Bible chapter guide

John 18

Across the Kidron Valley, in a garden, Judas brings soldiers to arrest Jesus; Peter cuts off Malchus's ear. Jesus is questioned by Annas and Caiaphas while Peter denies him, then taken to Pilate, who asks 'What is truth?' and offers to release him, but the crowd chooses Barabbas.

Summary written for the Labs; read the chapter itself for the full text.

What happens in this chapter

Jesus crosses the brook Kidron with his disciples to a garden where they often met, and Judas brings a detachment of soldiers and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, with lanterns, torches and weapons. When Jesus says 'I am he', they draw back and fall to the ground; Simon Peter cuts off the right ear of the high priest's servant, Malchus, and Jesus tells him to put his sword away. Jesus is taken first to Annas, the father-in-law of Caiaphas, while another disciple known to the high priest brings Peter into the courtyard, where he denies Jesus beside a charcoal fire. Early in the morning they bring Jesus to the praetorium but will not go in, so Pilate goes back and forth; Jesus tells him his kingdom is not of this world, Pilate asks what truth is, and the crowd asks for Barabbas.

What the lab shows, and where to look

Gethsemane's arrest moment shows the party coming from the city across the Kidron with torches and lanterns, as John 18:3 has it; the lab's party mixes John's soldiers with Mark's crowd. The garden is at the traditional site by today's Church of All Nations, and the notes say the exact spot is unknown. The high priest's house opens on the courtyard fire, the charcoal fire of 18:18, and the house can be placed in the Upper City (plausible) or at St Peter in Gallicantu (speculative). Annas has no room of his own; a note records John's account of him. For Pilate, the lab and Jerusalem through the Ages both place the praetorium at Herod's palace.

Questions people ask

Where was Jesus arrested?

John says Jesus crossed the brook Kidron, the valley between the city and the Mount of Olives, to a garden (18:1); Mark and Matthew name the place Gethsemane, Aramaic for 'oil press'. A garden or olive grove on the lower slope of the Mount of Olives fits all four Gospels, and the traditional site by the Church of All Nations lies there. The exact spot is not known.

Plausible

Who was Annas?

John calls him the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, and says Jesus was taken to him first and then sent bound to Caiaphas (18:13, 24). Josephus says Annas had been high priest himself, from AD 6 to 15, and that five of his sons later held the office (Antiquities 18.26, 18.34; 20.198). That helps explain why he still had the standing to question Jesus.

Strongly supported

Where was the high priest's house?

The Gospels do not say. One view puts it in the Upper City on the western hill, where the wealthy priestly families lived and large houses of the period have been excavated; Byzantine and later tradition places Caiaphas's house near the Cenacle on Mount Zion. The other is the church of St Peter in Gallicantu on the eastern slope of Mount Zion, where rock-cut chambers and a pit are shown as the place Jesus was held. The lab rates the first plausible and the second speculative.

Plausible

See it in the Labs

Also in this chapter

Herod's palace Trials before the high priest and Pilate Before Pilate Judas betrays Jesus and he is arrested Gethsemane The high priest's house

How sure can we be?

Textually stated
John says Jesus was taken first to Annas, a former high priest and Caiaphas's father-in-law, and then sent bound to Caiaphas.
Textually stated
The leaders did not enter the praetorium, so as not to be defiled before the Passover; Pilate went out to them and back in to Jesus.
Strongly supported
Where did Pilate judge Jesus? Herod's palace on the western hill.
The Roman governors lived in Caesarea and stayed in Herod's great palace, beside the three towers on the western hill, when they came up to Jerusalem for the feasts. Most scholars now place the praetorium and the Stone Pavement there.
Strongly supported
Josephus describes the palace and its towers (War 5.161–183). Philo and Josephus both tell of a Roman governor at Herod's palace.
Strongly supported
Gethsemane was a garden across the Kidron valley at the foot of the Mount of Olives.
John places the garden across the Kidron; Mark and Matthew call the place Gethsemane and Luke the Mount of Olives. A church stood at the traditional spot by the late 4th century.
Strongly supported
Gethsemane means "oil press" in Aramaic (gat shemanim). An olive grove with a press fits the name; John calls the place a garden.

Explore this chapter in the Knowledge Graph

Read the chapter

King James Version (KJV) Chinese Union Version, 1919 (Wikisource)