Mark 14:17

Mar 14:17-25. In the evening he cometh with the twelve — See notes on Mat 26:20-29. This is my blood of the new testament — Or, covenant; that is, this I appoint to be a perpetual sign and memorial of my blood, as shed for establishing the new covenant, that all who shall believe in me, may receive all its gracious promises. I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine, &c. — That is, I shall drink no more before I die: the next wine I drink will not be earthly, but heavenly.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

§ 122, 124. — SUPPER AND INDICATION OF BETRAYAL, Mar_14:17-21.

(See notes on Mat_26:20-25.)

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mark

THE NEW PASSOVER

Mar 14:12 - Mar 14:26.

This passage falls into three sections-the secret preparation for the Passover {Mar 14:12 - Mar 14:17}, the sad announcement of the betrayer {Mar 14:18 - Mar 14:21}, and the institution of the Lord’s Supper {Mar 14:22 - Mar 14:26}. It may be interesting to notice that in the two former of these Mark’s account approximates to Luke’s, while in the third he is nearer Matthew’s. A comparison of the three accounts, noting the slight, but often significant, variations, should be made. Nothing in the Gospels is trivial. ‘The dust of that land is gold.’

I. The secret preparation for the Passover.

The three Evangelists all give the disciples’ question, but only Luke tells us that it was in answer to our Lord’s command to Peter and John to go and prepare the Passover. They very naturally said ‘Where?’ as they were all strangers in Jerusalem. Matthew may not have known of our Lord’s initiative; but if Mark were, as he is, with apparent correctness, said to have been, Peter’s mouthpiece in his Gospel, the reticence as to the prominence of that Apostle is natural, and explains the omission of all but the bare fact of the despatch of the two. The curiously roundabout way in which they are directed to the ‘upper room’ is only explicable on the supposition that it was intended to keep them in the dark till the last moment, so that no hint might leak from them to Judas. Whether the token of the man with the waterpot was a preconcerted signal or an instance of our Lord’s supernatural knowledge and sovereign sway, his employment as a silent and probably unconscious guide testifies to Christ’s wish for that last hour to be undisturbed. A man carrying a water-pot, which was woman’s special task, would be a conspicuous figure even in the festival crowds. The message to the householder implies that he recognised ‘the Master’ as his Master, and was ready to give up at His requisition even the chamber which he had prepared for his own family celebration of the feast.

Thus instructed, the two trusted Apostles left Bethany, early in the day, without a clue of their destination reaching Judas’s hungry watchfulness. Evidently they did not return, and in the evening Jesus led the others straight to the place. Mark says that He came ‘with the twelve’; but he does not mean thereby to specify the number, but to define the class, of His attendants.

Each figure in this preparatory scene yields important lessons. Our Lord’s earnest desire to secure that still hour before pushing out into the storm speaks pathetically of His felt need of companionship and strengthening, as well as of His self-forgetting purpose to help His handful of bewildered followers and His human longing to live in faithful memories. His careful arrangements bring vividly into sight the limitations of His manhood, in that He, ‘by whom all things consist,’ had to contrive and plan in order to baffle for a moment His pursuers. And, side by side with the lowliness, as ever, is the majesty; for while He stoops to arrange, He sees with superhuman certitude what will happen, moves unconscious feet with secret and sovereign sway, and in royal tones claims possession of His servant’s possessions.

The two messengers, sent out with instructions which would only guide them half-way to their destination, and obliged, if they were to move at all, to trust absolutely to His knowledge, present specimens of the obedience still required. He sends us out still on a road full of sharp turnings round which we cannot see. We get light enough for the first stage; and when it is traversed, the second will be plainer.

The man with the water-pot reminds us how little we may be aware of the Hand which guides us, or of our uses in His plans. ‘I girded thee, though thou hast not known Me,’-how little the poor water-bearer knew who were following, or dreamed that he and his load would be remembered for ever! The householder responded at once, and gladly, to the authoritative message, which does not ask a favour, but demands a right. Probably he had intended to celebrate the Passover with his own family, in the large chamber on the roof, with the cool evening air about it, and the moonlight sleeping around. But he gladly gives it up. Are we as ready to surrender our cherished possessions for His use?

II. The sad announcement of the traitor {Mar 14:18 - Mar 14:21}.

As the Revised Version indicates more clearly than the Authorised, the purport of the announcement was not merely that the betrayer was an Apostle, but that he was to be known by his dipping his hand into the common dish at the same moment as our Lord. The prophetic psalm would have been abundantly fulfilled though Judas’s fingers had never touched Christ’s; but the minute accomplishment should teach us that Jewish prophecy was the voice of divine foreknowledge, and embraced small details as well as large tendencies. Many hands dipped with Christ’s, and so the sign was not unmistakably indicative, and hence was privately supplemented, as John tells us, by the giving of ‘the sop.’ The uncertainty as to the indication given by the token is reflected by the reiterated questions of the Apostles, which, in the Greek, are cast in a form that anticipates a negative answer: ‘Surely not I?’ Mark omits the audacious hypocrisy of Judas’s question in the same form, and Christ’s curt, sad answer which Matthew gives. His brief and vivid sketch is meant to fix attention on the unanimous shuddering horror of these faithful hearts at the thought that they could be thus guilty-a horror which was not the child of presumptuous self-confidence, but of hearty, honest love. They thought it impossible, as they felt the throbbing of their own hearts-and yet-and yet-might it not be? As they probed their hearts deeper, they became dimly aware of dark gulfs of possible unfaithfulness half visible there, and so betook themselves to their Master, and strengthened their loyalty by the question, which breathed at once detestation of the treason and humble distrust of themselves. It is well to feel and speak the strong recoil from sin of a heart loyal to Jesus. It is better to recognise the sleeping snakes, the possibilities of evil in ourselves, and to take to Christ our ignorance and self-distrust. It is wiser to cry ‘Is it I?’ than to boast, ‘Although all shall be offended, yet will not I.’ ‘Hold Thou me up, and I shall be safe.’

Our Lord answers the questions by a still more emphatic repetition of the distinctive mark, and then, in Mar 14:21, speaks deep words of mingled pathos, dignity, and submission. The voluntariness of His death, and its uniqueness as His own act of return to His eternal home, are contained in that majestic ‘goeth,’ which asserts the impotence of the betrayer and his employers, without the Lord’s own consent. On the other hand, the necessity to which He willingly bowed is set forth in that ‘as it is written of Him.’ And what sadness and lofty consciousness of His own sacred personality and judicial authority are blended in the awful sentence on the traitor! What was He that treachery to Him should be a crime so transcendent? What right had He thus calmly to pronounce condemnation? Did He see into the future? Is it the voice of a Divine Judge, or of a man judging in his own cause, which speaks this passionless sentence? Surely none of His sayings are more fully charged with His claims to pre-existence, divinity, and judicial authority, than this which He spoke at the very moment when the traitor’s plot was on the verge of success.

III. The institution of the Lord’s Supper {Mar 14:22 - Mar 14:26}.

Mark’s account is the briefest of the three, and his version of Christ’s words the most compressed. It omits the affecting ‘Do this for remembering Me,’ which is pre-supposed by the very act of instituting the ordinance, since it is nothing if not memorial; and it makes prominent two things-the significance of the elements, and the command to partake of them. To these must be added Christ’s attitude in ‘blessing’ the bread and cup, and His distribution of them among the disciples. The Passover was to Israel the commemoration of their redemption from captivity and their birth as a nation. Jesus puts aside this divinely appointed and venerable festival to set in its stead the remembrance of Himself. That night, ‘to be much remembered of the children of Israel,’ is to be forgotten, and come no more into the number of the months; and its empty place is to be filled by the memory of the hours then passing. Surely His act was either arrogance or the calm consciousness of the unique significance and power of His death. Think of any mere teacher or prophet doing the like! The world would meet the preposterous claim implied with deserved and inextinguishable laughter. Why does it not do so with Christ’s act? Christ’s view of His death is written unmistakably on the Lord’s Supper. It is not merely that He wishes it rather than His life, His miracles, or words, to be kept in thankful remembrance, but that He desires one aspect of it to be held high and clear above all others. He is the true ‘Passover Lamb,’ whose shed and sprinkled blood establishes new bonds of amity and new relations, with tender and wonderful reciprocal obligations, between God and the ‘many’ who truly partake of that sacrifice. The key-words of Judaism-’sacrifice,’ ‘covenant,’ ‘sprinkling with blood’-are taken over into Christianity, and the ideas they represent are set in its centre, to be cherished as its life. The Lord’s Supper is the conclusive answer to the allegation that Christ did not teach the sacrificial character and atoning power of His death. What, then, did He teach when He said, ‘This is My blood of the covenant, which is shed for many’? The Passover was a family festival, and that characteristic passes over to the Lord’s Supper. Christ is not only the food on which we feed, but the Head of the family and distributor of the banquet. He is the feast and the Governor of the feast, and all who sit at that table are ‘brethren.’ One life is in them all, and they are one as partakers of One.

The Lord’s Supper is a visible symbol of the Christian life, which should not only be all lived in remembrance of Him, but consists in partaking by faith of His life, and incorporating it in ours, until we come to the measure of perfect men, which, in one aspect, we reach when we can say, ‘I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.’

There is a prophetic element, as well as a commemorative and symbolic, in the Lord’s Supper, which is prominent in Christ’s closing words. He does not partake of the symbols which He gives; but there comes a time, in that perfected form of the kingdom, when perfect love shall make all the citizens perfectly conformed to the perfect will of God. Then, whatsoever associations of joy, of invigoration, of festal fellowship, clustered round the wine-cup here, shall be heightened, purified, and perpetuated in the calm raptures of the heavenly feast, in which He will be Partaker, as well as Giver and Food. ‘Thou shalt make them drink of the river of Thy pleasures.’ The King’s lips will touch the golden cup filled with un-foaming wine, ere He commends it to His guests. And from that feast they will ‘go no more out,’ neither shall the triumphant music of its great ‘hymn’ be followed by any Olivet or Gethsemane, or any denial, or any Calvary; but there shall be ‘no more sorrow, nor sin, nor death’; for ‘the former things are passed away,’ and He has made ‘all things new.’

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

THE PASSOVER

Mat 26:20; Mar 14:17; Luk 22:14-18. It is now about 6 P. M. on Thursday preceding our Lord’s crucifixion, when they proceed to eat the Passover meal. “And when the hour arrived, He and His twelve apostles along with Him sat down at the table. And He said to them, With desire I desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffered; for I say unto you, that I no more eat of it until it may be fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” This is really not only His last Passover meal, but the last of all that He ate before He laid down His life. I do not wonder that He intensely desired to enjoy this Passover with His disciples, an institution so significant to every faithful Jew, commemorative of their national birth, and of course pre-eminently significant to the Savior, because it emblematized His expiatory death, then looking Him in the face, as the swift hours rolled on and brought the bloody morrow. As the lamb died to provide that meal for the teeming thousands of Israel to feast upon, so the Lamb of God must die in order that the millions of earth may not starve through all eternity, but feast upon that Passover meal through the flight of eternal ages. The Passover “was fulfilled in the kingdom of God” when Jesus bled and died on the cross, the Great Antitype typified by the millions of bleeding lambs the last fifteen hundred years. O what rivers of blood — quantity symbolizing quality!

“And receiving the cup, blessing it, He said, Take this, and divide it among yourselves; for I say unto you, that I shall no more drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God may come.” There is a sense in which the kingdom of God has been in the world from the days of Eden, as the redemptive scheme was launched before the expulsion out of Paradise. The advent of Jesus into the world was a glorious epoch in the kingdom; but you must remember He came to die to redeem the lost. Hence His first advent culminates at Calvary, the grandest and most important epoch in the kingdom of God, and here denominated the coming of the kingdom.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CHAPTER 14:17-21 (Mar_14:17-21)

THE SOP

"And when it was evening He cometh with the twelve. And as they sat and were eating, Jesus said, Verily I say unto you, One of you shall betray Me, even he that eateth with Me. They began to be sorrowful, and to say unto Him one by one, Is it I? And He said unto them, It is one of the twelve, he that dippeth with Me in the dish. For the Son of man goeth, even as it is written of Him: but woe unto that man through whom the Son of man is betrayed! good were it for that man if he had not been born." Mar_14:17-21 (R.V.)

IN the deadly wine which our Lord was made to drink, every ingredient of mortal bitterness was mingled. And it shows how far is even His Church from comprehending Him, that we think so much more of the physical than the mental and spiritual horrors which gather around the closing scene.

But the tone of all the narratives, and perhaps especially of St. Mark's, is that of the exquisite Collect which reminds us that our Lord Jesus Christ was contented to be betrayed, and given up into the hands of wicked men, as well as to suffer death on the cross. Treason and outrage, the traitor's kiss and the weakness of those who loved Him, the hypocrisy of the priest and the ingratitude of the mob, perjury and a mock trial, the injustice of His judges, the brutal outrages of the soldiers, the worse and more malignant mockery of scribe and Pharisee, and last and direst, the averting of the face of God, these were more dreadful to Jesus than the scourging and the nails.

And so there is great stress laid upon His anticipation of the misconduct of His own.

As the dreadful evening closes in, having come to the guest chamber "with the Twelve" -- eleven whose hearts should fail them and one whose heart was dead, it was "as they sat and were eating" that the oppression of the traitor's hypocrisy became intolerable, and the outraged One spoke out. "Verily I say unto you, one of you shall betray Me, even he that eateth with Me." The words are interpreted as well as predicted in the plaintive Psalm which says, "Mine own familiar friend in whom I trusted, which did also eat of My bread, hath lifted up his heel against Me." And perhaps they are less a disclosure than a cry.

Every attempt to mitigate the treason of Judas, every suggestion that he may only have striven too willfully to serve our Lord by forcing Him to take decided measures, must fail to account for the sense of utter wrong which breathes in the simple and piercing complaint "one of you . . . even he that eateth with Me." There is a tone in all the narratives which is at variance with any palliation of the crime.

No theology is worth much if it fails to confess, at the centre of all the words and deeds of Jesus, a great and tender human heart. He might have spoken of teaching and warnings lavished on the traitor, and miracles which he had beheld in vain. What weighs heaviest on His burdened spirit is none of these; it is that one should betray Him who had eaten His bread.

When Brutus was dying he is made to say --

"My heart doth joy, that yet, in all my life,

I found no man, but he was true to me."

But no form of innocent sorrow was to pass Jesus by.

The vagueness in the words "one of you shall betray Me," was doubtless intended to suggest in all a great searching of heart. Coming just before the institution of the Eucharistic feast, this incident anticipates the command which it perhaps suggested: "Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat." It is good to be distrustful of one's self. And if, as was natural, the Eleven looked one upon another doubting of whom He spake, they also began to say to Him, one by one (first the most timid, and then others as the circle narrowed), Is it I? For the prince of this world had something in each of them, -- some frailty there was, some reluctance to bear the yoke, some longing for the forbidden ways of worldliness, which alarmed each at this solemn warning, and made him ask, Is it, can it be possible, that it is I? Religious self-sufficiency was not then the apostolic mood. Their questioning is also remarkable as a proof how little they suspected Judas, how firmly he bore himself even as those all-revealing words were spoken, how strong and wary was the temperament which Christ would fain have sanctified. For between the Master and him there could have been no more concealment.

The apostles were right to distrust themselves, and not to distrust another. They were right, because they were so feeble, so unlike their Lord. But for Him there is no misgiving: His composure is serene in the hour of the power of darkness. And His perfect spiritual sensibility discerned the treachery, unknown to others, as instinctively as the eye resents the presence of a mote imperceptible to the hand.

The traitor's iron nerve is somewhat strained as he feels himself discovered, and when Jesus is about to hand a sop to him, he stretches over, and their hands meet in the dish. That is the appointed sign: "It is one of the Twelve, he that dippeth with Me in the dish," and as he rushes out into the darkness, to seek his accomplices and his revenge, Jesus feels the awful contrast between the betrayer and the Betrayed. For Himself, He goeth as it is written of Him. This phrase admirably expresses the co-operation of Divine purpose and free human will, and by the woe that follows He refutes all who would make of God's fore-knowledge an excuse for human sin. He then is not walking in the dark and stumbling, though men shall think Him falling. But the life of the false one is worse than utterly cast away: of him is spoken the dark and ominous word, never indisputably certain of any other soul, "Good were it for him if that man had not been born."

"That man!" The order and emphasis are very strange. The Lord, who felt and said that one of His chosen was a devil, seems here to lay stress upon the warning thought, that he who fell so low was human, and his frightful ruin was evolved from none but human capabilities for good and evil. In "the Son of man" and "that man," the same humanity was to be found.

For Himself, He is the same today as yesterday. All that we eat is His. And in the most especial and far-reaching sense, it is His bread which is broken for us at His table. Has He never seen traitor except one who violated so close a bond? Alas, the night when the Supper of the Lord was given was the same night when He was betrayed.

William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.

14:17 With the coming of evening, Jesus arrived with the Twelve at the upstairs guest room. “The Twelve” refers to Jesus’ disciples as a group; ten arrived with Jesus, since two of them were already there (14:13).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Mar_14:17-25. See on Mat_26:20-29. Comp. Luk_22:14-23.

μετὰ τῶν δώδεκα] Those two are to be conceived as having returned after the preparation.

Mar_14:18 f. ὁ ἐσθίων μετʼ ἐμοῦ] not said for the purpose of making known the fact, but the expression of deeply painful emotion.

εἷς καθεῖς] man by man. See on this expression of late Greek, wherein the preposition is adverbial, Wetstein in loc.; Winer, p. 223 [E. T. 312]; Buttmann, neut. Gr. p. 27 [E. T. 30].

καὶ ἄλλος] an inaccuracy of expression, as though there had been previously said not εἷς καθεῖς, but merely εἷς. Mark in particular might be led into this inaccuracy by his graphic manner.

Mar_14:20. ὁ ἐμβαπτ.] not at this moment, and so not a definite designation of the traitor (as Bleek will have it), for after Mar_14:19 it is certain that the eating was not immediately proceeded with (comp. on Mat_26:23); but neither is it generally: qui mecum vesci consuevit, Beza; but, like ὁ ἐσθίων μετʼ ἐμοῦ, Mar_14:18, referring generally to this meal, and withal more precisely indicating the traitor to this extent, that he was one of those who reclined nearest to Jesus, and who ate with Him out of the same dish. According to Lange, indeed, the hand of Judas made a movement playing the hypocrite, and met the hand of the Lord, while the latter was still in the dish, in order with apparent ingenuousness to receive the morsel. A harmonistic play of fancy, whereof nothing appears in the text.

Mar_14:24. εἶπεν] namely, while they drank, not before the drinking. A deviation from Matthew and Luke, but not inappropriate, as Jesus gives the explanation not afterwards (in opposition to de Wette), but at the time of the drinking[164] (ἐστί). A very immaterial difference, to be explained not from Marks mere love for alteration (de Wette), but from a diversity of the tradition, in respect to which, however, the greater simplicity and independence on the form of the ecclesiastical observance, which mark the narrative in Mark, tell in favour of its originality (in opposition to Baur).

ΤῸ ΑἿΜΆ ΜΟΥ Τῆς ΔΙΑΘΉΚΗς] my covenant-blood, as Mat_26:28. The definition, the new covenant, came in later; as also for the forgiveness of sins is a more precise specification from a further stage of development.[165] Comp. on Mat_26:28. And the direction, Do this in remembrance of me, is first added in Paul (twice over) and in Luke. See on 1Co_11:24.

[164] Comp. also Rückert, Abendm. p. 72.

[165] But observe how the idea of reconciliation is already in the case of Mark implied in the simple ὑπὲρ πολλῶν. Even Baur (neut. Theol. p. 102) acknowledges this, but thinks that these very words contain a later modification of the narrative.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mar 14:17-21 . The presence of a traitor announced (Mat 26:20-25 , Luk 22:21-23 ).

Mar 14:17 . ἔρχεται : after sunset He cometh to the place appointed for the feast, presumably after the two who had been sent to make arrangements had rejoined the company.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

17–21. Commencement of the Supper. Revelation of the Traitor

17. in the evening] “It was probably while the sun was beginning to decline in the horizon that Jesus and the disciples descended once more over the Mount of Olives into the Holy City. Before them lay Jerusalem in her festive attire. White tents dotted the sward, gay with the bright flowers of early spring, or peered out from the gardens and the darker foliage of the olive-plantations. From the gorgeous Temple buildings, dazzling in their snow-white marble and gold, on which the slanting rays of the sun were reflected, rose the smoke of the altar of burnt offering.… The streets must have been thronged with strangers, and the flat roofs covered with eager gazers, who either feasted their eyes with a first sight of the Sacred City for which they had so often longed, or else once more rejoiced in view of the well-remembered localities. It was the last day-view which the Lord had of the Holy City—till His resurrection!” Edersheim’s The Temple and its Services, pp. 194, 195.

he cometh with the twelve] Judas must have stolen back to Bethany before daylight, and another day of hypocrisy had been spent under the penetrating glance of Him Who could read the hearts of men.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And in the evening he cometh with the twelve. In the afternoon, as it is very reasonable to suppose, Christ set out from Bethany with the rest of the twelve, with the other nine, and came to Jerusalem; where they were joined by Judas, who had covenanted with the chief priests to betray him, and by Peter and John, who had been sent before to prepare the passover; and when it was night, when the second evening had took place, he went with all twelve of them to the house, where the provision to eat the passover together was made for them; See Gill on Mat 26:20.

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Mark 14:18

mar 14:18

mar 14:18

mar 14:18And as they sat and did eat,.... Or "as they lay along"; for such was their posture at the eating of the passover; See Gill on Mat 26:20,

Jesus said, verily I say unto you, one of you which eateth with me shall betray me; See Gill on Mat 26:21.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

17 And in the evening he cometh with the twelve.

Ver. 17. {See Trapp on "Mat 26:20"}

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

See this passage explained in the notes at Mat. 26:20-35.

Mar 14:31

More vehemently - More earnestly, more confidently.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

See Poole on "Mat 26:20", and following verses to Mat 26:25, where is opened whatever is necessary for the understanding of these words, in which nothing of moment is varied, save only that Matthew reports Judas as being at this time particularly discovered. John hath nothing of this, unless the supper mentioned Joh 13:1-38 were this supper, of which more shall be said in its order.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

And when it was evening he cometh with the twelve. It was in the evening that the lamb was to be eaten. Peter and John having returned from their preparation, the twelve (including Judas Iscariot) all went back with their Master to Jerusalem.

Vers. 17-21. The betrayer denounced.

I THE SHADOW AT THE FEAST, Not fear, as of a criminal under sting of conscience; nor over-anxiety, the specter that sits with the worldling at his board; but moral repugnance expressing itself in sympathetic sorrow. An inward sense of interrupted sympathy and fellowship.

II THE BETRAYER INDICATED. It is necessary to declare what it is which prevents the full communion of the household of Christ. This is done in order:

1. To awaken the spirit of self-examination and self-distrust. "Is it I?" Therefore the indication given is general and anonymous.

2. To characterize and accentuate the moral hideousness of the crime. It was shown to be an evil foretold from afar. The betrayal is to take place, "that the Scripture (Psa_41:9) may be fulfilled, He that eateth my bread or his bread with me lifted up his heel against me". (Joh_13:18) And so, anticipatively, a new evidence is furnished by which to identify Jesus as the Messiah. (Joh_13:19) As done by one enjoying the benefits of the Christian household, and reclining in pretended communion with the Lord, it is declared to be an act of the basest treachery and ingratitude.

3. As a personal discovery determining the further action of the guilty one. The special sign given was perceived by Judas alone, although explicitly mentioned. In answer to John"s inquiry (the question of spiritual love), the partaking, which is here spoken of as a general thing, is specialized in a definite way with respect to the individual meant. (Joh_13:26) The further command is given, not to do the deed, but, as he is determined even then to do it, to do it quickly. (Joh_13:27, Joh_13:30) Thus the foulest crime against the Son of God is determined and accelerated amidst communion and sacred celebration a psychological truth.

4. As an occasion for solemn lamentation over the miserable destiny of Judas. The "woe" is not spoken so much as a denunciation, but rather in commiseration. All the good of life is spoken of as forfeited and more than forfeited. "The apophthegm is rather remarkable when microscopically examined, for, strictly speaking, nothing would be good to a man who never existed. But our Savior"s meaning is not microscopic, but obvious, and most solemn. A man"s existence is turned into a curse to him when he inverts the grand moral purpose contemplated in its Divine origination" (Morison). At the feast of love there is ever a sense of mingled reprobation and sympathy with respect to sinners.

III THE PRINCIPLE OF THE INTERDEPENDENCE OF GOOD AND EVIL STATED. "The Son of man goeth," etc. Evil is overruled and made the occasion of good. Not that it is thereby necessitated: it is still the product of the free-will of the creature. Yet is it foreseen, and the operation of good is modified so as to produce the greater good. That Christ should die was foreordained; it was the expression of an eternal deter ruination of the Divine nature; but the particular circumstances affecting the external character of his death were not foreordained. And, therefore, as freely committed, evil is not altered in its moral character by the result flowing from its being divinely overruled. Judas was a criminal awfully and uniquely wicked, and his "woe" is wailed forth by Infinite Love himself! M.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Matt. xxvi, 20; Luke xxii, 14.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

And in

For the order of events on the night of the last passover, (See Scofield "Mat 26:20").

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The paschal meal:

v. 17. And in the evening He cometh with the Twelve.

v. 18. And as they sat and did eat, Jesus said, Verily I say unto you, One of you which eateth with Me shall betray Me.

v. 19. And they began to be sorrowful, and to say unto Him one by one, Is it I? and another said, Is it I?

v. 20. And He answered and said unto them, It is one of the Twelve that dippeth with Me in the dish.

v. 21. The Son of Man indeed goeth as it is written of Him; but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! Good were it for that man if he had never been born.

In the evening, after the festival had actually begun, after sundown, Jesus came to the city with the remaining apostles, thus making the number of men in His company, Himself not included, twelve. Judas was brazen enough to keep up appearances to the last; he went with the rest as though nothing were wrong. And so the meal was begun and took its usual course. See Mat 26:20-26. It was during the feast proper, after the singing of the first part of the Hallel, when they had received the bread and were partaking of the roasted lamb, that the Lord said, with deep emotion: Verily I say unto you that one of you will betray Me, one that is eating with Me; a reference to Psa 41:9. This announcement caused the greatest consternation and sorrow in the circle of the disciples. The manner of Christ’s announcement had emphasized the gravity of the offense: And so they all, one after the other, put the worried or reproachful question: Surely it cannot be I? Even Judas, the traitor and hypocrite, coolly adds his voice to the general uproar. But Jesus did not give them the satisfaction of hearing the name of the traitor. His loving Shepherd’s heart was even then yearning for the poor, blinded sheep that had gone astray. It should not be for want of tender solicitude that Judas continued in his transgression. Christ merely declares that it is one of the Twelve, one of those chosen to be apostles of faith, and more exactly, one of those that dipped his bread into the same dish with Him. It was a dish of gravy-like soup, called charoseth , made of raisins, dates, vinegar, and several other ingredients, to which He referred. At just about this time, Jesus, as the head of the little company, dipped a morsel of bread into the dish, and the tremulous hand of Judas was extended, with feigned ease, to receive the sop from Him. But in the excitement, this significant fact was not generally noticed. While Judas reached out his hand, was, in fact, dipping His own hand with that of Jesus into the sauce, Jesus very solemnly declares that the Son of Man, the divine-human Redeemer, would indeed go on with the work, on the path of His Passion, according to Scriptures. But woe to that particular man through whom His betrayal would be brought about; it would have been the best thing for that particular man if he had never been born. To anyone not thoroughly hardened in sin, these words of Christ must have held a powerful appeal. But Judas did not heed the warning; he acted, or tried to act as though nothing unusual were occurring about him, as though. the air were not charged to its utmost capacity with suspended force. His responsibility and guilt at this moment should have been brought home to him with full force; he should have considered the results, the curse of God upon the deliberate transgression, the inevitable punishment, but he saw only the bag of money that was to be his if he was successful in his dastardly undertaking. He was, by his own fault, in the power of Satan.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Observe here, 1. The unexampled boldness of this impudent traitor Judas; he presumed, as soon as he had sold his Master, to sit down at the table with him, and did eat the passover with the disciples: had the presence of Judas polluted this ordinance to any but himself, doubtless our Saviour would ever have suffered him to approach unto it.

But hence we learn, 1. That nothing is more ordinary than than for unholy persons to press in unto the holy ordinances of God, which they have no right, while such, to partake of.

2. That the presence of such persons doth pollute the ordinance only to themselves; holy persons are not polluted by their sins, therefore ought not to be discouraged from coming by their presence there.

Observe, 2. What a surprising and astonishing word it was which dropt from our Saviour’s mouth amongst his disciples; One shall betray me; yea, one of you; shall betray me. Can any church upon earth expect purity in all its members, when Christ’s own family of twelve had a traitor and devil in it?

Yet though it was very sad to hear of one, it was matter of joy to understand that there was but one. One hypocrite in a congregation is too much, but there is cause of rejoicing if there be no more.

Observe, 3. Christ did not name Judas, and say, "Thou O perfidious Judas! art the traitor, but one of you shall betray me," Doubtless it was to draw him to repentance, and to prevent the giving him any provocation.

Lord! how sad is it for any of thy family who pretend friendship to thee, to conspire with thine enemies against thee! for any that eat of thy bread to lift up their heel against thee!

Observe, 4. The disciples sorrow uponn these words of Christ, and the effect of that sorrow. Their sorrow was (as well it might be) exceeding great; well might innocent disciples be overwhelmed with sorrow, to hear that their Master should die, that he should die by treason, that the traitor should be one of themselves. But though their sorrow was great, yet was the effect of their sorrow very good, it wrought in them an holy suspicion of themselves, and caused every one to search himself, and say, Master, Is it I?

Learn hence, That it is possible for such secret wickedness to lodge in the heart as we never suspected, till time and temptation draw it forth. None of the disciples suspected, nay, Judas himself never apprehended that depth of iniquity and hypocrisy which was found lodging in him.

Yet note, That though the disciples were jealous and suspicious, yet was it of themselves, not of one another; nay, not of Judas himself: everyone said, Master, Is it I? Not, Master , Is it Judas? True sincerity and Christian charity will make us more suspicious of ourselves than of any other: it hopes the best of others, and fears the worst of ourselves.

Observe, 5. That though Judas sees himself pointed at by our Saviour, and hears the dreadful threatenings denounced against him, that it had been better for him that he had never been born, yet he is no more blanked than innocence itself.

Resolute sinners run on desperately in their evil courses, and with open eyes see and meet their own destruction, without being either dismayed at it, or concerned about it.

This shameless man had the impudence to say to our blessed Saviour, Master, Is it I?

Our blessed Saviour gives him a direct answer. Thou sayest it.

Did not Judas, think we, blush extremely, cast down his guilty eyes, and let fall his drooping head, at so galling an intimation? Nothing less, we read of nothing like it.

Lord! how does obduracy in sin steel the brow, and make it incapable of all relenting impressions!

Observe lastly, How our Saviour prefers non-entity before damnation; It had been better for that man he had never been born. A temporal, miserable being, is not worse than no being; but eternal misery is much worse than non-entity; better to have no being, than not to have a being in Christ, It had been better for Judas that he had never been born, than to lie under everlasting wrath.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

17–21. In the evening he cometh. On the Lord's last passover see notes on Matt. 26:21–25. Compare Luke 22:21–23; John 13:21–35. See also notes on John.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

Connecting Statement:

That evening as Jesus and the disciples eat the Passover meal, Jesus tells them that one of them will betray him.

he came with the twelve

It may be helpful to state where they came to. AT: "he came with the twelve to the house" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

lying down at the table

In Jesus' culture, when people gathered to eat, they lay down on their sides, propping themselves up on pillows beside a low table.

Truly I say to you

This indicates that the statement that follows is especially true and important. See how you translated this in Mark 3:28.

one by one

This means that "one at a time" each disciple asked him.

Surely not I?

Possible meanings are 1) this was a question for which the disciples expected the answer to be no or 2) this was a rhetorical question that did not require a response. AT: "Surely I am not the one who will betray you!" (See: Rhetorical Question and Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

translationWords

the twelve

Jesus

amen

betray

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

17–25. THE PASCHAL SUPPER

Mat 26:20-29. Luk 22:14; Luk 22:19-23. Joh 13:1-2

17. ὀψίας γενομένης. The evening of the same day. For a description of the probable surroundings see Edersheim, Life and Times, II. pp. 488 f., The Temple and its Services, pp. 194 f.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

17-21.] Jesus, celebrating the Passover, announces His betrayal by one of the twelve. Mat 26:20-25.Luk 22:14Luk 22:14 (21-23). Joh 13:21 ff.

The account of Luke (ver. 16) supplies the important saying of our Lord respecting the fulfilment of the two parts of the Passover feast—see notes there. After our ver. 17, comes in the washing of the disciples’ feet by the Lord, as related in Joh 13:1-20.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

17-21. As they were reclining at the Passover meal, Jesus announces that one of them, a disciple who eats with him, and is near enough to dip into the same dish with him, will deliver him up to the authorities. This is only fulfilling his destiny, but just the same it is woe to the man who betrays him. He had better never have been born.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.