John Chapter 13 verse 2 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 2. - A supper having commenced; or, being then in progress - without doubt the meal in which our Lord terminated the Old Testament dispensation and introduced the New, and which John discriminates, therefore, from the Passover proper referred to in ver. 1. The evangelist now reverts to the diabolic design which had been injected into the heart of Judas. The devil having already cast into the heart (of Judas) that he - Meyer's suggestion that the devil put this design into his own heart, does not lighten the construction, and encumbers the passage with ideas which are foreign to the Bible - (even) Judas, (the son) of Simon, the Iscariot, should betray him. The idea came from the devil, but the purpose of the devil was not irrevocable. The evangelist looked through his tears of love to the traitor's face as he sat at meat, and felt how the very excess and uttermost and hyperbole of love was reached and scaled by the contact between the treachery of the one and the Divine humiliation of the other. The contrast between these two mental states is one of the most striking antitheses in the Gospel. But how should John know that Judas had already plotted the betrayal of his Master? Hengstenberg makes the wise suggestion that the fourth evangelist was acquainted with the synoptic tradition of the priority of Judas's bargain with the chief priests (Matthew 26:14-16; Mark 14:10, 11; Luke 22:3-6).

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(2) And supper being ended.--The reading here is uncertain, but neither reading justifies our translation. It should probably be, "And it now becoming supper time." As a matter of fact, the supper was not ended (John 13:12; John 13:26); but they had already reclined, and were, as we say, ready for supper.The devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot.--The better reading is, The devil having now put it into the heart, that Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, should betray Him. But the sense must be that of our version, "The heart of Judas" (the devil having suggested). The alternative interpretation, "the heart of the devil" (the devil having conceived) is opposed to all scriptural analogy. For the fact, comp. Notes on Matthew 26:14, and Luke 22:3.For "Judas Iscariot," comp. Notes on Matthew 10:4; Matthew 26:14. The name is given here in the sad fulness of this mournful record. The fact is recorded hero to explain the references to Judas which follow in our Lord's words (John 13:10; John 13:18; John 13:21; John 13:26-27; John 13:30). . . .