The immediate effect of His calm declaration was: ἀπῆλθον εἰς τὰ ὀπίσω καὶ ἔπεσον χαμαί, “they went backwards and fell to the ground”. Job 1:20, πεσὼν χαμαί; similarly used by Homer, etc., as = χαμᾶζε. This might have been considered a fulfilment of Psalms 27:2, οἱ θλίβοντές με … ἔπεσαν. The recoil, which necessarily causes stumbling and falling in a crowd, was natural, especially if the servants here employed were the same as those who had been sent to take Him on a former occasion, John 7:46. No one wished to be the first to lay hands on Him. Similar effects were produced by Mohammed (when Durthur stood over him with drawn sword), Mark Antony, Marius, Coligny. But the object in narrating the circumstance may have been to illustrate the voluntariness of Christ's surrender.

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Old Testament