50 pages • 1 hour read
John the ApostleGospel of John
Nonfiction | Scripture | Adult | Published in 90A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 18-21Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 18 Summary
The final series of chapters in the Gospel of John (Chapters 18-21) covers the climactic action of Jesus’s arrest, trial, crucifixion, and resurrection. With his prayer complete, he and his disciples walk around the outskirts of Jerusalem by night, across the Kidron valley by the eastern wall and up to a garden (identified in the other gospels as a place called Gethsemane). There, Judas Iscariot finds them, bringing with him a company of soldiers from the priests and Pharisees. Jesus confronts the soldiers and asks whom they seek, and when they say that they are there to arrest Jesus of Nazareth, he admits to his identity, but his influence is so powerful that they stumble back and fall to the ground. Jesus is willing to turn himself over to them, and encourages them to let the other disciples go free, despite Peter’s ill-timed decision to try to jump to Jesus’s defense by cutting off an ear of the high priest’s servant. After Jesus tells Peter to stand down, Jesus is taken into custody and brought to appear before Annas and Caiaphas, the two most powerful priestly leaders in Judea.
While Jesus is being interrogated at the high priest’s house, Peter follows quietly at a distance, along with an unnamed disciple (likely 
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