Matthew 26:45 — Community Reflections

MATTHEW 26:45 — KING JAMES VERSION 0

“Then cometh he to his disciples, and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your rest: behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.”

Then he came to the disciples and said to them: sleep and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is being delivered into the hands of sinners. The release from watchfulness: the hour has arrived, and there is no longer any need to watch. The Son of Man is being delivered — the betrayal is already in motion. The hands of sinners are the chief priests and elders whose conspiracy began in Matthew 26:3.

Church Fathers on Matthew 26:45

After His persevering prayer, after His departures and several returns, He takes away their fear, restores their confidence, and exhorts them to 'sleep on, and take their rest.'
Hilary of Poitiers · 4th century

Indeed it behoved them to watch, but He said this to shew that the prospect of coming evils was more than they would bear, that He had no need of their aid, and that it must needs be that He should be delivered up.
Chrysostom · 4th century

Or, the sleep He now bids His disciples take is of a different sort from that which is related above to have befallen them. Then He found them sleeping, not taking repose, but because their eyes were heavy, but now they are not merely to sleep, but to 'take their rest,' that this order may be rightly observed, namely, that we first watch with prayer that we enter not into temptation, and afterwards sleep and take our rest, when having 'found a place for the Lord, a tabernacle…
Origen · 3rd century

Read all 11 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain

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