The Hands That Hold All Things Take Up a Towel

“His own” are the idioi, the word of 1:11, “his own received him not”; now the phrase names the circle he loves. “Unto the end” is eis telos, which means both to the last and to the uttermost. Raymond Brown called the chapters that begin here the Book of Glory, after the Book of Signs.

The best manuscripts read “during supper”, not “supper being ended”, which fits Jesus rising from the meal in verse 4 and dipping the sop in verse 26. The Greek of the devil’s act is literally “having already cast into the heart”, the verb of throwing.

The first clause repeats 3:35 almost word for word: “The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand.” The verbs of origin and destination are set side by side, came from God, going to God, and everything between is what follows.

“Laid aside” is tithemi, the verb of the good shepherd who “lays down” his life (10:11, 17–18), and in verse 12 he “takes” his garments again, the verb of taking up his life. The present tense “riseth” is vivid. A towel tied at the waist was a slave’s apron.

“Bason” is nipter, a washbasin, a word not found in any earlier Greek writing. Washing a guest’s feet was a slave’s task; a rabbinic commentary on Exodus says a Hebrew slave should not be made to do it. Abigail offered to wash the feet of David’s servants as a mark of utter lowliness (1 Samuel 25:41).

In Greek the pronouns collide: “Lord, thou, my feet, washest?” The weight falls on the two persons, not on the act. “Then cometh he to Simon Peter” implies others were washed first, which unsettles the later tradition that Peter was always first.

The two verbs for knowing differ: “thou knowest not” is oida, “thou shalt know” is ginosko, coming to understand. “Hereafter” is literally “after these things”, the understanding that came to the disciples only after the resurrection (2:22; 12:16).

“Never” is ou me eis ton aiona, the emphatic phrase Jesus used to promise that a drinker would “never thirst” (4:14) and a believer “never die” (11:26). Peter uses the language of promise for a refusal. “Part” is meros, a share or inheritance, as the Levites had “no part” among their brethren (Deuteronomy 10:9).

Priests had to wash their hands and feet before serving at the altar (Exodus 30:19–21). Peter asks for more than the priests were required to wash: hands, feet and head too. The request is generous, and it still misses the point.

“He that is washed” is louo, to bathe the whole body; washing the feet is nipto, to wash a part. A guest bathed at home and needed only his feet washed on arriving. Codex Sinaiticus and some Latin witnesses lack “save to wash his feet”, which makes the saying about a single, complete bath.

“Who should betray him” is a present participle in Greek, “the one who is betraying him”, as though already under way. The Book of John has said that Jesus knew this since 6:64, “from the beginning”.

“Was set down again” means he reclined at the table again, returning to his place. “Know ye what I have done to you?” can equally be read as a command, “Understand what I have done to you,” since the Greek form is the same.

Master and Lord answer to the Hebrew titles Rabbi and Mar, teacher and lord, the ordinary ways disciples addressed their teacher. They say Teacher first; in the next verse Jesus reverses the order, “your Lord and Master”, putting the higher title first before drawing the conclusion.

“Ought” is opheilo, to owe, a debt. The practice continued: 1 Timothy 5:10 counts among a widow’s good works that she “washed the saints’ feet”, and many churches still keep the washing of feet on the Thursday before Easter.

“Example” is hupodeigma, a pattern or model to copy. Second Maccabees 6:28–31 uses it of the old scribe Eleazar, who died rather than eat pork and left “an example” to the young. “As I have done” is kathos, just as.

Jesus repeats the first half in 15:20, applied to persecution. “He that is sent” is apostolos, and this is the only time the word apostle appears in the Book of John. It describes a relationship before it names an office.

“Happy” is makarios, blessed. The Book of John has only two such sayings, this one and 20:29, “blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.” Both put the blessing on the far side of an act of trust.

Psalm 41:9 reads “Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me.” Jesus leaves out “in whom I trusted”. The lifted heel may picture a kick, or the heel raised to walk away. “I know whom I have chosen” recalls 6:70.

“I am he” is ego eimi again. Foretelling as proof is Isaiah’s argument: “before it came to pass I shewed it thee: lest thou shouldest say, Mine idol hath done them” (48:5). The prediction of betrayal is made to support faith rather than shake it.

Matthew 10:40 gives the same saying in the sending of the twelve: “He that receiveth you receiveth me.” Here it stands between two warnings of betrayal, as if to assure the disciples that the treachery of one will not cancel the standing of the rest.

This is the third time the Book of John says Jesus was troubled: at the grave (11:33), at the coming of the hour (12:27), and now. The next chapter begins with him telling the disciples, “Let not your heart be troubled” (14:1). “Testified” marks a solemn declaration.

“Doubting” is aporeo, being at a loss. In Mark 14:19 they ask one by one, “Is it I?” Here the Book of John records only silence and glances round the table.

At a formal meal guests reclined on couches, leaning on the left elbow, so a man’s head was near the chest of the one on his left. “Bosom” is kolpos, the word of 1:18, “the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father”. This is the first appearance of the disciple whom Jesus loved.

“Beckoned” is neuo, to nod. Peter could not ask Jesus directly, so he was not next to him. Some suppose Judas lay on Jesus’ other side, close enough to be handed the sop, but that is an inference.

The word changes from bosom to breast, stethos, the chest, and the verb means he leaned back. The question is whispered at close range, which explains why the others did not follow what came next.

“Sop” is psomion, a morsel of bread dipped in the common dish. Boaz invited Ruth, “dip thy morsel in the vinegar” (Ruth 2:14), a gesture of hospitality. For a host to hand a guest a morsel was a mark of favour, so the sign of the traitor is also a gift.

This is the only time the name Satan appears in the Book of John. Verse 2 spoke of the devil putting the betrayal into the heart; now he enters. “Quickly” is a comparative in Greek, “more quickly”, as though what is being done should be hurried on.

“No man at the table” seems to include even the disciple who had just been told the sign. Either he did not grasp that the sop was being given in answer, or he did not connect it with the words to Judas; the book leaves him no wiser than the rest.

In the Book of John this supper falls before the Passover meal (18:28; 19:14), so a purchase “against the feast” the next day makes sense. The Mishnah required that even the poorest have wine at the Passover (Pesahim 10:1), which gave alms that night a particular point.

He takes the bread from Jesus’ hand and goes, fulfilling the line of verse 18 about the one who ate his bread. “It was night” is three words in Greek, placed at the very end of the scene.

The verb glorify appears five times in these two verses. “Now” begins the sentence: the act that seems to end everything is announced as the moment of glory, and it comes straight after the door closes behind Judas.

The opening clause, “If God be glorified in him”, is missing from several early manuscripts, including P66 and Codex Vaticanus. “Straightway” is euthus, at once: the glorifying will not be long delayed.

“Little children” is teknia, used only here in the Gospel but seven times in 1 John, where the elder writes as a father to a church. Jesus repeats to his own the words he spoke to his opponents, and says so openly.

In Latin the verse begins mandatum novum, “a new commandment”, and the English name Maundy Thursday comes from mandatum. The measure is the washing just done: “as I have loved you”.

Tertullian, writing around AD 197, reports pagans saying of Christians, “See how they love one another” (Apology 39). The verse makes mutual love the sign by which outsiders identify the disciples.

In Latin Peter’s question is Quo vadis?, which gave its name to the later legend in the Acts of Peter where Peter, fleeing Rome, meets Jesus on the road and turns back to die. Here the question is simply where.

Peter will make one attempt to keep this promise, drawing a sword in the garden and cutting off the ear of the high priest’s servant (18:10). The promise is made in the language of the good shepherd, which is the language of Jesus’ own death.

Jesus repeats Peter’s words back as a question. Mark 13:35 names a night watch “cockcrowing”, between midnight and three. The Mishnah forbids raising fowl in Jerusalem (Bava Kamma 7:7), so some think the cock is the Roman trumpet of that watch, though others doubt the rule was observed.