John 13 - NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible
13:1 just before the Passover Festival. See the article “The Synoptic Passover Meal Versus John’s Passover Lamb.”
13:2 The evening meal. Although many ancient banquets included music, ancient rabbis preferred lectures and especially Torah discussions; no lecture appears here, but Jesus teaches his disciples by example. the devil . . . prompted Judas. See note on Lk 22:3.
13:5 he . . . began to wash his disciples’ feet. Washing others’ feet was normally a servile task. Dirt roads made feet dusty; urban streets sometimes included refuse from chamber pots dumped from windows (though probably not in the well-to-do upper city where Jesus dined this night). Because people would wash the right hand before the appetizers and both hands before the main course, a basin and towel may have been readily available. It appears that one would wash feet by pouring water over them into the basin.
13:11 Ancient hearers would not be troubled that John repeats Jesus’ statement in different words. As can also be illustrated by differences noted when comparing the Gospels, ancients practiced and appreciated paraphrase. Ancient biographers did not trifle over minor differences in wording.
13:14 I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet. Although later rabbis emphasized teachers’ humility, they continued to value social rank. Disciples served teachers rather than the reverse, and the one act of service specifically not expected even of them was dealing with the master’s feet. (The context indicates that Jesus’ service deliberately prefigures his death for others.)
13:15 set you an example. Disciples were supposed to follow their teacher’s example. Later rabbis even used earlier rabbis’ behavior as legal precedent!
13:16 Jesus’ statement accurately summarizes this aspect of ancient culture. Only subordinates served and were sent as agents or messengers.
13:18 turned against me. People viewed table fellowship as establishing a covenant of friendship; betrayal of such a bond was considered heinous. (For a stark example: in one ancient epic, two warriors, discovering that their fathers had shared table fellowship a generation earlier, realized that they could not fight each other.) Lifting one’s heel toward another was an insult. The voice of Ps 41:9, like that of some other psalms, is that of a righteous sufferer (cf. notes on Jn 15:25; 19:28).
13:19 telling you now before it happens. God declared beforehand what he would do so that after the fact people would recognize that he had acted (cf. Isa 41:26; 43:9–10; 44:7; 48:3–7).
13:20 whoever accepts . . . the one who sent me. Agents, messengers and ambassadors represented their sender, to the extent that they accurately conveyed the sender’s message; how one treated them reflected one’s attitude toward the sender.
13:21 one of you is going to betray me. Some ancient critics viewed a person who was betrayed as a poor judge of character; Jesus, however, warns that he knows about the betrayal in advance.
13:23 reclining next to him. At banquets, three or four people (in the eastern Mediterranean world, usually men) would recline on each couch (or, in the possible absence of couches here, they could recline on mats, rugs, or cloaks). Each would lean on the left elbow with the right hand free to collect food (already sliced) from the table in front of the couch. The diner’s feet would point away from the table. Each diner to the right of another on the couch would be ranged somewhat further back, so the diner to the right of another could lean back his head on the other’s chest (v. 25).
13:24 Peter motioned to this disciple. Simon Peter is apparently at a different table, and so motions to the “disciple whom Jesus loved” (v. 23).
13:25 Leaning back against Jesus. Because this disciple is able to lean back against Jesus, he is apparently to his right, a position of honor.
13:26 the one to whom I will give this piece of bread. In a Passover context (but cf. v. 1), Jesus probably would dip the unleavened bread in bitter herbs along with a mixture that later rabbis called charoset, which probably included nuts and spices. For Jesus as head of the gathering to dip and hand it to Judas openly honors Judas. Because Jesus is able to dip the piece of bread and hand it to Judas, Judas apparently shares the same table with Jesus, and is presumably to Jesus’ left. In banquets, a position to one’s left was a position of special honor. Whereas Mark emphasizes Judas’ own role in dipping bread (Mk 14:20), John here emphasizes Jesus’ role (cf. Jn 10:18).
13:29 Judas had charge of the money. A teacher would sometimes delegate care for the group’s money to a disciple. Some sources that suggest that festivals were also sometimes special occasions for generosity toward the poor. On the night of Passover, markets would be closed (cf. Ex 12:22), but see the article “The Synoptic Passover Meal Versus John’s Passover Lamb.”
13:31, 32 glorified. See note on 12:23. In the OT God sometimes revealed his glory in theophanies (especially Ex 33:18, 22), but the deepest revelation of glory in this context is the cross.
13:33 children. Disciples sometimes called their teachers “Father” (cf. note on Mt 23:9), and sages could refer to their disciples as their “children.” Although some could be older, most mature disciples were in their teens.
13:34 As I have loved you, so you must love one another. Scripture commanded love of neighbor (Lev 19:18); Jewish tradition valued love, and one later rabbi, Rabbi Akiba, even named this as the greatest commandment. Yet Jesus’ emphasis on the priority of love distinctively pervaded his movement in a way shared by no other ancient movement (e.g., Ro 13:8–10; Gal 5:14). What makes the command “new” here is the example that Jesus cites: his example of laying down his life for others.
13:35 my disciples. Disciples were expected to imitate their teachers.
13:38 before the rooster crows. Roosters crow often, but ancient sources mention most often their crowing at dawn. Jesus thus probably warns Peter here that before the night is over he will have denied Jesus three times.
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