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.
Mark 14:32-52, Gethsemane and the arrest
At a place called Gethsemane Jesus prays in anguish while three disciples sleep. Judas arrives with an armed crowd from the chief priests, greets him with a kiss, and the disciples run.
Mark 14:32-52, in every translation this tool compares.
After the meal Jesus takes his disciples to a place on the Mount of Olives called Gethsemane. He falls to the ground and asks his Father to take the cup from him, yet asks for the Father's will, while Peter, James and John keep falling asleep. Judas comes with a crowd carrying swords and clubs and marks Jesus out with a kiss. One of those standing by cuts off a servant's ear, Jesus asks why they come for him as for a bandit, and everyone flees, a young man leaving his linen cloth behind.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/jewish-prayer\/","n":"Prayer in Jesus' day","s":"Set prayers, set hours, standing to pray, God addressed as Father, and prayers for his name and his kingdom. Jesus taught his own disciples a prayer inside that world.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/passover-pilgrims\/","n":"Passover and the pilgrim crowds","s":"The spring festival that retold God's rescue of Israel from Egypt. Jerusalem filled with pilgrims, and hopes of freedom ran high.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/chief-priests-and-council\/","n":"Chief priests, elders and the council","s":"The Jerusalem aristocracy of priestly families and elders who ran the temple and the Sanhedrin and dealt with Rome.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/rebels-and-would-be-messiahs\/","n":"Rebels and would-be messiahs","s":"In the decades around Jesus, men rose up claiming to deliver Israel: tax rebels, leaders of armed bands, and prophets who promised signs in the wilderness. Rome treated them all as rebels.","r":""}
Gethsemane means oil press, and Mark calls it only a place. Wilkins names the olive grove and the press cave as the two candidates; Garland reports Taylor's case for a cave beside the Church of All Nations that stood idle in spring, warm and dry on a chilly night. The sources differ on Abba. Keener's background commentary renders it Papa, a word of great intimacy that Jews did not use of God except in an occasional parable; Garland agrees that no individual is known to have addressed God this way before Jesus but says it does not mean Daddy, since Mark translates it with the ordinary word for father and disciples used it of an esteemed teacher. Keener takes the armed band as the temple guard; Wilkins thinks Roman soldiers assigned to the temple were among them. The sources also differ on the word Jesus uses at 14:48, robber or bandit: Keener calls it Josephus's standard term for revolutionaries, while Garland, citing another scholar, says Josephus used it for social bandits who preyed on the rich and never for a revolutionary against Rome. Jews generally abhorred nakedness (Keener).
- David E. Garland, Mark, in Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary, ed. Clinton E. Arnold, on Mark 14:32, 14:35, 14:36, 14:44, 14:48 and 14:51, and caption Altar in Cave in Gethsemane
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Mark 14:32-34, 14:35-36, 14:43, 14:44-46 and 14:50-52, and on Matthew 27:38
- Michael J. Wilkins, Matthew, in Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary, ed. Clinton E. Arnold, on Matthew 26:36-46 and 26:47
