Luke 22:53
Read Luke 22:53 Using Other Translations
What does Luke 22:53 mean?
When I was daily with you in the temple
As he had been for some days past, teaching the people, and
disputing with them, the chief priests ye stretched forth
no hands against me;
to lay hold upon him, and kill him; the reason was, because his
time was not come, and they had no licence or permission to hurt
him, or any power given them against him from above: but
this is your hour;
the time was now come for the betraying of him by Judas; for the
seizing and apprehending him by the Roman soldiers and officers;
and for the delivery of him into the hands of the "chief" priests
and elders; and for them to insult, mock, buffet, scourge him,
and spit upon him: and for the crucifixion of him, and putting
him to death: the hour fixed for this was now come; it was now,
and not before, and therefore they could not lay hold on him, and
do to him what they listed, but now they might; yet this was but
an hour, a short time that they had to triumph over him, in
Caiaphas's palace, and Pilate's hall, upon the cross, and in the
grave; for on the third day he arose again, notwithstanding all
the precautions they took, and is ascended to heaven, and is
received there, and is out of their reach: and since then, it has
been his hour to take vengeance on them; on their nation, city,
and temple, for their disbelief, rejection, and ill usage of him;
and it will be likewise his hour at the day of judgment, when
they shall look on him whom they have pierced, and mourn; and
hide their faces from him, and call to the mountains to cover
them, and when they will be punished with everlasting destruction
from his presence: he adds, and the power of
darkness.
The Persic version reads, "the power of your darkness"; that is,
either the power granted to them, who were darkness itself, born
and brought up in darkness; were walking in darkness, and in the
ignorance of their minds; and did works of darkness, and shunned
the light, because their deeds were evil; and for which reason
they now chose the night, to execute their black designs upon
Christ: or rather, the power of the prince of darkness is here
meant; that power which he usurped, and was now permitted him to
exercise against Christ: and so the Ethiopic version renders it,
"the power of the lord of darkness"; who was, once an angel of
light, but now full of darkness, and who darkens the minds of
men, and for whom blackness of darkness is reserved: the Jews
were used to call the evil angels by this name; for so they say
F9,
``the destroying angels are called, (hlpaw Kvx) , "darkness, and thick darkness".''The sense of the whole passage is, that now was the time come, that Christ should be delivered up into the hands of wicked men and devils; that the former should have him in their power, and triumph over him for a season; and that hell was now let loose, and all the infernal powers were about him, throwing their poisoned arrows and fiery darts at him; all which Christ endured, to deliver his people from the present evil world, from the wrath of God, the curses of the law, and from the power of darkness.
F9 Raya Mehimna in Zohar in Lev. fol. 37. 2.
