When I was daily with you in the temple, ye stretched forth no hands against me: but this is your hour, and the power of darkness.
Parallel translations
- WEB When I was with you in the temple daily, you didn’t stretch out your hands against me. But this is your hour, and the power of darkness.”
- BSB Every day I was with you in the temple courts, and you did not lay a hand on Me. But this hour belongs to you and to the power of darkness.”
- NKJV When I was with you daily in the temple, you did not try to seize Me. But this is your hour, and the power of darkness.”
- NASB While I was with you daily in the temple, you did not lay hands on Me; but this hour and the power of darkness are yours.”
- NLT Why didn’t you arrest me in the Temple? I was there every day. But this is your moment, the time when the power of darkness reigns.”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Jesus notes they never seized Him in the temple, but says this is their hour and the power of darkness. He acknowledges that evil is permitted its appointed time.
Overview
Jesus recognizes that His enemies act now under cover of darkness, both literal and spiritual. He affirms that Satan and wicked men are given a limited hour to do their worst. Yet by submitting to this hour, Jesus turns the power of darkness into the very means of its defeat at the cross.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 17
- Eph 6:12For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
- Acts 26:18To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.
- John 12:27Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour.
- John 16:20–22Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.
- Col 1:13Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:
- John 7:45Then came the officers to the chief priests and Pharisees; and they said unto them, Why have ye not brought him?
- 2 Cor 4:3–6But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:
- Matt 21:23And when he was come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came unto him as he was teaching, and said, By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority?
- Judg 16:21–30But the Philistines took him, and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass; and he did grind in the prison house.
- John 14:30Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.
- Matt 21:12–15And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves,
- Rev 12:9–12And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
- John 7:25–26Then said some of them of Jerusalem, Is not this he, whom they seek to kill?
- John 7:30Then they sought to take him: but no man laid hands on him, because his hour was not yet come.
- Job 20:5That the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment?
- Matt 21:45–46And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables, they perceived that he spake of them.
- Luke 21:37–38And in the day time he was teaching in the temple; and at night he went out, and abode in the mount that is called the mount of Olives.
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Christ at the center
Luke shows Jesus the Savior for all — outsiders, the poor, the nations — the one who, on the Emmaus road, opened all the Scriptures to show they were about himself.
How Luke 22:53 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.