Tractates on the Gospel of John

⁶ “Then the cohort, and the tribune, and the officers of the Jews, took Jesus, and bound Him.” They took Him to whom they had never found access: for He continued the day, while they remained as darkness; neither had they given heed to the words, “Come unto Him, and be enlightened.” For had they so approached Him, they would have taken Him, not with their hands for the purpose of murder, but with their hearts for the purpose of a welcome reception. Now, however, when they laid hold of Him in this way, their distance from Him was vastly in creased: and they bound Him by whom they themselves ought rather to have been loosed. And perhaps there were those among them who then fastened their fetters on Christ, and yet were afterwards delivered by Him, and could say, “You have loosed my bonds.” Let this be enough for today; we shall deal, God willing, with what follows in another discourse.