Gethsemane by Wassilij Grigorjewitsch Perow

The Arrest of Jesus is a pivotal event recorded in the Canonical Gospels, in which Jesus is arrested. The event ultimately leads, in the Gospel accounts, to his execution. The Biblical canon is an exclusive list of books written during the formative period of the Jewish or Christian faiths; the leaders of these communities believed these books to be inspired by God or to express the authoritative history of the relationship between God and his people (although there may... Jesus (8-2 BC/BCE– 29-36 AD/CE),[1] also known as Jesus of Nazareth, is the central figure of Christianity. ...

According to the Canonical Gospels, after the Last Supper, Jesus and his disciples travel to Gethsemane, a garden of some kind located at the edge of the Kidron Valley, thought by scholars to probably have been an olive grove. Once there he is described as sending away the group so that he can pray privately. Matthew and Mark state that he asked Simon Peter, James the Great, and John the Apostle, to accompany him, while Luke and the Gospel of John state that he went on his own, Luke adding that the disciples were only a stone's throw away. This article relates the event related in the New Testament of the Bible, see The Last Supper (disambiguation) for other uses, including a list of famous works of art with this name. ... The Garden of Gethsemane. ... This article is being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedias deletion policy. ... Binomial name Olea europaea L. 19th century illustration The Olive (Olea europaea) is a species of small tree in the family Oleaceae, native to coastal areas of the eastern Mediterranean region, from Syria and the maritime parts of Asia Minor and northern Iran at the south end of the Caspian... The Gospel of Matthew (literally: according to Matthew, Greek: Κατά Μαθθαίον or Κατά Ματθαίον ) is one of the four Gospel accounts of the New Testament. ... The Gospel of Mark is traditionally the second of the New Testament Gospels. ... According to tradition, Peter was crucified upside-down, as shown in this painting by Caravaggio. ... For people and places called Saint James, see the diambiguation page. ... John the Apostle (יוחנן The LORD is merciful, Standard Hebrew Yoḥanan, Tiberian Hebrew Yôḥānān) was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus. ... The Gospel of Luke is the third of the four canonical Gospels of the New Testament, which tell the story of Jesus life, death, and resurrection. ... The Gospel according to John is a gospel document in the canon of the New Testament. ...

The synoptics (but not the Gospel of John) state that Jesus asked God that his burden be taken from him, and requesting not to need to undergo the events that he was due to, though giving the final choice to God. Luke states that an angel appeared and strengthened Jesus, who then returned to his disciples, while the other synoptics just state that he returned. The synoptics state that the three disciples that were with Jesus had fallen asleep, and that Jesus criticsed them for failing to stay awake even for an hour, suggesting that they pray so that they can avoid temptation. The synoptics state that Jesus went and prayed again, and again the disciples were asleep when he returned, and that after berating them a second time he prays a third time. The Annunciation - the Angel Gabriel announces to Mary that she will bear Jesus (El Greco, 1575) An angel is an ethereal being found in many religions, whose duties are to assist and serve God. ...

The number three occurs a significant number of times here. Jesus travels with three disciples, and leaves and prays three times. He has predicted all this will occur three times. Some have seen the occurrence of three a divine symbol, others a sign of the literary skill of the writer of the original source of the synoptics, others yet argue that it is both - symbolism that was deliberately crafted by the writer. For the numeral, see 3 (number). ... The concept of the divine or of The Divine, meaning matters relating to a god, forms an important ingredient in many religious faiths (but compare Buddhism, for example, or Scientology). ... The synoptic problem concerns the literary relationship between and among the first three canonical gospels (the Gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke), known as the synoptic gospels. ...

At this point, according to both John and the Synoptics, Judas appears on the scene, and the Synoptics add that Jesus alerts the disciples to this before Judas approaches closely. Judas is stated to have been accompanied by a crowd that the Synoptics indicate as a crowd of Pharisees, Saducees, and elders, while John says it was the only the officials of these people, and their soldiers. Who exactly this crowd are isn't stated, though the Sanhedrin had a police force, and it is plausible that this is what is meant (Kilgallen 271). Judas (יהודה Jew, Standard Hebrew Yəhuda, Tiberian Hebrew Yəhûḏāh) is the name of several men in late Jewish and New Testament history. ... The Pharisees (from the Hebrew perushim, from parash, meaning to separate) were, depending on the time, a political party, a social movement, and a school of thought among Jews that flourished during the Second Temple Era (536 BCE–70 CE). ... The sect of the Sadducees (or Zadokites and other variants) - which may have originated as a Political Party - was founded in the 2nd century BC and ceased to exist sometime after the 1st century AD. Their rivals, the Pharisees, are said to have originated in the same time period, but... For the tractate in the Mishnah, see Sanhedrin (tractate). ...

The Capture of Christ, with Judas and Peter, who cut off the ear of the servant Malchus by Fra Angelico

The accounts state that Judas gives Jesus a kiss, as a pre-arranged sign to those that had accompanied Judas as to who Jesus was. It is unclear why the crowd should not know who Jesus was, when the leaders of the Pharisees and Saducees had engaged in dialogue with him previously, but a kiss was a traditional Jewish greeting given to a teacher, which may be the real underlying reason (Brown et al. 626). Il Beato Fra Giovanni Angelico da Fiesole (the Beatified Friar John the Angelic of Fiesole) (Vicchio di Mugello, Florence 1395 – Rome February 18, 1455), better known in the English-speaking world as Fra Angelico (the Angelic Friar), or in Continental Europe as Beato Angelico (the Blessed Angelic One) was a...

Having been identified, the crowd is described as arresting Jesus, though one of Jesus' disciples tries to stop them by using a sword to cut off the ear of one of the men trying to arrest Jesus. Though unidentified by the Synoptics, the Gospel of John specifies that it had been Simon Peter who had cut off the ear of Malchus, a servant of Caiaphas, the high priest. Luke adds that Jesus healed the wound, but the other synoptics, and John, do not. John, Matthew, and Luke, but not Mark, state that Jesus criticised the violent act, and insisting they do not resist Jesus' arrest, with Matthew having Jesus say all who live by the sword shall die by the sword, a well known saying in modern times. In the New Testament of the Bible, Malchus was the name of a servant of the high priest who helped try to arrest Jesus. ... Yehosef Bar Qayyafa (Hebrew יְהוֹסֵף בַּר קַיָּפָא), also known as Caiaphas (Greek καϊάφας) in the New Testament, was the Jewish high priest to whom Jesus was taken after his arrest in the garden of Gethsemane, and who played a part in Jesus trial before the Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate. ...

Despite the fact that during the last supper all the disciples swore to never leave Jesus, they are described by the Synoptics and by John as quickly abandoning him here. However, the Gospel of Mark (and only Mark) adds the somewhat enigmatic coda that a young man, wearing nothing but a cloth to cover his genitals (a loin cloth), had been following Jesus, and still remained. Mark states that when the guards tried to grab this mysterious youth, they caught hold of the cloth, but the youth abandoned it, and escaped naked.

The mysterious youth is unidentified, and isn't referred to directly again. However, some scholars think it may the same youth as the similary mysterious youth clad in a white robe that Mark says was later present at the Empty Tomb of Jesus. The ancient (and controversial) Secret Gospel of Mark is usually considered to argue that these two youths are one and the same, as well as being the rich man that Jesus once spoke to, and a Lazarus-like figure. The youth has long been suggested by a small minority of people to have been taking part in some form of homosexual act with Jesus, either as a ritual, or as his boyfriend, the beloved disciple, and this speculation has been fuelled by the potential implications of the Secret Gospel of Mark. entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment - an image from the Pericopes of Henry II In the Gospels, the empty tomb is the first sign of the Resurrection of Jesus. ... The Secret Gospel of Mark refers to a previously unsuspected gospel mentioned in a letter that presents itself as written by Clement of Alexandria. ... Resurrection of Lazarus by Juan de Flandes, around 1500. ... The word homosexuality has acquired multiple meanings over time. ... The phrase disciple whom Jesus loved or Beloved Disciple is used several times in the Gospel of John. ...

This is, however, not by any means the opinion of the academic mainstream, and critical scholars instead read the youth in the Secret Gospel of Mark, and hence that present at the arrest, as an allegorical metaphor for the progress of an individual as they are initiated into Christian knowledge. Prior to the rediscovery of the Secret Gospel of Mark, the youth was interpreted either as a self-reference to the author of Mark, or as a metaphor for the disciples being naked in the world due to their abandoning of Jesus (Brown et al. 626), and these still remain the interpretations upheld by a large percentage of scholars, especially by the more conservative Christians. Mark the Evangelist (Markus) (1st century) is traditionally believed to be the author of the Gospel of Mark, drawing much of his material from Peter. ...

References

• Brown, Raymond E. An Introduction to the New Testament Doubleday 1997 ISBN 0385247672
• Brown, Raymond E. et al. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary Prentice Hall 1990 ISBN 0136149340
• Kilgallen, John J. A Brief Commentary on the Gospel of Mark Paulist Press 1989 ISBN 0809130599
• Miller, Robert J. Editor The Complete Gospels Polebridge Press 1994 ISBN 0060655879