On Their Faces or Backward: The Glory in the Temple and I Am He in the Garden
Old Testament: 2 Paralipomenon 7:1, 3
And when Solomon had made an end of his prayer, fire came down from heaven, and consumed the holocausts and the victims: and the majesty of the Lord filled the house. ... Moreover all the children of Israel saw the fire coming down, and the glory of the Lord upon the house: and falling down with their faces to the ground, upon the stone pavement, they adored and praised the Lord: because he is good, because his mercy endureth for ever.
Old Testament, also: Psalms 26:2; Psalms 34:4
Whilst the wicked draw near against me, to eat my flesh. My enemies that trouble me, have themselves been weakened, and have fallen. ... Let them be confounded and ashamed that seek after my soul. Let them be turned back and be confounded that devise against me.
New Testament: John 18:4-6; Acts 9:3-4
Jesus therefore, knowing all things that should come upon him, went forth, and said to them: Whom seek ye? They answered him: Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saith to them: I am he. And Judas also, who betrayed him, stood with them. As soon therefore as he had said to them: I am he; they went backward, and fell to the ground. ... And as he went on his journey, it came to pass that he drew nigh to Damascus; and suddenly a light from heaven shined round about him. And falling on the ground, he heard a voice saying to him: Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
The connection
When the glory of the Lord filled Solomon's Temple, Israel fell forward: "falling down with their faces to the ground, upon the stone pavement, they adored and praised the Lord" (2 Paralipomenon 7:3). So Josue fell on his face before the prince of the Lord's host (Josue 5:15), and Manue and his wife fell flat when the angel went up in the altar flame (Judges 13:20). Scripture knows another way to fall. The priest Heli, hearing that the ark was taken, "fell from his stool backwards ... and broke his neck" (1 Kings 4:18), and Isaias warns of those who "go, and fall backward, and be broken" (Isaias 28:13). In the garden the soldiers come with lanterns and weapons, and Christ goes out to meet them. "Jesus saith to them: I am he ... As soon therefore as he had said to them: I am he; they went backward, and fell to the ground" (John 18:5-6). In Greek His answer is ego eimi, I am, the words of the Name given to Moses at the bush, "I AM WHO AM" (Exodus 3:14). The Name Israel fell forward before in the Temple throws an armed band backward. The psalm had seen it: "Whilst the wicked draw near against me, to eat my flesh. My enemies that trouble me, have themselves been weakened, and have fallen" (Psalms 26:2), and "Let them be turned back" (34:4). Saul on the road to Damascus falls the other way: "falling on the ground, he heard a voice" (Acts 9:4), and rose to serve the One he had persecuted. St Gregory the Great asks, on this very scene, why "the Elect fall on their faces, the reprobate backward", and answers that one who falls backward does not see where he falls, while the righteous humble themselves "with their eyes open". St Augustine: "Without a blow, one word struck, drove back, prostrated a crowd fierce with hatred, terrible with arms ... What shall He do when He comes to judge, Who did thus when He was going to be judged?" The Catechism teaches that Jesus went to His Passion freely, laying down a life no one could take from Him (CCC 609).
Moral sense
Job, stripped of everything, "fell down upon the ground and worshipped" (Job 1:20). Falling on the face is chosen; falling backward happens to the one who would not bow. St Gregory's counsel is to fall forward now, in fear and repentance, with the eyes open. And even as the band lay on the ground, Christ asked for His own: "If therefore you seek me, let these go their way" (John 18:8).
Anagogical sense
The disciple who saw the soldiers go backward in the garden saw the risen Christ on Patmos and fell the other way: "I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying: Fear not. I am the First and the Last" (Apocalypse 1:17). The same I am that threw the band down raised John up. At the end "in the name of Jesus every knee should bow" (Philippians 2:10).
The Fathers
St Gregory the Great, on John 18:6 (Catena Aurea): "Why is this, that the Elect fall on their faces, the reprobate backward? Because every one who falls back, sees not where he falls, whereas he who falls forward, sees where he falls. The wicked when they suffer loss in invisible things, are said to fall backward, because they do not see what is behind them: but the righteous, who of their own accord cast themselves down in temporal things, in order that they may rise in spiritual, fall as it were upon their faces, when with fear and repentance they humble themselves with their eyes open." St Augustine, on John 18:6 (Catena Aurea): "Where now is the band of soldiers, where the terror and defence of arms? Without a blow, one word struck, drove back, prostrated a crowd fierce with hatred, terrible with arms."
Warrant
Patristic. St Gregory the Great draws the two ways of falling on John 18:6 itself, setting the elect who fall on their faces against the reprobate who fall backward (in the Catena Aurea on John 18). St Augustine and St John Chrysostom read the fall of the band as the power of Christ's word, shown so that no one could say He was taken against His will. Gathering the falls of the Old Testament, forward in worship and backward in judgment, around the garden is the entry's own work; the pattern of falling to the ground across both Testaments was noticed by Dunk. Checked in the Greek: the band apelthon eis ta opiso kai epesan chamai (John 18:6), went backward and fell, and the Septuagint of Psalms 34:4 prays that the enemies apostrapheiesan eis ta opiso, be turned backward, the same phrase; Psalms 26:2 has esthenesan kai epesan, weakened and fell. Heli falls opisthios, backward (1 Kings 4:18), and Isaias 28:13 has pesosin opiso. Israel in the Temple epeson epi prosopon epi ten gen, fell on their faces to the ground, and Saul peson epi ten gen, falling on the ground (Acts 9:4). Christ's answer, ego eimi, is ordinary Greek for it is I, and also the words of the Name at Exodus 3:14 in the Septuagint; the entry reads the second in the first because the band falls, which is not how men answer an ordinary it is I. At Apocalypse 1:17 Christ raises John with ego eimi again. Augustine's comment on the scene goes on to a line about the Jews, which is left out.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 609.
The verses
2 Paralipomenon 7:1 · 2 Paralipomenon 7:3 · Psalms 26:2 · Psalms 34:4 · John 18:4 · John 18:5 · John 18:6 · Acts 9:3 · Acts 9:4
