St. Peter, St. John, and St. James were with Jesus at Gethsemane.
I don't know about them being referred to as "the circle", but the three disciples of the twelve that Jesus took with him to certain places, like the Mountain of Transfiguration, Garden of Gethsemane, etc. were Simon Peter, James, and John. (Matthew 17)
A:In an apparently artificial structure, Mark's Gospel gives us the chronology of the last twenty four hours in the life of Jesus, breaking them up into eight segments each of exactly three hours, and the later gospels follow this pattern more or less faithfully. After having a Passover meal, which traditionally took three hours and was followed by a hymn, Jesus went out to the Garden of Gethsemene at just 9 pm. He went to pray and, when he returned, found the disciples asleep and asked, "Could you not watch one hour?" Jesus returned to the disciples three times. It was now midnight, the darkest hour and time for the darkest deed, his betrayal.
Peter, James the Greater, and John. James the Greater and John were the "sons of thunder" and Peter became the first leader of the Church. These three were also the only ones to witness the rising of Jarius's daughter and the Transfiguration.
Jesus took Peter, James, and John with him to watch and pray with him. Three times Jesus prayed that, if it be possible, the cup of suffering might be taken from him. While Jesus prayed for this possibility, he affirmed that if it wasn't possible, he wanted to do the Father's will.
Jesus prayed three times in the garden of Gethsemane to express his deep anguish and surrender to God's will before his impending crucifixion. Each prayer demonstrated his struggle with the weight of his upcoming sacrifice and his ultimate acceptance of God's plan for him.
Peter, James and John (Mark 5:37).
The disciples were Peter, James and John. (Mark 14:33)
A:In the three synoptic gospels, Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. He suffered alone and in agony, asking God that, if possible, he take this cup (his destiny to be crucified) away. In the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, his last words on the cross, when he finally realised that God had not heard his prayers in the garden, were, "My God. My God. Why hast thou forsaken me?" Luke's Gospel has the prayer in the Garden, but not Jesus' later realisation that God had forsaken him.For theological reasons, John's Gospel does not have the unanswered prayer in the Garden, rather a triumphant prayer before reaching the Garden.
A:After the Last Supper, the disciples, Peter, James and John, went with Jesus to the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus prayed. They were not able to remain awake and Jesus returned to find them sleeping. "Could you not watch one hour?" Jesus asked. The process was repeated two more times. The disciples could not watch one, two or three hours. Mark's Gospel, the original of the synoptic gospels, used the three times that Jesus returned to find the disciples sleeping, to mark off the hours and let its readers know that it was now midnight, the darkest hour and the time for the betrayal and arrest of Jesus.
As long as you're talking about the famous betrayal of Jesus Christ by Judas Iscariot at Gethsemane, then no one actually gave orders to free Jesus' disciples. The three gospels Matthew, Mark, and Luke only describe how the disciples fled at Jesus' arrest, but John 18:8 says, "Jesus answered, 'I have told you that I am He. Therefore, if you seek Me, let these go their way.'" However, John does not record that the disciples were under arrest and that Jesus was "freeing" them--only that He was commanding (by His authority as the Son of God, though the soldiers arresting Him were trying to deny that) that they not be arrested.
Mark, the first gospel to be written, divided the last twenty four hours up into eight periods of exactly three hours each. So, after the traditional three-hour Passover meal, followed by singing a hymn, Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemene, where he stayed three hours. Three times, at each hour, he returned to the disciples and demanded why they could not stay awake for just one hour. Then, when it was midnight, the darkest hour, Jesus was betrayed by Judas.
A:The gospel divides the last twenty four hours in the life of Jesus into eight periods of just three hours each, telling the reader when each period of three hours was complete. In the case of the Garden of Gethsemene, Jesus prayed three times, waking the disciples twice, after the first and second times, to ask, "Could you not watch one hour?" When he returned the third time, after one more hour, Jesus said, "Sleep on now and take your rest (Mark 14:41).