Arrest
Arrest in the UPDV gathers around two scenes: the seizing of Jesus in the garden across the brook Kidron, and the parallel histories in which leaders of Israel are taken by treachery — supremely Jonathan the Hasmonean, lured into Ptolemais and bound by Tryphon. The same vocabulary recurs in both: a friend turned betrayer, a multitude with weapons, a moment when "they laid hands on him." What the seizure means is given by the words spoken before the hands close — the prayer of resignation in the garden, the rebuke of the sword, the cup that the Father has given.
The Garden and the Approaching Hour
Jesus comes with his disciples "over the brook Kidron, where a garden was, into which he entered, himself and his disciples" (John 18:1). Luke notes the place was already familiar: "he came out, and went, as his custom was, to the mount of Olives" (Luke 22:39). Mark names it: "they come to a place which was named Gethsemane: and he says to his disciples, Sit⁺ here, while I pray" (Mark 14:32). Inside the garden the disciples are charged: "Pray that you⁺ do not enter into temptation" (Luke 22:40).
The arrest is anticipated as an hour, not an accident. Earlier in the ministry the seizing failed because the time had not come: "They sought therefore to take him: and no man laid his hand on him, because his hour was not yet come" (John 7:30). Now the hour declares itself: "Now before the feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that his hour came that he should depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end" (John 13:1); "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son" (John 17:1). Within the garden itself the prayer fixes its meaning as the cup: "Abba, Father, all things are possible to you; remove this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what you will" (Mark 14:36). The submission becomes physical: "And he was parted from them about a stone's cast; and he knelt down and prayed, saying, Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but yours, be done" (Luke 22:41-42); "And he was in great distress, and was praying urgently, and his sweat became like drops of blood falling upon the ground" (Luke 22:44); "And an angel appeared to him, strengthening him" (Luke 22:43).
The Betrayer and the Kiss
The arrest party is led by one of the twelve. The betrayal had been foretold at supper: "When Jesus had thus said, he was troubled in the spirit, and testified, and said, Truly, truly, I say to you⁺, that one of you⁺ will deliver me up" (John 13:21). Luke reads the betrayer as the appointed instrument and the appointed warning: "For the Son of Man indeed goes, as it has been determined: but woe to that man through whom he is delivered up!" (Luke 22:22). Mark reports the conspiracy: "And Judas Iscariot, he who was one of the twelve, went away to the chief priests, that he might deliver him to them" (Mark 14:10).
The arrival in the garden is sudden: "And immediately, while he yet spoke, comes Judas, one of the twelve, and with him a multitude with swords and staves, from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders" (Mark 14:43). Judas brings light and weapons: "Judas then, having received the battalion [of soldiers], and attendants from the chief priests and from the Pharisees, comes there with lanterns and torches and weapons" (John 18:3). The signal is the affectionate greeting: "And when he came, immediately he came to him, and says, Rabbi; and kissed him" (Mark 14:45). Luke makes the violation explicit: "While he yet spoke, look, a multitude, and he who was called Judas, one of the twelve, went before them; and he drew near to Jesus to kiss him. But Jesus said to him, Judas, do you deliver up the Son of Man with a kiss?" (Luke 22:47-48).
The shape of this treachery — a familiar friend, a sign of love that seals a delivering up — has its older voice in the Psalter: "Yes, my own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, Who ate of my bread, Has lifted up his heel against me" (Ps 41:9); "For it is not an enemy who reproached me; Or I could have borne it: It is not one who hated me who magnified himself against me; Or I would have hid myself from him" (Ps 55:12). Ben Sira names the same posture: "If evil meets you, he is found there; As a man who [pretends] to uphold you, he will take hold of your heel" (Sir 12:17).
"I Am" and the Falling Back
In John the seizure is preceded by a moment in which the arresting party collapses. Jesus does not wait passively: "Jesus therefore, knowing all the things that were coming upon him, went forth, and says to them, Whom do you⁺ seek?" (John 18:4). They name him by his town: "They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. He says to them, I am [he]. And Judas also, who delivered him up, was standing with them" (John 18:5). The reply has unexpected force: "When therefore he said to them, I am [he], they went backward, and fell to the ground" (John 18:6). Only after this does the arrest proceed.
The Sword, the Slave, and the Cup
A disciple resists with violence. Mark records it without naming him: "But a certain one of those who stood by drew his sword, and struck the slave of the high priest, and took off his ear" (Mark 14:47). John identifies both attacker and victim: "Simon Peter therefore having a sword drew it, and struck the high priest's slave, and cut off his right ear. Now the slave's name was Malchus" (John 18:10). Jesus refuses the defense and re-anchors the moment in the cup of the garden: "Jesus therefore said to Peter, Put up the sword into the sheath: the cup which the Father has given me, shall I not drink it?" (John 18:11). Luke adds a healing in the middle of the seizing: "But Jesus answered and said, Allow⁺ [them] thus far. And he touched his ear, and healed him" (Luke 22:51).
"They Laid Hands on Him"
The arrest itself is recorded in three short clauses. Mark: "And they laid hands on him, and took him" (Mark 14:46). Luke: "And they seized him, and led him [away], and brought him into the high priest's house. But Peter followed far off" (Luke 22:54). John: "So the battalion and the colonel, and the attendants of the Jews, seized Jesus and bound him" (John 18:12). Jesus protests the manner of it: "And Jesus answered and said to them, Have you⁺ come out, as against a robber, with swords and staves to seize me?" (Mark 14:48). And then: "I was daily with you⁺ in the temple teaching, and you⁺ didn't take me: but [this is done] that the Scriptures might be fulfilled" (Mark 14:49). Luke names the hour that has been waiting all along: "When I was daily with you⁺ in the temple, you⁺ did not stretch forth your⁺ hands against me: but this is your⁺ hour, and the power of darkness" (Luke 22:53).
The Disciples Scatter
The arrest empties the garden of his company: "And they all left him, and fled" (Mark 14:50). Mark notes one near-arrest among the disciples: "And a certain young man followed with him, having a linen cloth cast about him, over [his] naked [body]: and they lay hold on him" (Mark 14:51). Peter follows at a distance into the high priest's courtyard, where, by a fire of coals among the slaves and attendants of the arresters, he is recognized and denies: "and seeing Peter warming himself, she looked on him, and says, You also were with the Nazarene, [even] Jesus. But he denied, saying, I neither know, nor understand what you say: and he went out into the porch; and the rooster crowed" (Mark 14:67-68). The denials harden: "But he again denied it. And after a little while again those who stood by said to Peter, Of a truth you are [one] of them; for you are a Galilean. But he began to curse, and to swear, I don't know this man of whom you⁺ speak" (Mark 14:70-71). John gives the same scene at the high priest's door: "Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. They said therefore to him, Are you also [one] of his disciples? He denied, and said, I am not" (John 18:25).
Before the High Priest
The arrest delivers Jesus into a hearing rigged from the start. John notes the route: "and led him to Annas first; for he was father in law to Caiaphas, who was high priest that year" (John 18:13). The judge has already drawn his conclusion: "Now Caiaphas was he who gave counsel to the Jews, that it was expedient that one man should die for the people" (John 18:14). The witnesses are dishonest: "For many bore false witness against him, and their witness didn't agree together" (Mark 14:56). The question Caiaphas finally asks pulls everything to a head: "But he held his peace, and answered nothing. Again the high priest asked him, and says to him, Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?" (Mark 14:61). Jesus answers: "I am: and you⁺ will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven" (Mark 14:62). Luke reports the same exchange: "But from now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God. And they all said, Are you then the Son of God? And he said to them, You⁺ say that I am" (Luke 22:69-70).
The custodians of the prisoner abuse him in custody: "And the men who held [Jesus] mocked him, and beat him" (Luke 22:63); "And many other things they spoke against him, reviling him" (Luke 22:65); "And when he had said this, one of the attendants standing by struck Jesus with his hand, saying, Do you answer the high priest so?" (John 18:22). Even here the prisoner names the limits of the authority that has him: "Jesus answered him, You would have no power against me, except it were given you from above: therefore he who delivered me to you has greater sin" (John 19:11).
Arrest by Treachery in the Maccabean History
The same pattern — a leader of Israel taken by friendly words and a shut gate — runs through 1 Maccabees in the seizure of Jonathan. Tryphon "sought to get the kingdom… by deceit" (1Ma 11:1) and at last "falsified all whatsoever he had said, and alienated himself from Jonathan, and did not reward him according to the benefits he had received from him, but gave him great trouble" (1Ma 11:53). The arrest itself is at Ptolemais: "Now as soon as Jonathan entered into Ptolemais, those of Ptolemais shut the gates of the city, and took him: and all those who came in with him they slew with the sword" (1Ma 12:48).
Tryphon then puts Jonathan into custody and uses him as a hostage: "And Tryphon removed from Ptolemais with a great army, to invade the land of Judah, and Jonathan was with him in custody" (1Ma 13:12). The ransom demand is dishonest: "But now send a hundred talents of silver, and his two sons for hostages, that when he is set at liberty he may not revolt from us, and we will release him" (1Ma 13:16). Simon, the brother, is forced to comply and is betrayed: "Now Simon knew that he spoke deceitfully to him, nevertheless he ordered the silver, and the children to be sent: otherwise he should bring on himself a great hatred of the people of Israel" (1Ma 13:17); "So he sent the children, and the hundred talents: and he lied, and did not let Jonathan go" (1Ma 13:19). Beheading in custody is the Hasmonean inheritance of this mode of arrest: "And Zabdiel the Arabian took off Alexander's head, and sent it to Ptolemy" (1Ma 11:17).
The longer record gathers more arrests of more captives — peoples carried off in war and held against ransom. Antiochus' campaign begins the pattern: "And they took the women captive, and the children, and the cattle they possessed" (1Ma 1:32). The seizure of hostages is a standard instrument of Hasmonean diplomacy as well: "And he took the sons of the chief men of the country for hostages, and put them in the castle in Jerusalem in custody" (1Ma 9:53); "And the men of Gaza made supplication to Jonathan, and he gave them the right hand: and he took their sons for hostages, and sent them to Jerusalem" (1Ma 11:62); "And he went and defeated the army of Demetrius: and took him, and brought him to Arsakes, and he put him into custody" (1Ma 14:3). And the same friendly-words tactic that took Jonathan recurs elsewhere: "And he spoke to them peaceful words in deceit: and they believed him. And he fell on the city suddenly, and struck it with a great slaughter, and destroyed many people in Israel" (1Ma 1:30); "And Nicanor came to Jerusalem with a great army, and he sent to Judas and to his brothers deceitfully with friendly words" (1Ma 7:27).
Ben Sira describes the inner life of the betrayer who closes the trap: "With his lips, an adversary tarries; But with his heart, he considers deep pits. And even though he weeps with his eyes; When he finds the [right] time, he will not be filled with blood" (Sir 12:16); "He will wag his head and wave his hand; And with much whispering, he will change his face" (Sir 12:18). Of the betrayer-prone household Sirach adds: "From one who fears Yahweh, a city will be inhabited; And from a family of betrayers, it will be desolate" (Sir 16:4).
The Power of Darkness
The garden arrest happens in the night. "And it was night" closes Judas's exit from the supper (John 13:30). Jesus names the night-quality of the seizure to those who come with their lanterns: "this is your⁺ hour, and the power of darkness" (Luke 22:53). The arrest is not an interruption of the mission but the door of it — the moment in which the cup, accepted in prayer, is taken in the hand.