(51) Suffer ye thus far.--The words and the incident are peculiar to St. Luke. We are. not told to whom the words were spoken. If to the disciples, they were a command to be patient, and to let things take their course. If, as is possible, to the servants and officers, they were a plea for His disciples--"Do not visit them with punishment for this one act." The immediate healing of the ear is in favour of the latter view, as tending to conciliation.

Verse 51. - Suffer ye thus far. The exact meaning of these words has been much debated. They probably were addressed to the company of armed men, and contained a plea for the mistaken zeal of his disciple Peter. "Excuse this resistance." And he touched his ear, and healed him. This miraculous cure of the wound inflicted by the zealous disciple is related by the physician Luke.

22:47-53 Nothing can be a greater affront or grief to the Lord Jesus, than to be betrayed by those who profess to be his followers, and say that they love him. Many instances there are, of Christ's being betrayed by those who, under the form of godliness, fight against the power of it. Jesus here gave an illustrious example of his own rule of doing good to those that hate us, as afterwards he did of praying for those that despitefully use us. Corrupt nature warps our conduct to extremes; we should seek for the Lord's direction before we act in difficult circumstances. Christ was willing to wait for his triumphs till his warfare was accomplished, and we must be so too. But the hour and the power of darkness were short, and such the triumphs of the wicked always will be.And Jesus answered and said,.... Not to the question of the disciples, but either to Peter, who had done this rash action; and so the Persic and Ethiopic versions add, "to him"; or else to the multitude,

suffer ye thus far; or to them both, to Peter to stop his hand, to proceed no further, but put up his sword; and so the Arabic version reads, "refrain thyself"; and to the multitude to be easy, and not revenge the affront that was given them: and in order to pacify them, "he went to the wounded man", as the Persic version inserts,

and he touched his ear and healed him; which shows, that though the human nature of Christ was in a very low condition, yet he still retained the power of doing miracles; and also his great humanity, by which example be confirmed his precept of doing good to enemies; and likewise hereby gave full proof of his willingness to be apprehended by them; for otherwise, he that wrought such a miracle as this, could easily have delivered himself out of their hands; and one would have thought this would have put a stop to them, and have convinced them of the truth of his being a divine person, and the Messiah.