MY LIFE

Here’s an interesting little diversion

Matthew 26:36-46	Mark 14:32-42	Luke 22:39-46
The Garden of Gethsemane 36 Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to His disciples, Sit here while I go over there and pray.” 37 And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and distressed. 38 Then He said to them, My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch with Me.” 39 And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.” 40 And He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, So, you men could not keep watch with Me for one hour? 41 Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” 42 He went away again a second time and prayed, saying, My Father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, Your will be done.” 43 Again He came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. 44 And He left them again, and went away and prayed a third time, saying the same thing once more. 45 Then He came to the disciples and said to them, Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. 46 Get up, let us be going; behold, the one who betrays Me is at hand!”	Jesus in Gethsemane 32 They came to a place named Gethsemane; and He said to His disciples, Sit here until I have prayed.” 33 And He took with Him Peter and James and John, and began to be very distressed and troubled. 34 And He said to them, My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death; remain here and keep watch.” 35 And He went a little beyond them, and fell to the ground and began to pray that if it were possible, the hour might pass Him by. 36 And He was saying, Abba! Father! All things are possible for You; remove this cup from Me; yet not what I will, but what You will.” 37 And He came and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, Simon, are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour? 38 Keep watching and praying that you may not come into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” 39 Again He went away and prayed, saying the same words. 40 And again He came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy; and they did not know what to answer Him. 41 And He came the third time, and said to them, Are you still sleeping and resting? It is enough; the hour has come; behold, the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. 42 Get up, let us be going; behold, the one who betrays Me is at hand!”	The Garden of Gethsemane 39 And He came out and proceeded as was His custom to the Mount of Olives; and the disciples also followed Him. 40 When He arrived at the place, He said to them, Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” 41 And He withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and began to pray, 42 saying, Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.” 43 Now an angel from heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him. 44 And being in agony He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground. 45 When He rose from prayer, He came to the disciples and found them sleeping from sorrow, 46 and said to them, Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray that you may not enter into temptation.”

Of the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), Mark was written about 60 A.D., roughly 30 years after the alleged crucifixion. The fourth Gospel, John, records this scene in one passing verse (John 18:1) without much detail at all. According to Bible Scholars, NONE of the four Gospels were actually written by the people whose names they bear, and certainly not by any eye-witnesses; probably they were written by obscure individuals who directly attributed the writings to well known leaders/apostles and/or the attributions developed by growing early Church legend. Matthew and Luke were written many years after Mark, largely drawing from the earlier Mark narrative, and many scholars believe they all drew from an earlier lost gospel often referred to as “Q” as many of the events appear to come from a common source or writing.

Whatever; the scholarship doesn’t concern me at this point, other than the fact that it is agreed that the gospels weren’t written by the people to whom they are attributed, that the gospels were at least three and perhaps four or five decades AFTER the events they supposedly describe, and that no eyewitnesses to any of the events recorded in the gospels apparently wrote anything!

So, let’s look at the three versions of what is known as Jesus’ “Agony in the Garden” — his heartfelt prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane just moments before his betrayal by Judas.

He and his disciples enter the Garden. He tells his disciples, “Y’all just sit here a spell, I’m going to go over there and pray. Peter, James and John, you three come with me.” So Jesus and his chosen three go apart a bit. He sits those three down and he goes even farther, “about a stone’s throw”.

How far can you throw a stone? Thirty feet? Fifty? A hundred? Doesn’t matter. Safe to assume a stone’s throw is far enough away that it’s beyond ear-shot. And Jesus falls face to the ground and pours out his heart before the Father, begging for his coming hour of betrayal and subsequent mock trial and crucifixion (which, by the way, was a very common form of execution in those days; it was NOT some unique thing invented just for Jesus — he was killed as a common criminal in the manner afforded all common criminals). We’ve all seen the artists’ renderings of “Jesus in the Garden”, in his red robe neatly kneely against a rock, face up toward the heavens. Sweet, but inaccurate. The narrative says he fell to the ground

And then he goes back to Peter, James, and John, and finds them ASLEEP. And he chews them out a bit. “Well, shit, fellas — here I am crying my eyes out and y’all aren’t even praying for me or nothing; y’all just drop off to sleep. Sheesh!”

THREE TIMES he goes out praying, and three times he comes back and finds his main mates sleeping. Well, by that time, Judas is already entering the Garden to betray him, and he tells the disciples to get up because the time has come.

Okay, so let’s think about this. Here’s the scenario: eight of the disciples are somewhere in the Garden (Judas has already slipped away to prepare his betrayal); Peter, James, and John are with Jesus (so all 12 are accounted for), and then Jesus goes way off beyond earshot to pray. The three who are closest to Jesus are SLEEPING.

Immediately after this time of prayer, Judas shows up, Jesus is betrayed and taken into custody.

So who the fuck is sitting around taking notes of who is doing what and where, and writing down all of Jesus’ prayers? I have stood in church NEXT TO people kneeling face down at the altar praying out loud, pouring out their hearts in agony, and all I heard was noise. I couldn’t make out what they were saying. If someone were praying face down in the dirt 50 feet away or more, there is NO WAY I would know what was uttered, and absolutely not at all if I were so tired I kept falling asleep. And considering all the chaos of soldiers taking Jesus away, it isn’t likely anyone would accurately remember who was doing what and where, or how many times P, J and J fell asleep or any of the details just before the soldiers showed up.

How could such a narrative end up in the Bible?? Easy. It was made up, just like the rest of the Gospels. It is not a literal account of anything that actually happened, but rather it is a mythic event as part of a mythic narrative about a mythic hero figure, no different from all the other mythic hero figures of that day, of which there were PLENTY.

And what about that angel in Luke’s version? It says “an angel appeared to him”. WTF?? Who saw it? Who heard it? Yes, it says the angel appeared to Jesus and “strengthened” him, whatever that means. It is a third-person narrative, seemingly written by someone standing off-stage and out of camera range, but how would someone in that perspective know what Jesus saw or what he felt, unless it was all fabricated by the writer, since none of the real characters of the story could possibly know it? Immediately after his prayer, he was betrayed and taken away, and there was no further contact with the disciples until his crucifixion. When did he have opportunity to tell the disciples what he was praying about or that he’d seen an angel? How convenient his three favorites were SLEEPING and could not have had any first-hand knowledge of such a thing. Do you think after the resurrection, during one of his “cameo appearances” to the disciples he sat them down and said, “Y’member when we went to the garden and I was praying? I asked the Father to not let it happen, but it didn’t do much good to pray about it.”

Sure, it was written, but who was able to document it? Why should it be believed that an angel did appear, when there’s no reason to believe he actually did pray in the Garden.

Again… it is all legend and myth.

Next time you sit down to read your Bible, you need to ask how such things could have been believed as literally true, when it is clearly a work of fiction.

I’ve heard that this (and other scenes) were included in the Gospel narratives to somehow show that Jesus really was fully human in his incarnation here; fully human and fully divine. But none of the Gospels were written until AFTER most of the Church letters were written (the Pauline Epistles and the rest), and Paul had already established Church teaching of the Divine Christ (not the human Jesus). In order to make sense in a culture where all the other mythic heros had virgin births and been martyred and then raised back up from the dead, it was fitting that the Church’s hero must also be painted as both divine AND human. it is not surprising that a lot of the details in the gospel stories are similar to the other cultural mythic hero tales.

Interesting, huh?