Bible Question: John 18:4-8 Details Jesus' arrest. Of particular interest to me in vs 6 is that the detachment of troops and the priests' officers "drew back and fell to the ground" in response to Jesus responding "I am He" to their query about who Jesus of Nazareth is. Can someone explain more to me about this? Does this mean that these people experienced the power of God to the extent that they were, for lack of a better way of communicating it, slain in the spirit and still arrested Jesus? Is the interpretation that they were overcome by the power of God correct? |
Bible Answer: Summary...Thusfar..... The KJV has "...they went backward, and fell to the ground." And has "I am" or "I am (he)" with a small "h". We have now looked at four translations. They are NIV, NASB, NLT, KJV. 1. The KJV has the best translation of the Greek according to the post of our own resident Greek expert(:)) Tim Moran. The NIV may be tied with the KJV. The KJV has "he" as a parenthetical and lines up with Tim's translation better for that reason alone. The NLT is furthest from the literal and, as an aside and only my opinion, is why the NLT should not be used for in-depth study. 2. There is no evidence, thusfar, that the detachment was "slain in the spirit." |