Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 26:44

And he left them, and went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words.

44. saying the same words ] This repetition of earnestness must be distinguished from the vain repetitions of ch. Mat 6:7.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Verse 44. Prayed the third time] So St. Paul – I besought the Lord THRICE that it might depart from me, 2Co 12:8. This thrice repeating the same petition argues deep earnestness of soul.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Mark saith nothing of this third praying, but saith, Mar 14:41,42, And he cometh the third time, and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your rest: it is enough, the hour is come; behold, the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise up, let us go; lo, he that betray me is at hand. What the meaning of saying the same words is, we heard before; praying to the same sense, or saying the same thing, or matter, though using other words, as it is plain he hid. Luke tells us, Luk 22:43, there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. This is not the first time we read of angels appearing and ministering to Christ. They did so, Mat 4:11, after his conflict with the devil in the wilderness. Now an angel appeared to him in the hour of temptation. Then he had without, troubles; but now he hath within, fears, being in a great agony.

Thus it is said, Joh 12:27,28, that he being in a conflict, and praying, Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name. A voice was heard, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again. There the answer was testified by a voice from heaven; here it is by an angel. So God, Dan 9:21, let Daniel know his prayer was heard. Hannah knew another way, by the peace of her spirit after prayerher countenance was no more sad, 1Sa 1:18. How the angel did strengthen him we are not told. Let no man think that he who was the Son of God needed an angel to strengthen him: he was not now exerting his Divine virtue, but by his suffering showing that he was truly man, and, as to that nature, made lower than the angels.

Luke addeth, Luk 22:44, And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground. These words are expressive of the great conflict of our Saviours spirit, which was such as thrust out sweat like great drops of blood: whether they were very blood, or sweat with some mixture or tincture of blood, is very hard to determine, nor of any consequence for us to know: it is no unusual thing for bodies to breathe out sweat in ordinary conflicts of spirit; this was much more than ordinary. Luke saith, Luk 22:45,46, that when he rose up from prayer, and was come to his disciples, he found them sleeping for sorrow, and said unto them, Why sleep ye? rise and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. All three evangelists agree, that Christ coming the third time found them sleeping. Luke gives one reason of it, for sorrow. Their sorrow, added to their watching, may be some excuse for their sleeping, though otherwise it was a time which called for more waking.

The evangelists do not so well agree in what Christ said to his disciples. Luke saith, Rise and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. Matthew and Mark say he said, Sleep on now, and take your rest, &c. He might say both. Nor can we determine whether he spake those words seriously, as willing that they should take their rest, for they could be no further useful to him, whose time was now come; he was betrayed, and the traitor was at hand: or, with some reflection upon them for their drowsiness, which the words going before, What, could ye not teach with me one hour? Seem to hint us.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

And he left them, and went away again,…. At some little distance from them; they being so overpowered with sleep, that he could have no conversation with them:

and prayed the third time; as the Apostle Paul did, when under temptation, he prayed thrice that it might depart from him,

2Co 12:8,

saying the same words: the Arabic version renders it, “in the words which he before expressed”; and Munster’s Hebrew Gospel reads, “he said the same prayer”; not in the selfsame words, or in the express form he had before delivered it; for it is certain, that his second prayer is not expressed in the same form of words as the first: but the sense is, that he prayed to the same purpose; the matter and substance of his prayer was the same, namely, that he might be exempted from suffering; but if that could not be admitted of, he was desirous to be resigned to the will of his heavenly Father, and was determined to submit unto it.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

(44) Saying the same words.The fact is suggestive, as indicating that there is a repetition in prayer which indicates not formalism, but intensity of feeling. Lower forms of sorrow may, as it were, play with grief and vary the forms of its expression, but the deepest and sharpest agony is content to fall back upon the iteration of the self-same words.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

44. The third time Thrice, as if in a perfectly restless agony that allows no repose, did our Lord leave his three disciples to go and suffer and pray alone. What a loneliness was that amid the darkness of the memorable spot, when the Divine Man bore the sufferings of a world’s sin, and wrought the reconciliation between heaven and earth! It was the central hour in human history; and he was the most wonderful spectacle, perhaps, though no human eye beheld him, that any eye, human or superhuman, ever beheld.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

44. Saying the same words Form utters the same words from a want of feeling; earnestness repeats from abundance of feeling.

Luke adds: “And being in an agony, he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground. And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven strengthening him.” This marks the climax and the close of his present cup.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments