Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 26:38
Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me.
38. My soul ] This is important as the one passage in which Jesus ascribes to Himself a human soul.
watch with me ] The Son of man in this dark hour asks for human sympathy.
with me ] Only in Matthew.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 38. Then saith he] Then saith – Jesus: – I have added the word Jesus, , on the authority of a multitude of eminent MSS. See them in Griesbach.
My soul is exceeding sorrowful, (or, is surrounded with exceeding sorrow,) even unto death.] This latter word explains the two former: My soul is so dissolved in sorrow, my spirit is filled with such agony and anguish, that, if speedy succour be not given to my body, death must be the speedy consequence.
Now, the grand expiatory sacrifice begins to be offered: in this garden Jesus enters fully into the sacerdotal office; and now, on the altar of his immaculate divinity, begins to offer his own body – his own life – a lamb without spot, for the sin of the world. St. Luke observes, Lu 22:43-44, that there appeared unto him an angel from heaven strengthening him; and that, being in an agony, his sweat was like great drops of blood falling to the ground. How exquisite must this anguish have been, when it forced the very blood through the coats of the veins, and enlarged the pores in such a preternatural manner as to cause them to empty it out in large successive drops! In my opinion, the principal part of the redemption price was paid in this unprecedented and indescribable agony.
Bloody sweats are mentioned by many authors; but none was ever such as this – where a person in perfect health, (having never had any predisposing sickness to induce a debility of the system,) and in the full vigour of life, about thirty-three years of age, suddenly, through mental pressure, without any fear of death, sweat great drops of blood; and these continued, during his wrestling with God to fall to the ground.
To say that all this was occasioned by the fear he had of the ignominious death which he was about to die confutes itself – for this would not only rob him of his divinity, for which purpose it is brought, but it deprives him of all excellency, and even of manhood itself. The prospect of death could not cause him to suffer thus, when he knew that in less than three days he was to be restored to life, and be brought into an eternity of blessedness. His agony and distress can receive no consistent explication but on this ground – He SUFFERED, the JUST for the UNJUST, that he might BRING us to GOD. O glorious truth! O infinitely meritorious suffering! And O! above all, the eternal love, that caused him to undergo such sufferings for the sake of SINNERS!
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Then saith he unto them,…. The three disciples, Peter, James, and John, who, by his looks and gestures, might know somewhat of the inward distress of his mind; yet he choose to express it to them in words, saying,
my soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. That Christ had an human soul, as well as an human body, is clear from hence; and which was possessed of the same passions as ours are, but without sin, such as joy, love, grief, sorrow, c. and at this time its sorrows were exceeding great: his soul was beset all around with the sins of his people these took hold on him, and encompassed him, which must, in the most sensible manner, affect his pure and spotless mind; the sorrows of death and hell surrounded him on every side, insomuch that the least degree of comfort was not let in to him; nor was there any way open for it, so that his soul was overwhelmed with sorrow; his heart was ready to break; he was brought even, as it were, to the dust of death; nor would his sorrows leave him, he was persuaded, until soul and body were separated from each other; see a like phrase in Jud 16:16,
tarry ye here. The Ethiopic adds, “till I shall return”, for he was going a little further from them, to vent his grief, and pour out his soul unto God. Munster’s Hebrew Gospel reads it, “expect me”, or “wait for me here”, signifying, that he should return to them shortly;
and watch with me. It was night, and they might be heavy and inclined to sleep: he knew it would be an hour of temptation both to him and them, and therefore advises them to watch against it; and to observe how it would go with him, and what should befall him, that they might be witnesses of it, and be able to testify what agonies he endured, what grace he exercised, and how submissive he was to his Father’s will.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Watch with me ( ‘ ). This late present from the perfect means to keep awake and not go to sleep. The hour was late and the strain had been severe, but Jesus pleaded for a bit of human sympathy as he wrestled with his Father. It did not seem too much to ask. He had put his sorrow in strong language, “even unto death” ( ) that ought to have alarmed them.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
38. My soul is sorrowful. He communicates to them his sorrow, in order to arouse them to sympathy; not that he was unacquainted with their weakness, but in order that they might afterwards be more ashamed of their carelessness. This phrase expresses a deadly wound of grief; as if he had said, that he fainted, or was half-dead, with sorrow. Jonah (Jon 4:9) makes use of a similar phrase in replying to the Lord; I am angry even to death. I advert to this, because some of the ancient writers, in handling this passage with a misapplication of ingenuity, philosophize in this way, that the soul of Christ was not sorrowful in death but only even to death. And here again we ought to remember the cause of so great sorrow; for death in itself would not have so grievously tormented the mind of the Son of God, if he had not felt that he had to deal with the judgment of God.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(38) Then cometh Jesus . . .In the interval between Mat. 26:35-36, we have probably to place the discourses in John 15 (the reference to the vine, probably suggested by one which was putting forth its leaves in the early spring), John 16, and the great prayer of intercession in John 17. As St. John alone has recorded them, it is probable that he alone entered into their meaning, while others either did not hear them, or listened to them as above their reach, and asked their child-like questions (Joh. 16:18-19; Joh. 16:29-30). St. Luke records what we may look on as the germ of the great intercession, in our Lords words to Peter, I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not (Luk. 22:32).
A place called Gethsemane.The word means oil-press, and was obviously connected with the culture of the trees from which the Mount took its name. St. Johns description implies that it was but a little way beyond the brook Kidron (Joh. 18:1), on the lower western slope of the mount. There was, a garden (or rather, orchard) there which was the wonted resort of our Lord and the disciples when they sought retirement. The olive-trees now growing in the place shown as Gethsemane, venerable as their age is, can hardly have been those that then grew there, as Josephus expressly records that Titus ordered all the trees in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem to be cut down, and the Tenth Legion was actually encamped on the Mount of Olives (Jos. Wars, v. 2, 3). They probably represent the devotion of pilgrims of the fourth or some later century, who replanted the hallowed site.
Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder.Partly in compassion to the weakness and weariness of the disciples, partly from the sense of the need of solitude in the highest acts of communing with His Father, the Son of Man withdraws for a little while from converse with those whom, up to this time, He had been strengthening. He had been (as in John 17) praying for them; He now needs to pray for Himself.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
(38) Exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.The infinite sadness of that hour leads the Master to crave for sympathy from the three who were, most of all, His brothers. If they may not see, or fully hear, the throes of that agony, as though the pangs of death had already fallen on Him, it will be something to know that they are at least watching with Him, sharers in that awful vigil.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
38. My soul is exceeding sorrowful Jesus then had a purely human soul. The doctrine of the Monophysites, that he had only a human body, of which God was the only soul, is not true. That human soul, Luke informs us, in his childhood increased in wisdom and in favour with God and man. Hence our Lord was complete man. His mind, as human, was subject to limitations. Beyond its human circle were innumerable things it did not know; though, doubtless, his mind was so divinely illuminated as not to be liable to positive involuntary falsity or mistake.
Exceeding sorrowful Our Saviour here speaks not of fear, that is, of the approaching cross, but of sorrow. A supernatural woe overwhelms and all but sinks him before the cross arrives. “He trod the winepress of the wrath of God.”
Sorrowful even unto death Not sorrowful in anticipation of death; but a sorrow, not his own, pressed so heavily and so damply upon him, that it would drown and quench the spark of life but for the divine aid impregnating and strengthening his human person. What sorrow was this? Doubtless the prophet Isaiah (Isa 53:4) furnishes the true answer: “Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.” We do not here find any warrant for the supposition that God, the Father Almighty, poured the thunderbolts of personal anger on his suffering Son. But as Christ suffered as a substitute for a sinful world, so he did voluntarily, by his own sad consent, encounter all the woe that could be inflicted by hell and earth, (the natural executioners of absolute justice under the government of God,) and thus with his infinite dignity do honour to the law of eternal justice.
And in view of this, having done homage to justice in his own person, he is entitled to bestow paradise and confer righteousness on all who obediently accept him as their substitute and Redeemer.
Tarry watch They were to watch, yet at a reverent distance. The Saviour, as if powers other than human were haunting his soul, yearns to be in reach of human sympathy.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘Then he says to them, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even to death, you remain here, and watch with me.”
Then, reaching a second point He leaves the three, speaking of His anguish which is so great that He feels almost that He will die, and calling on them to remain there and watch with Him. He wants their support in His agony. In His grief of soul He possibly has in mind Psalms 42-43. with their threefold, ‘why are you cast down, O My soul? And why are you disquieted within me?’ (Psa 42:5; Psa 42:11; Psa 43:5), and there we also find the words, ‘All your waves and your billows have gone over Me’ (Psa 42:7), which are so descriptive of what He was enduring, the very billows of God. But it will be clear in the end that He obtains little help from them, and the purpose of their failure is in order to bring out how Jesus must bear His burden alone. What had to be experienced that night was beyond the strength and commitment of ordinary men, even those who loved Him.
‘And watch with Me.’ Passover became ‘a night of watching to YHWH’ (Exo 12:42) because of the victory that He had achieved. These too were to watch with Him so as to seek to attain victory in what lay ahead, for they now ‘knew’ about the new Passover which was to involve the breaking of His body and the shedding of His blood, and He longed for their support. All He asked was that they keep awake and watch, although He no doubt expected them also to watch with prayer. His concern was that they be alert to the urgency of the hour, and have a sympathetic part in it. He wanted to know that they were with Him in His trial.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Mat 26:38. My soul is exceeding sorrowful The words used here, and in the latter part of Mat 26:37 by our translators, are very flat, and fall extremely short of the emphasis of those terms in which the Evangelist describes this aweful scene; for , rendered, to be sorrowful, signifies to be penetrated with the most lively and piercing sorrow; and , rendered, to be very heavy, signifies to be quite depressed, and almost overwhelmed with the load. St. Mark expresses it, if possible, in a more forcible manner; for , in Mar 14:33 imports the most shocking mixture of terror and amazement; and; , exceeding sorrowful, in this verse intimates, that he was surrounded with sorrow on every side, so that it broke in upon him with such violence, that, humanly speaking, there was no way to escape. Dr. Doddridge translates and paraphrases the passage thus: “He began to be in a very great and visible dejection, amazement, and anguish of mind, on account of some painful and dreadful sensations, which were then impressed upon his soul by the immediate hand of God. Then turning to his three disciples, he says to them, My soul is surrounded on all sides with an extremity of anguish and sorrow, which tortures me even almost unto death; and I know that the infirmity of humannaturemustquickly sink under it, without some extraordinary relief from God: while therefore I apply to him, do you continue here and watch:”and had they done this carefully, they would soon have found a rich equivalent for their watchfulness in the eminent improvement of their graces, by this wonderful and instructive sight. Dr. More truly observes, that Christ’s continued resolution, in the midst of these agonies and supernatural horrors, was the most heroic that can be imagined, and far superior to valour in single combat, or in battle; where in one case the spirit is raised by natural indignation; and in the other by the pomp of war, the sound of martial music, the example of fellow-soldiers, &c. See More’s Theological Works, p. 38 and Psa 116:3.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
38 Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me.
Ver. 38. My soul is exceeding sorrowful ] He had a true human soul then, neither was his deity to him for a soul, as some heretics fancied; for then our bodies only had been redeemed by him, and not our souls ( , as that Father hath it), if he had not in soul also suffered, and so descended into hell. The sufferings of his body were but the body of his sufferings; the soul of his sufferings were the sufferings of his soul, whch was now undequaque tristis, beset with sorrows, and heavy as a heart could hold, . The “sorrows of death compassed him, the cords of hell surrounded him,”Psa 18:4-5Psa 18:4-5 , the pain whereof he certainly suffered, non specie et loco sed , something answerable to hell, and altogether unspeakable. Hence the Greek Litany, “By thine unknown sufferings ( ’ ), good Lord, deliver us.” Faninus, an Italian martyr, being asked by one why he was so merry at his death, since Christ himself was so sorrowful? Christ, said he, sustained in his soul all the sorrows and conflicts with hell and death due to us; by whose sufferings we are delivered from sorrow and fear of them all.
Tarry ye here, and watch with me ] Yet not for my sake so much as for your own, that ye enter not into temptation,Luk 22:40Luk 22:40 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
38. ] Our Lord’s whole inmost life must have been one of continued trouble of spirit He was a man of sorrows , and acquainted with grief but there was an extremity of anguish now, reaching even to the utmost limit of endurance , so that it seemed that more would be death itself . The expression is said to be proverbial (see ref. Jonah): but we must remember that though with us men , who see from below, proverbs are merely bold guesses at truth, with Him , who sees from above, they are the truth itself , in its very purest form. So that although when used by a man , a proverbial expression is not to be pressed to literal exactitude, when used by our Lord , it is, just because it is a proverb, to be searched into and dwelt on all the more. The expression , in this sense, spoken by our Lord, is only found besides in Joh 12:27 . It is the human soul , the seat of the affections and passions, which is troubled with the anguish of the body; and it is distinguished from the , the higher spiritual being . Our Lord’s soul was crushed down even to death by the weight of that anguish which lay upon Him and that literally so that He (as regards his humanity) would have died , had not strength ( bodily strength, upholding his human frame) been ministered from on high by an angel (see note on Luk 22:43 ).
] not , for in that work the Mediator must be alone ; but (see above) watch with Me just (if we may compare our weakness with His) as we derive comfort in the midst of a terrible storm, from knowing that some are awake and with us, even though their presence is no real safeguard.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Mat 26:38 . .: He confides to the three His state of mind without reserve, as if He wished it to be known. Cf. the use made in the epistle to the Hebrews of this frank manifestation of weakness as showing that Christ could not have usurped the priestly office, but rather simply submitted to be made a priest (chap. Mat 5:7-8 ). , overwhelmed with distress, “ber and ber traurig” (Weiss). , mortally = death by anticipation, showing that it was the Passion with all its horrors vividly realised that was causing the distress. Hilary, true to his docetic tendency represents Christ as distressed on account of the three, fearing they might altogether lose their faith in God. : the three stationed nearer the scene of agony to keep watch there.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
soul. Greek. psuche. See App-110.
exceeding sorrowful = crushed with anguish. So the Septuagint Psa 42:5, Psa 42:11; Psa 43:5.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
38.] Our Lords whole inmost life must have been one of continued trouble of spirit-He was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief-but there was an extremity of anguish now, reaching even to the utmost limit of endurance, so that it seemed that more would be death itself. The expression is said to be proverbial (see ref. Jonah): but we must remember that though with us men, who see from below, proverbs are merely bold guesses at truth,-with Him, who sees from above, they are the truth itself, in its very purest form. So that although when used by a man, a proverbial expression is not to be pressed to literal exactitude,-when used by our Lord, it is, just because it is a proverb, to be searched into and dwelt on all the more. The expression , in this sense, spoken by our Lord, is only found besides in Joh 12:27. It is the human soul, the seat of the affections and passions, which is troubled with the anguish of the body; and it is distinguished from the , the higher spiritual being. Our Lords soul was crushed down even to death by the weight of that anguish which lay upon Him-and that literally-so that He (as regards his humanity) would have died, had not strength (bodily strength, upholding his human frame) been ministered from on high by an angel (see note on Luk 22:43).
] not , for in that work the Mediator must be alone; but (see above) watch with Me-just (if we may compare our weakness with His) as we derive comfort in the midst of a terrible storm, from knowing that some are awake and with us, even though their presence is no real safeguard.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Mat 26:38.[1146] , even unto death) Such sorrow as might have led an ordinary mortal to commit suicide.- , tarry ye here) You must not go with Me.- , with Me) In great trials solitude is pleasing, yet so that friends be near at hand. Jesus commands His disciples to watch with Him, though He knew that they would not afford Him any assistance.
[1146] , my soul) How great must have been the emotions and thoughts in the most holy soul of the Saviour in reference to the work committed to Him by the Father, as also in reference to His passion and His glory, especially during the last months, days, and hours before His death, throughout the very precious alternations which befell Him; for instance when, as He said, He must be about His Fathers business; when He received baptism; when He overcame the Tempter; when He put forth His zeal for His Fathers House; when He rejoiced in the revelation made to infants of things hidden from the wise and prudent; when He was transfigured on the Mount; when He set His face stedfastly toward Jerusalem; when He solemnly entered the city; when He said, Now is My soul troubled, etc.; when He washed the feet of the disciples; when He spake the words, Now is the Son of Man glorified; when He celebrated the last supper before His Passion with His disciples. And also in this very place, where He testifies that His soul is sorrowful even unto death. Add the several divine sentences which He uttered on the Cross.-Harm., p. 526, 527.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
My: Job 6:2-4, Psa 88:1-7, Psa 88:14-16, Psa 116:3, Isa 53:3, Isa 53:10, Rom 8:32, 2Co 5:21, Gal 3:13, 1Pe 2:24, 1Pe 3:18
tarry: Mat 26:40, Mat 25:13, 1Pe 4:7
Reciprocal: Lev 2:4 – meat offering Lev 3:14 – the fat that covereth 2Sa 22:7 – my distress Job 7:11 – the anguish Job 15:24 – anguish Job 21:4 – is my complaint Psa 6:3 – My Psa 13:2 – sorrow Psa 18:4 – sorrows Psa 20:1 – hear Psa 22:14 – I am Psa 55:4 – My Psa 57:6 – my soul Psa 69:2 – the floods Psa 69:17 – for I am Psa 69:20 – I am Psa 102:4 – heart Son 5:3 – have put Jon 4:9 – even Mat 24:42 – Watch Mar 14:33 – and began Joh 12:27 – is Joh 13:21 – he was Act 16:25 – prayed 1Th 5:6 – watch Heb 5:7 – in that he feared
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
FELLOWSHIP WITH CHRIST
Then saith He unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with Me.
Mat 26:38
The subject of our thoughts is our Lords appeal to the sympathy of His disciples in this the hour of His soul-sorrow.
I. Fellowship with Christ.From whom did He ask this sympathy? Was it from the world? Oh no! He had never received aught from the world but a thorn-crown and a cross! It was to His beloved disciples. None but the holy were admitted to share the loneliness, the solitude, the sorrow of that hour. And still He permits us to have fellowship with Him in His sufferings, and to feel the power of His resurrection. If this be so, see that you cultivate a tender, holy sympathy with Christ in His soul-sorrow for your sins.
II. Watching with Christ.And what was the nature of the sympathy which our Lord now asked? Tarry ye here, and watch with me. He only asked for their silent presence, yet how painful was His disappointment. Yet His reproof was so considerate. The Lord Jesus is not only cognisant of our shortcomings, but He remembers that we are dust.
III. Sympathy one with another.It cannot involve either a charge of weakness or sin, our felt reliance upon the sympathy, compassion, and help of our fellow-Christians. Yet sometimes it disappoints us. To what did Jesus resort when, sad and disappointed, He turned from this dried stream of human sympathy? He gave Himself again to prayerHe returned a third time to His Father. O blessed lesson He would thus teach us! We shall find in prayer all, and infinitely more, than we sought, and failed to find, in the holy watchers around us.
Dr. Octavius Winslow.
Illustrations
(1) Alexander the Great slept on the field of Arbela, and Napoleon on that of Austerlitz. Homer, in the Iliad, represents sleep as overcoming all men, even the gods, except Jupiter alone.
(2)Oh, ask not, hope thou not, too much
Of sympathy below;
Few are the hearts whence one sure touch
Bids the sweet fountains flow;
Fewand, by still conflicting powers,
Forbidden here to meet;
Such ties would make this life of ours
Too fair for aught so fleet.
Yet scorn thou not, for this, the true
And steadfast love of years;
The kindly, that from childhood grew,
The faithful to thy tears!
If there he one that oer the dead,
Hath in thy grief home part;
And watchd through sickness by thy bed,
Call his a kindred heart.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
6:38
Jesus expressed his feelings to the three disciples and told them to tarry there while he stepped aside to pray. Sorrowful, even unto death. This is a highly colored figure of speech, meaning that he felt sad enough to die.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Mat 26:38. My soul is exceeding sorrowful. Comp. Joh 12:27. A sufferer all His life, His sufferings now increased, even unto death. His human body would have given way under the sorrow of His human soul, had not strength been imparted by the ministrations of an angel (Luk 22:43). Soul and body interacted in Him as in us. Luke. (Mat 22:44) narrates more particularly the physical effects of this agony.
Tarry ye here and watch with me. He would have friends near Him, but does not say: Pray with me; in this conflict He must be alone. His command was not merely to keep awake out of sympathy with Him, but to be on their guard against coming dangers. Even then He showed care for them.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
26:38 {10} Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me.
(10) Christ, a true man, who is about to suffer the punishment which we should have suffered for forsaking God, is forsaken by his own: he has a terrible conflict with the horror and fear of the curse of God: out of which he, since he escaped as a conqueror, causes us not to be afraid of death any more.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The soul here (Gr. psyche) represents the whole person. Jesus meant that He felt sorrow so deeply that it seemed it would almost kill Him. [Note: Taylor, p. 553.] He did not mean that He was so sad He wished He were dead. Jesus’ words recall the refrain of Psa 42:5; Psa 42:11; Psa 43:5, which He probably had in mind. He shared these feeling with the chosen three disciples to encourage them to watch and pray with Him.