Bible Strands
Mark 14:46
Then the men seized Jesus and arrested Him.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The text describes armed men acting immediately after Judas’s kiss, seizing Jesus at the moment of betrayal. The agents are the arresting party, and the subject is Jesus, occurring at the climax of the garden confrontation.
The words — The Greek verb ἐπέβαλον (epebalon) literally means "laid" or "put," paired with τὰς χεῖρας (tas cheiras) "the hands," describing the physical act of seizing. This phrase captures the sudden transition from Judas’s greeting to violent restraint.
The thread — The text records the capture of Jesus, which parallels the binding of Samson in Judges 16:21 and the capture of the LORD’s anointed in Lamentations 4:20. John 18:12 records the same event, specifying that soldiers and Jewish officers arrested and bound Him.
Why it lands — The text states that the men seized Jesus immediately after the kiss, establishing a direct causal sequence. It requires the reader to accept that the arrest proceeds without resistance and fulfills the betrayal pattern.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
And they laid their hands on him, and took him.
Cross-references
- Judges 16:21 Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, where he was bound with bronze shackles and forced to grind grain in the prison.
- Lamentations 4:20 The LORD’s anointed, the breath of our life, was captured in their pits. We had said of him, “Under his shadow we will live among the nations.”
- John 18:12 Then the band of soldiers, with its commander and the officers of the Jews, arrested Jesus and bound Him.
- Acts 2:23 He was delivered up by God’s set plan and foreknowledge, and you, by the hands of the lawless, put Him to death by nailing Him to the cross.