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Malchus (; , ) was the servant of the Jewish Kohen Gadol Caiaphas who participated in the arrest of Jesus as written in the Gospel. According to the Bible, one of the disciples, Saint Peter, being armed with a sword, cut off the servant's ear in an attempt to prevent the arrest of Jesus.
The relevant passages in the Gospels of John and Luke, KJV, read:
James F. McGrath suggests that this account reflects an event that did happen, in that early Christians would hardly have invented a story portraying themselves as violent.
Later in Chapter 18, John records that a relative of Malchus witnessed Peter's assault in the Garden of Gethsemane, and identified Peter as a follower of Christ. Peter denied this.
The Fire Gospel, a 2008 novel by Michel Faber, centers on the discovery of the fictional lost gospel of Malchus.
Malchus is portrayed by Paul Brightwell in the 2013 TV miniseries The Bible.
In the 2004 Mel Gibson film The Passion of the Christ, Malchus is represented as an armed member of the temple guard. In this depiction, Jesus heals Malchus' wounded ear, leaving the latter to stay behind sitting dumbfounded in a state of disbelief, suggesting a possible conversion to Christianity.
Isak Dinesen in The Deluge at Norderney (the first of Seven Gothic Tales) relates a story about Simon Peter wherein he uses the memory of cutting off Malchus' ear "to control his temper".
The book Touch by John Ferguson portrays Malchus as a Roman soldier sent by Pilate to spy on the Sanhedrin. Malchus is then sent by Caiaphas to spy on Jesus and his followers.
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