WishboneDawn

See post 4.

RUmike

Actually he descended to Hades, which is nothing like the modern view of hell.

GPLindsey

I came across a Christian apologetics on this question at http://www.tektonics.org/gk/gethdistancefromjesus.html. I found the garbled syntax in the article hard to decipher, but the author's points boil down to: (1) We can't say for sure how far the disciples were from Jesus, because "a little farther" or "about a stone's throw beyond them" (from Luke) could still be within hearing distance; (2) we don't know exactly when the disciples fell asleep, so they could have been listening--"...in each of the three incidences of prayer, there would have been period of alertness/attention prior to be yet again overcome with fatigue, allowing time for observation and overhearing"; and (3) we don't know how loudly Jesus was praying, so even if he was some distance away his wails about passing the cup could have been heard by the droopy-eyed disciples.

This is all absurd, of course. What makes Christian apologists so amusing is how they can take plainly written words--sleeping disciples, and a private anguished prayer between Jesus and God--and twist and turn and cajole them into meaning something else by appealing to what the Bible does not say. As long as the Bible did not expressly say that the disciples were sleeping during the prayer and definitely did not hear the prayer, why then, they must have heard the prayer and been sleeping afterwards!

A similar problem occurs in Matthew 4 when Jesus goes into the wilderness for his 40 day confrontation with Satan. The plainly understood message here is that Jesus was alone in this epic spiritual battle; religious mystics have done this sort of thing for centuries. The Bible mentions no one else accompanying him. But if you confront a Christian apologist with the fact that, yet again, there were no eyewitnesses to this event, he will suddenly turn to, "Well, the Bible does not expressly say that he was alone, so it might well have been that a few trusted disciples accompanied him, and recorded this almightly struggle." Maybe it was more than just a couple, maybe it was his whole posse. Nay, maybe his whole posse and every left-handed person in the Baltics came down to witness this struggle in the wilderness!! The Bible did not expressly say this did not happen, so maybe it did.

pharoah

All of the above is child's play to the true believer. He'll just assert that [God/Jesus/The Holy Spirit - take your pick] directly told the writer these things. At that point the discussion is pretty much over.