Luke 22:39-46
He came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives; and the disciples followed him. When he reached the place, he said to them, “Pray that you may not come into the time of trial.” Then he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, knelt down, and prayed, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet, not my will but yours be done.” [[ Then an angel from heaven appeared to him and gave him strength. In his anguish he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground.]] When he got up from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping because of grief, and he said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray that you may not come into the time of trial.”
What’s with the brackets?
Very occasionally, you will find a pair of double brackets around a verse or verses and you may wonder what that means. So I thought I’d explain.
Here’s the deal: we have no original copies of any of the books of the New Testament. Our earliest manuscripts of complete copies date from the Middle Ages. We have various portions of the gospels – sometimes whole chapters or scenes, sometimes just various snippets or fragments – the earliest of which, just parts of a few verses of the Gospel of John, dates back to the middle of the second century.
Because many of the various manuscripts and fragments vary – because of both unintentional and intentional changes made by copyists – scholars have worked for years to deduce what they believe is most likely the original form of the books. When there is a verse that is in many of the early copies but is missing from the earliest ones, this is indicated by double brackets.
In this case, for instance, the detail about an angel coming from heaven to comfort Jesus is bracketed, indicating that it is not found in the earliest versions of this scene and so may not have been part of Luke’s earliest story. Yet because it is regularly represented in later copies of Luke, and because it has become part of the traditional story of Luke, it is included and placed in double brackets.
Which means at least two things. First, if you skip from the verse just before the part in brackets to the verse just after, you don’t miss a beat. In this sense, it’s easy to see this as a later addition. Second, this part of the story has long been accepted as part of the tradition and there’s no particular reason to discard it now.
So what do we do when we come to portions of the story that are in double brackets? That’s pretty much up to you. If it is a valuable part of the story for you, ignore them. Many readers have appreciated the sense that Jesus’ anguish was so great he “sweat blood” – indeed, that is the origin of that saying. The brackets provide additional information only. They are not determinative of how you, or I, or the larger church needs to read the story.
Prayer: Dear God, we give you thanks for the authors of the gospels and for all those who, over the years, have copied, preserved, and studied them that we may read and believe the stories of your Son. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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