John 13:21

When Jesus had thus said, he was troubled in spirit, and testified, and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(21) He was troubled in spirit.—Comp. Note on John 11:33. He has spoken of the future of those who are true to their commission as Apostles. He now turns in deep emotion to him of whom those words cannot be spoken. The “Verily, verily,” and the three verbs, “was troubled,” “bare witness,” “spake,” perhaps imply that there was a pause in which His feeling checked His words, but that the witness to the truth demanded that they should be spoken, painful as they were. For the words themselves, comp. Note on Matthew 26:21.

Benson Commentary

John 13:21-22. When Jesus had thus said, he was troubled in spirit — To think of so ungrateful and impious a design in one so near him, and so much obliged to him; and testified — As they sat together, and were eating the paschal-supper, Mark 14:18; Verily, one of you shall betray me — Verily, how incredible soever what I now say may appear to you, one of you, who is eating with me in this friendly and intimate manner; even one of you, my apostles and constant followers, shall, or will betray me, to those that thirst for my blood. None, indeed, could be said to betray him but those in whom he reposed confidence, and were the witnesses of his retirement. This did not lay Judas under any fatal necessity of committing the sin here spoken of; for though the event followed according to the prediction, yet it was not caused by the prediction, but would have equally happened if no such prediction had been uttered. Our Lord’s speaking thus indefinitely at first, and only saying, one of you, was profitable to them all, as leading them all seriously to examine themselves. Then the disciples looked one on another — For some time, in silence, and with great astonishment; doubting of whom he spake — And studious to observe in whose countenance they might read any peculiar confusion, which might look like an indication of guilt.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

13:18-30 Our Lord had often spoken of his own sufferings and death, without such trouble of spirit as he now discovered when he spake of Judas. The sins of Christians are the grief of Christ. We are not to confine our attention to Judas. The prophecy of his treachery may apply to all who partake of God's mercies, and meet them with ingratitude. See the infidel, who only looks at the Scriptures with a desire to do away their authority and destroy their influence; the hypocrite, who professes to believe the Scriptures, but will not govern himself by them; and the apostate, who turns aside from Christ for a thing of naught. Thus mankind, supported by God's providence, after eating bread with Him, lift up the heel against Him! Judas went out as one weary of Jesus and his apostles. Those whose deeds are evil, love darkness rather than light.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Troubled in spirit - See John 12:27. The reason of his trouble here was that Judas, a professed friend, was about to betray him. He doubtless foresaw the deep and dreadful sorrows of his approaching death, and was also deeply affected with the ingratitude and wickedness of a professed friend. Jesus was man as well as God, and he felt like other men. His human nature shrank from suffering, and his tender sensibilities were affected not less deeply than would be those of other men by baseness and treason.

Testified - He bore witness to the truth; openly declared what he had before intimated - that one of them would betray him.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

Joh 13:21-30. The Traitor Indicated—He Leaves the Supper Room.

21. When Jesus had thus said, he was troubled in spirit, and testified, and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, One of you shall betray me—The announcement of Joh 13:18 seems not to have been plain enough to be quite apprehended, save by the traitor himself. He will therefore speak it out in terms not to be misunderstood. But how much it cost Him to do this, appears from the "trouble" that came over His "spirit"—visible emotion, no doubt—before He got it uttered. What wounded susceptibility does this disclose, and what exquisite delicacy in His social intercourse with the Twelve, to whom He cannot, without an effort, break the subject!

Matthew Poole's Commentary

How, and in what sense, trouble of spirit could agree to Christ, was noted before, John 12:27: see the notes on that text. This seemeth to have been rather a trouble of grief, that one of his apostles, one whom he had chosen, should commit so great a villany, than arising from fear of death; for his next words are a further discovery of the person that should betray him: he had said before, that he should be betrayed, and that it should be by one that used to eat bread with him; but now he cometh closer, and tells them that it should be by one of them, that is, one of the twelve; this was a closer discovery than he had as yet made.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

When Jesus had thus said,.... Having spoken of the mission of his disciples by him, of their reception among men, and the notice that would be taken of it by him:

he was troubled in spirit; in his soul, which shows him to be truly and really man, and to have an human soul, which some have denied; and that to be of like passions with ours, only without sin: he was troubled, not at what he had said, but at what he was about to say concerning the betrayer; and that not so much on his own account, because of the danger, the sorrows, and sufferings he should be exposed to, as on account of the horrible blackness of the crime, and the vengeance that would fall upon the criminal; and being thus inwardly distressed at this affair,

he testified and said: he spake out openly and plainly, what he had before secretly intimated, and that with the greatest certainty:

verily, verily, I say unto you; it is truth, it may be believed, however unexpected and strange it may seem to be:

that one of you shall betray me; to the chief priests and elders, in order to be put to death.

Geneva Study Bible

When Jesus had thus said, he was troubled in spirit, and {e} testified, and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me.

(e) He affirmed it openly and sealed it.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

John 13:21-22. The thought of Jesus recurs in deep excitement and agitation—owing to which, probably, an interrupting pause occurred—back to the traitor;[129] it constrains Him now to testify with the most straightforward definiteness what He knows, but at which He had previously only hinted: One of you will betray me! Comp. Matthew 26:21-22, in comparison with whose representation that of John is to be preferred.

τῷ πνεύματι] in His Spirit (John 11:33), not: through the divine Spirit (Hilgenfeld).

ἔβλεπον οὖν, κ.τ.λ.] “perculsi rei atrocitate vix credibili animis probis minimeque suspicacibus,” Grotius. Judas may likewise have dissembled.

[129] The course of thought which Godet supposes is pure invention: “If the true apostle carries within himself God (ver. 20), the traitor carries in himself Satan” (ver. 25).

Expositor's Greek Testament

John 13:21-30. Judas is eliminated from the company.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

21–30. The self-excommunication of the traitor

21. he was troubled in spirit] Once more the reality of Christ’s human nature is brought before us (comp. John 11:33; John 11:35; John 11:38, John 12:27); but quite incidentally and without special point. It is the artless story of one who tells what he saw because he saw it and remembers it. The life-like details which follow are almost irresistible evidences of truthfulness.

Bengel's Gnomen

John 13:21. Ἐμαρτύρησε, testified) gravely [impressively], as in the case of a thing hidden.—εἷς ἐξ ὑμῶν, one of you) It was advantageous to them all, that Jesus at first spake indefinitely.

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 21-30 correspond with the scene which Matthew describes (Matthew 26:21, etc.) as occurring during the Paschal meal, and preceding the departure of Judas before the Supper was instituted - "as they did eat." The ὁ ἐσθίων μετ ἐμοῦ in Mark 14:18 corresponds and finds its explanation in the scene described by John, as also his quotation from Psalm 41. It does not follow, because the synoptics omit the "feet-washing," that they were ignorant of it; John's purpose was to record that which they had omitted. On the other hand, John does give some very significant indications of the same general current of inner life in the mind of Jesus and of the twelve. Matthew (Matthew 26:14-16) shows that at this very moment Judas had so far given way to his avarice, impatience, disappointment, and innate pride and selfishness, as to be simply seeking his opportunity to betray his Master in the absence of the multitude. He had his price; he was meditating treachery. Granting the mixture of motive which may have agitated him, we condemn the pleading of numerous modern writers, who almost extenuate his malice and represent him as victim of the violent vulgar passion of the multitude for a triumphant secular Messiah. Every touch or stroke in the evangelic narrative shows how utterly Impervious to goodness the traitor really was; and John gives us a further hint, in addition to that supplied by the synoptists, as to the very commencement of the agony, the details of which they prolong into the night. Jesus was troubled in the spirit (cf. notes on John 11:33). This is one of the strongest expressions used of the sorrows of Christ; the ταράχη even was deeper down in his nature than what is expressed by ἀδημονεῖν, λυπεῖσθαι, of Matthew. The distress penetrated from "body" to "soul," and then to inmost "spirit." The Lord was terribly perturbed, not merely with approaching agony aggravated by treachery and desertion, but by the contrast between his love and the issue, between an apostle and his doom. And he testified, and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you. A close specification of coming events takes the place of the more vague utterances of vers. 17-19. One of you shall betray me. The synoptic account introduces the vivid scene of humble and heart-.rending inquiry, "Lord, is it I?" to which the reply was made, "The one that dippeth his hand in the dish with me shall betray me," followed by a still more awful warning, and imprecation calling the self-consciously guilty man to hesitate, to pause for his own sake (Matthew 26:24). And, further, we learn that Judas received the answer, unheard by his fellow-disciples that it was he who was in this imminent danger. This scene, however, was so impressive to the majority that the synoptic tradition failed to record a briefer side-scene, of which John was the principal witness, and which he here describes. The disciples (therefore) were gazing on one another, being in perplexity concerning whom he spake. They were looking on in mute or whispering amazement and tribulation upon one another, being in sore bewilderment (ἀπορούμενοι), but as yet they did not suspect Judas. There was lying, says our text, reclining at the table, in the bosom (ἐν τῷ κόλπῳ) - ἐπὶ το στῆθος, "against the breast" - one of his disciples whom Jesus loved. Observe, this sacred designation occurs in John 19:26; John 20:2; John 21:7, 20. In John 20:2 it is "the other disciple whom Jesus ἐφίλει, amabat, implying that the love of Jesus was not confined to John, but embraced Peter also; whereas here we have ο{ν ἠγάπα, the higher love of respect and affection, diligebat. We can have no doubt, from the enumeration of the group in John 21:2, etc., that it is one of Zebedee's sons. Now one of these, James, as we learn from the narrative of Acts 12, soon passed away. The author of the Fourth Gospel does undoubtedly mean to refer to John, and to represent the disciple ἵν ἠγάπα ὁ Ἰησοῦς as no other than himself. The attitude so carefully described had been adopted by the Jews at table. It shows that John was seated, or was reclining, next to Jesus on his right, and therefore could, more easily than his next companion on the left, have sought and received an answer from the Lord. Whether this was Peter or Judas does not appear certain. Edersheim has represented Peter's place as on the opposite side of the horseshoe table. Words from that distance could have been overheard by all. At the celebration of the Passover, the guests were accustomed originally to stand; but after the Captivity the custom fell into desuetude. John 13:21

Vincent's Word Studies

Was troubled in Spirit

See on John 11:33; see on John 12:27. The agitation was in the highest region of the spiritual life (πνεῦμα).

One of you shall betray me

So Matthew and Mark, with the addition of, who eateth with me. Luke, the hand of him that betrayeth me is with me on the table.