John 18.4–6. This is, of course, impossible to imagine historically. Police do not acknowledge somebody to be divine and then arrest him or her anyway.
Borg, Marcus J.. The God We Never Knew: Beyond Dogmatic Religion To A More Authentic Contemporary Faith (p. 108). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
NRSVUE: John 18:5-8 — Jesus replied, “I am he.” Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them. 6 When Jesus said to them, “I am he,” they stepped back and fell to the ground. 7 Again he asked them, “Whom are you looking for?” And they said, “Jesus of Nazareth.” 8 Jesus answered, “I told you that I am he. So if you are looking for me, let these people go.”
My thoughts on “So if you are looking for me, let these people go.” — John putting those words in Jesus’ mouth responds to the difficult question as to why the others were not arrested if they were part of Jesus’ insurrection movement? The answer is because Jesus told them to let them go. which seems unlikely that the “police” would do so. The very odd fact that his “insurrection gang” was not arrested, perhaps was not an issue at the time of the other three gospels.
From ChatGPT:
In the garden of Gethsemene in the book of John Jesus says “so if you are looking for me, let these people go.” Does he say that in any of the other three gospels?
Short answer: No. That exact statement appears only in the Gospel of John.
In John 18:8 (NRSV), after identifying himself to the arresting party, Jesus says:
“I told you that I am he. So if you are looking for me, let these people go.”
John immediately adds an interpretive note that this fulfilled Jesus’ earlier words about not losing any whom the Father had given him (John 18:9, NRSV).
In contrast, none of the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, or Luke) record Jesus saying anything like this at Gethsemane:
- Mark 14:43–50 (NRSV) describes the arrest and the flight of the disciples, but Jesus does not intervene verbally to secure their release; instead, “all of them deserted him and fled” (Mark 14:50).
- Matthew 26:47–56 (NRSV) closely follows Mark. Jesus speaks about the fulfillment of the scriptures, but again there is no request that the disciples be allowed to go free.
- Luke 22:47–53 (NRSV) includes Jesus stopping further violence and healing the slave’s ear (Luke 22:51), but he does not ask that the disciples be released.
Scholarly consensus is that John’s account reflects a distinctive Johannine emphasis: Jesus remains fully in control of the situation and actively protects his followers even at the moment of arrest, a theme consistent with John’s portrayal of Jesus as sovereign and self-giving (cf. John 10:11, 17–18, NRSV). The Synoptics, by contrast, emphasize the disciples’ failure and flight rather than Jesus’ verbal protection of them. So, historically and textually speaking, John alone preserves this saying, and it functions theologically as part of John’s unique portrait of Jesus.
