Anguish in the Garden – Notes

Anguish in the Garden is a Gospel Poem derived from the Bible story of Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night before his execution. This story appears in all four of the canonical Gospels, but with considerably varying levels of detail. The Gospel of John barely mentions it at all, whereas Luke’s Gospel gives quite a detailed account. This Gospel Poem is based primarily on the version told in the Gospel of Luke and uses theological ideas from the first part of Chapter 1 of the Gospel of John.

Quatrain I: At the base of the Mount of Olives there were one or more olive presses. The Aramaic word for olive press is Gethsemane. This area, planted with olive trees like the slopes of the mountain, was a favourite place of Jesus to go to meditate and to pray (John 18:2).

Quatrain II, line 1: A number of apostles went from the Old City of Jerusalem as far as the start of the woods, but Jesus took only Simon Peter (his principal apostle) and the sons of Zebedee, James and John, with him into the Garden (Matthew 26:37-38; Mark 14:33), and had them stationed a “stone’s throw away” (Luke 22:41) from where he went to pray alone.

Quatrain II, line 2: There is an exposed piece of bedrock in the Garden of Gethsemane and traditionally this is where Jesus is believed to have come whenever he sought quiet contemplation and prayer in the Garden. Jesus using this exposed rock is not mentioned in the canonical gospels. The rock is often called “The Stone of Anguish” or “The Stone of Agony”. It is portrayed in religious art such as the painting “Christ in Gethsemane” by Heinrich Hofmann (1886).

Quatrain II, line 4: The reference to “blood, not sweat” is taken from Luke 22:44. Hematidrosis (and various similar spellings) is “a condition in which capillary blood vessels that feed the sweat glands rupture, causing them to exude blood; it occurs under conditions of extreme physical or emotional stress.” “A Curious Case of Sweating Blood”, Indian J Dermatol. 2013 Nov-Dec; 58(6): 478–480. doi: 10.4103/0019-5154.119964 – retrieved 17 April 2023.

Quatrain III, line 2, ff.: The metaphor of Jesus holding a poisoned cup of liquid and being expected to drink it is used in all three Synoptic Gospels (remember that the Gospel of John provides no detail of the incidents in the Garden). (Matthew 26:39b, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”; Matthew 26 42b, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”; Mark 14:36, ³⁶ “Abba, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”; Luke 22:42, ⁴² “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”) It should be noted that in all accounts, Jesus is asking if it is necessary for him to die (drink the cup), but he is making it clear that the decision on this request is God’s and not his own to make.

Quatrain III, line 3: In the story in the first chapter of the Gospel of Luke, a woman, Elizabeth, the wife of a priest, Zechariah, becomes pregnant (despite being elderly and previously unable to conceive) with a child who would be John the Baptist. (John the Baptist prepares the way for the Christ: Matthew 3:1-6, recalling Isaiah 40:3.) When Elizabeth was six months pregnant, the Archangel Gabriel visited Mary of Nazareth and told her that she would conceive (despite being a virgin) with a child who would be Jesus. In the conversation between Gabriel and Mary, Gabriel refers to “Elizabeth your relative” (Luke 1:36). Hence in this story we refer to Jesus and John the Baptist as being cousins.

However, Elizabeth lived in Judea, the Jewish lands around Jerusalem, but Mary, in Luke’s Gospel, lived in Nazareth in the Jewish backwater of Galilee. Galilee was geographically separated from Judea by Samaria. In Luke 1:39-40, Mary hurries to Elizabeth’s house. This makes Luke’s accounts of Mary and Elizabeth rather fanciful, and most scholars do not believe that Jesus and John the Baptist were related. This issue is tangential to our Bible story.

Quatrain V: The appearance of an angel occurs in Luke 22:43, and the hematidrosis (Luke 22:44) that is mentioned in Quatrain II, line 4 happens because of renewed vigour in Jesus’ praying. The hematidrosis has been placed earlier in our narrative using dramatic licence.

The accounts in the Gospels of Matthew and of Mark (Matthew 26:40-46; Mark 14:37-42) both have a curious story of Jesus returning three times to the three accompanying apostles and finding them asleep. The evangelists seem to put more emphasis on this exercise in numerology than on what Jesus was praying about! There is some speculation that the number three is allegorically related to the fact that the olives are put into the olive press three times, yielding three grades of olive oil. But if this is so, the purpose of the allegory is not at all obvious.

Quatrain VII: There is widespread belief that the execution of Jesus in the manner of crucifixion and on the eve of Passover is the ultimate sacrifice under the now to be replaced second-Temple practices, to atone for Man’s Original Sin. There are strong theological arguments against this view. It is beyond the scope of this Bible story to explore this debate.

Permission is given for free use of the full poem and these notes, provided attribution is given