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MATTHEW 26:53 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
Matt 26:52Matt 26:54
“Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?”
Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? The reminder of the available but unused divine resource: twelve legions of angels (approximately 72,000) are available at a single request. The I cannot appeal communicates that Jesus is choosing not to invoke the power, not that the power is unavailable. The choice to go to the cross is a genuine choice, not a necessity imposed from outside.

Church Fathers on Matthew 26:53

So Luke relates, the Lord had said to His disciples at supper, 'He that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip; and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one;' [Luke 22:36] and the disciples answered, 'Lo, here are two swords.'

Chrysostom · 4th century · Hom. lxxxiv

In another Gospel [marg. note: John 18:19], Peter is represented as having done this, and with his usual hastiness; and that the servant’s name was Malchus, and that the ear was the right ear. In passing we may say, that Malchus, i.e. one who should have been king of the Jews, was made the slave of the ungodliness and the greediness of the Priests, and lost his right ear so that he might hear only the worthlessness of the letter in his left.

Jerome · 4th century

For though they seem even now to hear the Law, yet is it only with the left ear that they hear the shadow of a tradition concerning the Law, and not the truth. The people of the Gentiles is signified by Peter; for by believing in Christ, they become the cause of cutting off the Jews' right ear.

Origen · 3rd century
Read all 19 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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