Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
John 18:1-27, Arrest across the Kidron, and Annas
Judas brings soldiers and temple police with torches to a garden across the Kidron. Jesus answers I am he, they fall back, and he is taken bound to Annas while Peter denies him three times by a charcoal fire.
John 18:1-27, in every translation this tool compares.
Jesus crosses the Kidron valley to a garden, and Judas comes there with a detachment of soldiers and police from the chief priests and Pharisees, carrying lanterns, torches and weapons. When Jesus asks whom they want and says I am he, they draw back and fall to the ground; Peter cuts off the right ear of the high priest's slave Malchus, and Jesus tells him to put the sword away. They bind Jesus and take him first to Annas, father-in-law of Caiaphas. Another disciple known to the high priest gets Peter into the courtyard, where Peter warms himself at a charcoal fire and three times denies being a disciple; meanwhile Annas questions Jesus, who says he has always taught openly, an officer slaps him, and Annas sends him bound to Caiaphas as a rooster crows.
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- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/gods-name\/","n":"God's name and I am","s":"God gave his name to Moses at the burning bush as I AM, and in Isaiah he says I am he. To make God's name known was to show who he is, and when Jesus uses those words in certain settings, his hearers can take them as God's own name.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/honor-and-shame\/","n":"Honor before a crowd","s":"Public standing was the currency of the ancient Mediterranean. People competed for honor and dreaded being shamed in front of others.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/following-a-teacher\/","n":"Following a teacher","s":"A disciple walked behind his teacher, lived with him, learned his ways and carried his reputation. Jesus chose his own, which only radical teachers did.","r":""}
The Kidron ran only in the rainy season, and the Passover moon was nearly full, so only a few needed torches (Keener and his notes; the ESV Study Bible). Who made the arrest is debated. The cohort language fits Roman units, and the ESV and CSB Study Bibles speak of soldiers sent to prevent rioting, with the temple police making the arrest; Keener and his notes point out that the same terms were used of Jewish units, that Romans would not take a prisoner to Annas, whom Rome had deposed, and that Pilate seems unaware of the case. Annas had been high priest from AD 6 to 15 and kept his power through his family (Keener and his notes); Josephus writes that "he had five sons who had all performed the office of a high priest to God." A disciple's denial shamed his teacher, which is why scholars think no Christian would have invented it (Keener and his notes). Where Caiaphas lived is disputed between a mansion under the Armenian monastery on Mount Zion and the site of St. Peter in Gallicantu (Price and House).
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on John 18:1-2, 18:3, 18:4-6, 18:10, 18:13-14, 18:15-18, 18:20 and 18:22-24
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on John 18:3, 18:6, 18:10, 18:13, 18:20, 18:22, 18:23 and 18:25
- ESV Study Bible, study notes on John 18:1 and 18:3
- CSB Study Bible, notes on John 18:3 and 18:18
- Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 20.9.1, trans. William Whiston
- J. Randall Price and H. Wayne House, Zondervan Handbook of Biblical Archaeology, ch. 12, John 18:24 The House of Caiaphas
