes the betrayal's violence more acute: the warmest greeting becomes the mechanism of the arrest.
Church Fathers on Mark 14:45
After that our Lord had prayed three times, and had obtained by His prayers that the fear of the Apostles should be amended by future repentance, He, being tranquil as to His Passion, goes to His persecutors, concerning the coming of whom the Evangelist says, 'And immediately, while he yet spake, cometh Judas Iscariot, on of the twelve.'
This is not put without reason, but to the greater conviction of the traitor, since though he was of the chief company amongst the disciples, he turned himself to furious enmity against our Lord.
For he who despairs of help from God, has recourse to the power of the world.
Read all 16 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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