Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of John 13:30
He then having received the sop went immediately out: and it was night.
30. He then having received the sop ] Better, He therefore having received the morsel. The pronoun here and in Joh 13:27 ( ekeinos) indicates that Judas is an alien. Comp. Joh 7:11, Joh 9:12; Joh 9:28. The last two verses are a parenthetical remark of the Evangelist; he now returns to the narrative, repeating with solemnity the incident which formed the last crisis in the career of Judas.
went immediately out ] This is no evidence as to the meal not being a Paschal one. The rule that ‘none should go out at the door of his house until the morning’ (Exo 12:22) had, like standing at the Passover, long since been abrogated. “When Satan entered into him, he went out from the presence of Christ, as Cain went out from the presence of the Lord.”
and it was night ] The tragic brevity of this has often been remarked, and will never cease to lay hold of the imagination. It can scarcely be meant merely to tell us that at the time when Judas went out night had begun. In the Gospel in which the Messiah so often appears as the Light of the World (Joh 1:4-9, Joh 3:19-21, Joh 8:12, Joh 9:5, Joh 12:35-36; Joh 12:46), and in which darkness almost invariably means moral darkness (Joh 1:5, Joh 8:12, Joh 12:35; Joh 12:46) a use peculiar to S. John ( 1Jn 1:5 ; 1Jn 2:8-9; 1Jn 2:11), we shall hardly be wrong in understanding also that Judas went forth from the Light of the World into the night in which a man cannot but stumble ‘because there is no light in him’ (Joh 11:10). Thus also Christ Himself said some two hours later, ‘This is your hour, and the power of darkness’ (Luk 22:53). For other remarks of telling brevity and abruptness comp. ‘Jesus wept’ (Joh 11:35); ‘He saith to them, I am He’ (Joh 18:5); ‘Now Barabbas was a robber’ (Joh 18:40).
These remarks shew the impropriety of joining this sentence to the next verse; ‘and it was night, therefore, when he had gone out;’ a combination which is clumsy in itself and quite spoils the effect.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
It was night – It was in the evening, or early part of the night. What is recorded in the following chapters took place the same night.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Joh 13:30
He then having received the sop went immediately out: and it was night
Judas and the sop
The subject suggests
I.
THE TWO-FOLD AND EVEN CONTRASTED SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SAME THING.
1. The giving of the sop meant one thing to John, viz., who was the betrayer? It does not seem to have been fully understood (verse 28), but that was its meaning. To Judas it was meant as a mark of kindness. There was no inconsistency in this. It was done for a good reason. It consisted with Christs affection for John, not to allow the suspicion of betrayal to rest upon him, and with His love for Judas to show him kindness. But why should Christ so act when He knew the result? Because He invariably acted as though results were unknown. He knew that He would raise Lazarus, yet He gave way to grief. He knew who believed not and who should betray Him, but that did not lead Him to slacken efforts on their behalf.
2. And so the same providence now may convey a varied meaning according to our feeling or position. We are more susceptible at one time than another. A song may make glad feelings in one and sad in another, according to the mood. Let each learn what God says aside to him.
II. HOW MUCH MEANING MAY BE CONVEYED BY A LITTLE THING. In the very unobtrusiveness of the sop there was an element of power. It was better than if many words had been employed. The little friendly act was sufficient to flash the whole before His mind, and to discover the whole attitude of the Saviour. It was an intimation that it was not too late for repentance. Shortly before Christ put into a little service the great lesson of humility and serviceableness; shortly after He put great meaning into a look; and while sitting there He put meaning to all time into simple bread and wine. It needs only to have susceptible warm hearts to learn great lessons through little things.
III. THE DISASTROUS EFFECT THAT MAT FOLLOW FROM THE REJECTION OF AN APPEAL.
1. During all his declension Judas had the close attendance of Jesus, and therefore must have had every help toward a successful issue in his trial. And now a last appeal was about to be made. Would he say yes or no to the love of Christ. That was the turning point in his, as in every mans, destiny. And he was so infatuated with evil as to say No. And so Satan, who had only previously put the thought in his heart, now entered him, and the Spirit of the Lord departed from him. But as soon as the act was performed, the enchantment was gone, and he hurried himself into eternity.
2. And so Christ is continually making appeals to us, in some sermon, book, mercy, worldly loss. If we do not yield there will come a last and decisive appeal, and if we reject that, despair.
IV. HOW EXTERNAL NATURE REFLECTS AND MEETS STATES OF THE HUMAN SOUL. It was night–a congenial time for the deed of darkness. The children of darkness are dark within, and when Judas went out the dark thought of his mind was reflected there. Perhaps it was a relief to be away from the light, perhaps a suggestion of destiny. There is only outer darkness for those who go out from Christ. Let us accept Him now, from whose presence by and by we shall go no more out. (R. Finlayson, B. A.)
The sop and a dark deed
Notice
I. THE GROWTH AND STRENGTHENING OF EVIL AMID THE HOLIEST INFLUENCES. Judas lived within the circle of the Saviours influence for three years. Eli was rebuked by Samuel for permitting his sons to commit sin on the threshold of the Temple, and–strange irony–Samuels sons while doing priestly work walked in the same evil way. We may attend the sanctuary and listen to a mothers prayers for fifty years, and afterwards be lost.
II. THE SAVIOURS GOODNESS BECOMES THE OCCASION OF GREAT EVIL. Judas was a worse man at the end of three years; while Christs appreciation of Marys offering, and His appeal to Judas, seemed to strengthen him in his purpose. So the presence of goodness, if not a blessing to us, is a withering curse.
III. CHRISTS GENEROUS TREATMENT OF THE SINNER. He saw the growth of evil in Judas, but it made no difference in His trust and love. At the last moment, there was one more attempt to touch the traitors heart. Friend, etc. The gift of the sop was a sign of love. What a wealth of persevering love is poured out on the most depraved!
IV. THE DARK TERMINATION OF AN EVIL LIFE. Judas went out into the calm of that beautiful Syrian night, but is was a scene of blankness and tempest to him. Then came that deeper night of unavailing penitence and suicide. The path of sin always ends in night. It may be strewn with flowers or steeped in blood, but there is the same termination–the night of separation from God and communion with our own sins. (Noel R. Hamer, M. A.)
It was night
I. IN JERUSALEM. Only the pale shining of the passover moon lit the streets. The sieve was shaken, and the small soul of the money lover dropped through out of honour into shame and gloom.
II. In His HEART. For Satan, the prince of darkness, in person was ruling there. Over him swept a wave of the outer darkness like a cloud from the bottomless pit. Suicide was just at hand.
III. IN ALL THE VAST FUTURE. He was going to his own place. (Job 10:22). We see at this vanishing moment that the man is lost while he is living, virtually in hell because the prince of hell is in his heart. And so we know that a soul can be damned even before it is dead. (C. S.Robinson, D. D.)
Walking in the night
I. THE DARKNESS OF JUDASS CRIME.
1. The night has become intolerable to him now.
2. He was not always a traitor.
3. He may even have been brought into Christs company that he might be saved.
4. But over all good his evil heart obtains supremacy.
II. THE DARKNESS OF HIS REPENTANCE.
1. His conscience works up with the terror of night upon it, but without the accents of hope.
2. His repentance leads only to suicide–a further crime.
III. THE DARKNESS OF HIS DOOM. It had been better for that man, if he had never been born. (J. H. Hargreaves.)
The harmony of nature with our mental moods
We always like to have nature in sympathy with our sorrows and our joys; to have our moods of mind quite in accordance with our moods of seasons. Thus, if you and I are in distress, there is a sort of melancholy pleasure to find the sky gloomy with clouds; and when the shutter which tells our loss, and hides our mourning from the world and casts a shadow upon our home, lets in through the crevice the sunbeam, and we hear the happy crowd enjoying it outside, that intrusion seems quite an injury to our feelings. We take our moods of mind from those of nature, and this is a mystery, of course, which we cannot explain; but we have pleasure in finding that her moods are in accordance with ours, that she is bright when we are bright, that she is in sackcloth when we are sad. And so it is quite a relief to our feelings, just as it must have been to the Evangelists, to find it was night. Such a deed could not have been done before the face of Gods smiling sun. (C. J. P. Eyre, M. A.)
Moral seasons
There is a moral night upon the soul of every sinful creature, just as there has been a day spring in the soul of every true believer. (C. J. P. Eyre, M. A.)
Now is the Son of Man glorified.
The triple glorification
I. THE GLORIFICATION OF THE SON OF MAN IN AND BY HIS SUFFERING. This language is strange here. It would not have been wonderful at Jordan or on the Mount of Transfiguration. Observe that it is as the Son of Man He is glorified, i.e., His glory
1. As the perfect man was displayed in and by His sufferings. Mans excellence consists in entire conformity to Gods will. Of this Christ was all through possessed, but more particularly when at the supreme moment to do Gods will He died for man.
2. As the representative man, as typified by the vicarious sacrifice on the Day of Atonement, and by the Kinsman Redeemer. How glorious this was.
3. As the God-man, as illustrated by the supernatural portents before and at the Crucifixion, which made the Centurion exclaim, Surely this is the Son of God.
4. As the predicted man. At no period of His history were so many prophecies fulfilled. It is probable that the words suggest that there should be spectators: that there should not only be glory, but glorification. If so, Christ was glorified in His sufferings by the dying thief, God the Father, and the holy angels. Some expositors refer the words to the Lords supper–a glorious display of His authority as the Legislator, and His love as theSaviour of the Church.
II. THE GLORIFICATION OF GOD IN THE SON OF MAN SUFFERING. This is a strange declaration. We can understand how God is glorified in heaven, in the universe, in His government, and in multitudes of saved beings, but how in the sufferings of His Son? Now was the hour and power of darkness. The words in Him explain the mystery. By men and devils God was dishonoured, but by Christ honoured. God was glorified in Christs sufferings
1. Viewed in themselves, they glorify
(1) The Divine power which inflicted them and sustained the Sufferer. Never was sorrow like Christs sorrow, but never was Gods grace so abundant. Christ crucified is the power of God.
(2) The Divine wisdom. Christs sufferings
(a) Effectually answer an important end–the eternal salvation of man.
(b) By means different from any that created wisdom could have suggested.
(3) The Divine justice (Rom 3:25-26).
(4) The Divine faithfulness in exactly fulfilling so many predictions.
(5) The Divine benignity (chap. 3:16).
2. Viewed in their results.
(1) In the events themselves. The enemy of God is baffled, evil in the form of sin and suffering prevented, and good in the form of holiness and happiness produced.
(2) In those events as the results of Christs suffering–to bring such results out of such means. Satans ruin rises out of his apparent triumph; life is the fruit of death; favour arises out of wrath, etc.
III. THE GLORIFICATION BY GOD OF THE SON OF MAN, ON ACCOUNT OF HIS SUFFERINGS, IN CONSEQUENCE OF GOD BEING GLORIFIED BY HIM IN THEM.
1. God glorified the Son of Man
(1) Under His sufferings, which tested His power to bear and His disposition to obey, by sustaining Him amid them.
(2) After His sufferings–straightway, It is finished, paradise, the resurrection, ascension, session, and the judgment to come.
2. God glorified the Son of Man in Himself. If God is glorified in Him He shall be glorified in God.
3. Gods glorification of the Son of Man was the result and reward of God being glorified in and by the Son of Mans sufferings.
Conclusion: The subject bids us
1. Rest with entire confidence on the finished work of Christ as the ground of our hope.
2. Imitate the Son of Man in glorifying God and in seeking thus to be glorified by God.
3. Cooperate, though at an infinite distance, with God in glorifying the Son of Man. (J. Brown, D. D.)
God glorified in His Son
showed what glory accrued from the sufferings of Christ.
I. TO THE SON HIMSELF.
1. In completing His engagements with the Father.
2. In redeeming from death a ruined world.
II. TO THE FATHER THROUGH THE SON.
1. In the display of all His perfections.
2. In the accomplishment of all His purposes.
III. TO THE SON BY AND WITH THE FATHER.
1. In the testimonies borne to Him under His sufferings.
2. In the triumphant issue of them.
3. In the benefits conferred in consideration of them. (C. Simeon, M. A.)
God glorified in His Son
By
I. HIS OBEDIENCE TO GODS LAW.
II. HIS TEACHING OF GODS WILL.
III. HIS SUBMISSION TO GODS APPOINTMENTS.
IV. HIS DEATH FOR GODS CHILDREN. (S. S. Times.)
The cross the glory of Christ and God
There is something very weird and awful in the brief note of time–it was night. In immediate connection comes this singular burst of triumph–Therefore. Now that that spot in their feast of charity had disappeared, the Master felt at ease; and, like some stream, out of the bed of which a black rock has been taken, His words flow more freely. How intensely real and human the narrative becomes when we see that Christ, too, felt the oppression of an uncongenial presence, and was relieved and glad at its removal! The departure of the traitor evoked these words of triumph in another way. The match was lit that was to be applied to the train. He had gone out on his dark errand, and that brought the Cross within measurable distance of our Lord. What Judas went to do was the beginning of Christs glorifying.
I. THE SON OF MAN GLORIFIED IN HIS CROSS.
1. There is a double aspect under which our Lord regarded His sufferings. On the one hand we mark the innocent shrinking of His manhood. And yet, side by side with that, there is the reaching out almost with eagerness to bring the Cross nearer. Like the pellucid Rhine and the turbid Moselle, that flow side by side, so the shrinking and the desire were contemporaneous in Christs mind. Here we have the triumphant anticipation rising to the surface, and conquering for a time the shrinking.
2. Why did Christ think of His Cross as a glorifying? The New Testament generally represents it as the lowest point of His degradation; Johns Gospel always represents it as the highest point of His glory. And both are true; just as the zenith of our sky is the nadir for these on the other side of the world. The same fact which in one aspect sounds humiliating, in another is glorious. The Cross glorified Christ because
(1) It was the revelation of His heart. All His life long He had been trying to tell the world how much He loved it; but in His death it comes in a flood, and pours itself upon the world. For Him to be known was to be glorified. So pure and perfect was He, that revelation of His character and glorification of Himself were one and the same thing. We can fancy a mother in the anticipation of shame, and suffering, and death for the sake of some prodigal child, forgetting all, because all are absorbed in the one thought: If I bear them, my poor, rebellious child will know at last how much I loved him. So Christ yearns to impart the knowledge of Himself to us because by that knowledge we may be won to His love and service.
(2) It is His throne of saving power. Christ could not have spoken such words as these if He had simply thought of His death as a Plato or a John Howard might have thought of his, as being the close of his activity for the welfare of his fellows. If His death is His glorifying, it must be because in that death something is done which was not completed by the life, however fair; by the words, however wise and tender; by the works of power, however restorative and healing. Here is something more, viz., that His
Cross is the propitiation for the sins of the whole world. He is glorified therein, not as a Socrates might be glorified by his calm and noble death; but because in that death He wrestled with and overcame our foes, and because, like the Jewish hero, dying, He pulled down the house which our tyrants had built, and overwhelmed them in its ruins.
3. And so there blend, in that last act, the two contradictory ideas of glory and shame; like some sky, all full of dark thunderclouds, and yet between them the brightest blue and the blazing sunshine. In the Cross Death crowns Him the Prince of Life, and His Cross is His throne. He endured the Cross, despising the shame; and lo! the shame flashed up into the very brightness of glory, and the ignominy and the suffering became the jewels of His crown.
II. GOD GLORIFIED IN THE SON OF MAN. The mystery deepens as we advance. That God shall be glorified in a man is not strange, but it is strange that the act in which He was glorified was the death of an innocent man, and must imply
1. That God was in Christ, in some singular and eminent manner. If His whole human life and nature were the brightest manifestation of God, we can understand that the Cross was the highest point of the revelation of the Divine nature, and so was the glorifying of God in Him. But if we take any lower view of the relation between God and Christ, these words are a world too wide for the facts of the case.
2. That these sufferings bore no relation to the deserts of the person who endured them. If Christ, with His pure and perfect character, suffered so, then, if they have any bearing at all on the character of God, they cast a shadow rather than a light upon the Divine government. But if we can say, God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself; that His death was the death of Him whom God had appointed to live and die for us, and to bear our sins then, though deep mysteries come with the thought, still we can see that, in a very unique manner, God is glorified and exalted in His death. For, if the dying Christ be the son of God dying for us, then the Cross glorifies God, because it teaches us that the glory of the Divine character is the Divine love. If there be nothing Diviner in God than His giving of Himself to His creatures, then the Cross towers above all other revelations. And is it not so? Has it not scattered doubts that lay like mountains of ice upon mans heart? Has it not delivered men from the dreams of gods angry, capricious, vengeful, etc.? Has it not taught us that love is God, and God is love?
III. THE SON OF MAN GLORIFIED IN THE FATHER. The mysteries deepen as we advance. If God be glorified in Him, etc. Do these words sound to you as if they expressed no more than the confidence of a good man, who, when he was dying, believed that he would be accepted of a loving Father, and would be at rest from his sufferings?
1. In Himself. That is the obvious antithesis to the previous clause, a glorifying which consisted in a manifestation to the external universe, whereas this is a glorifying within the depths of the Divine nature. And the best commentary is: Father! glorify Thou Me with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was. We get a glimpse into the very centre of the brightness of God; and there, walking in that beneficent furnace, we see One like unto the Son of Man.
2. This reception into the bosom of the Father is given to the Son of Man. The brother of us all, in His manhood, enters into that same glory, which, from the beginning, the Eternal Word had with God.
3. That glorifying is set forth as commencing immediately–straightway. At the instant, then, that He said, It is finished, and all that the Cross could do to glorify God was done, at that instant there began, with Gods glorifying of the Son in Himself. It began in that Paradise into which we know that upon that day He entered. It was manifested to the world when He raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory. It reached a still higher point when, ascending up on high, a dominion and a throne and a glory were given to Him. It shaft rise to its highest manifestation before an assembled world, when He shall come in His glory, and before Him shall be gathered all nations. Conclusion: From that elevation He looks down ready to bless each poor creature here. And if we will but take Him as our Saviour, His all-prevalent prayer, presented within the veil for us, will certainly be fulfilled at last–Father, I will that they also whom Thou has given Me, etc. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Three important facts in relation to Christ
I. A PAINFUL IMPRESSION REMOVED FROM HIS HEART. Therefore when he was gone out
1. An object of moral offence had been removed from His vision. It is never felt to be a pleasant thing to have in your social circle a corrupt man, especially if you know he has plotted against you. The exit of such a man is felt to be a relief.
2. An obstruction to the free utterance of His love had been removed from amongst His hearers. Parents and pastors have often things to say which they will not utter in the presence of a stranger or enemy. When the traitor was gone Christs tongue was free.
II. A GLORIOUS CONSUMMATION OF THE GREAT PURPOSE OF HIS LIFE. The expression Son of Man occurs sixty-six times. Not son of a tribe, nation, sect, or He would have had tribal, etc., peculiarities. He realized the Divine ideal of what man ought to be.
1. The true glory of a man is the realization of the Divine purpose in his Ills. The universe is glorious because it realizes the Divine purpose. The gospel is glorified when it transforms men into the image of God.
2. The man who thus realizes the Divine purpose glorifies God also. We see most of Gods glory in his life who works out the Divine will in a Godlike life. This is what Christ felt now.
III. A TENDER CONSIDERATION FOR THE COMING TRIAL OF HIS DISCIPLES (Joh 13:33).
1. He informs them of that trial. A trial that would crush if it came unexpectedly may fall lightly when anticipated.
2. He informs them in the language of endearment. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 30. He – went immediately out: and it was night.] He set off to Jerusalem from Bethany, which was about two miles distant; and, under the conduct of the prince of darkness, and in the time of darkness, he did this work of darkness.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
From hence appeareth:
1. That it is impossible to prove that Judas was with our Saviour when he instituted and celebrated the supper; though if he were, it proveth nothing of a liberty for ignorant and scandalous persons to be there, (for Judas was not such a one), nor yet of a lawfulness for ministers of the gospel, knowing any to be such, to give the Lords supper to them. For although Christ knew Judass heart, yet he acted not according to his omniscience, but as the first and prime minister of the gospel, setting us an example, not to judge of secret things, but of things open only.
2. It also appeareth from hence, that it is not probable that this was any other supper than the passover supper; for if it were not, the passover supper must be after this, and this same supper preceding it. Our famous Dr. Lightfoot thinks it was a supper in Bethany, at two miles distance (or near so much) from Jerusalem. But then it must follow:
a) That John speaks nothing of the paschal supper, or the Lords supper; and:
b) It doth by no means appear probable to me, that Judas, after such a discovery of him, should come again to eat the passover with Christ and his disciples.
These things, together with what I noted before, that here is no mention made of more guests than the twelve; that the posture used (especially as to leaning) was peculiar to the paschal supper; that the discourse mentioned by this evangelist as had at this supper about the discovery of the traitor, is the same in substance (though not in terms) with what Matthew and Luke report, as passed at the passover: all these things confirm me, that it is the paschal supper that John speaketh of. Whether Judas was at the Lords supper, which we know followed the passover immediately, depends upon the sense of the particle , which we translate immediately; but doth not signify necessarily such a present departure, but the action of the Lords supper might be first over; though in reason it seemeth to me more probable, because of those words,
having received the sop, he immediately went out, that it should be here interpreted strictly, and that shame and horror should not suffer him to stay so long, as till the action of the supper was over: though whether he were at the Lords supper (as I said before) signifieth nothing at all to the questions about mixed communion, either as to the part of the minister administering, or the people communicating.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
30. He then, having received thesop, went immediately outsevering himself for ever fromthat holy society with which he never had any spiritual sympathy.
and it was nightbutfar blacker night in the soul of Judas than in the sky over his head.
Joh13:31-38. DISCOURSE AFTER THETRAITOR’SDEPARTUREPETER’SSELF-CONFIDENCEHISFALL PREDICTED.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
He then having, received the sop,…. As soon as ever he received it, he
went immediately out; fearing lest an entire discovery should be made, and he be prevented accomplishing his design; or being more violently stirred up to it by, Satan, who after the sop entered into him, he directly went from Bethany to Jerusalem, to the chief priests, there, in order to consult and agree upon the delivery of him into their hands:
and it was night; this circumstance is added, to show how eagerly he was bent upon it; that though it was night, it did not hinder or discourage him from setting out on his journey to Jerusalem; and as this was a work of darkness, the night was the fittest time for it, and was a proper emblem of the blackness of the crime he was going to perpetrate.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Having received the sop ( ). Second aorist active participle of . Judas knew what Jesus meant, however ignorant the disciples. So he acted “straightway” ().
And it was night ( ). Darkness falls suddenly in the orient. Out into the terror and the mystery of this dreadful night (symbol of his devilish work) Judas went.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
He [] . See on ver. 27.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “He then having received the sop,” (labon oun to psomion) “Then upon having received the morsel,” dipped in the sop, and having eaten it, as a token of friendship from Jesus’ own hand, Psa 41:9.
2) “Went immediately out,” (ekeinos ekselthen euthus) “That one went out immediately,” of his own choice, from the best friend he ever had, and from the church fellowship, as seized by Satan, incited from a wicked heart, Jer 17:9; Joh 13:2; Joh 13:27; certainly taking the money bag with him, Joh 13:29; Joh 12:6.
3) “And it was night.” (en de nuks) “And it was night,” one of earth’s darkest nights spiritually, for both Jesus and Judas went to the chief priests and entered into a collusion-contract to lead the murderers of Jesus to Him, at the earliest possible moment, in some private place, Mat 26:14-16; Mar 14:10-11; Luk 22:3-6.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(30) He then having received the sop.Comp. Note on Joh. 13:27. The narrative is resumed from that point, Joh. 13:28-29 being an explanatory note added by the writer. Returning to the record of what took place, he dwells again on the moment of receiving the sop as that in which the betrayer took the fatal step which could not be retraced.
And it was night.These words doubtless state the physical fact that at the time when Judas left the room the darkness of night had already come on. He went out, and went out into the darkness of night. We cannot say that the writer meant them to express more than this, and yet we feel that there is in them a fulness of meaning that cannot have been unintentional. It was night; and he stepped forth from light into darkness; from the presence and guidance of the Light of the World, to be possessed by and guided by the prince of darkness. It was night; and St. John could hardly have written these words without remembering those he had written but a short time before: If a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him. (See Note on Joh. 11:10.) Comp., for the way in which St. John gives emphasis to a tragic fulness of meaning by expressing it in a short detached sentence, Joh. 11:35; Joh. 18:40.
[(2) THE LAST WORDS OF DEEPEST MEANING TO THE FAITHFUL FEW (Joh. 13:31 to Joh. 16:33).
(a)
His glory is at hand, because He is going to the Father; they are therefore to love one another (Joh. 13:31-38);
(b)
In the Fathers house He will receive them to Himself. He is the Way, the Truth, the Life (Joh. 14:1-10);
(c)
Being in the Father, He will be present in the disciples (Joh. 13:11-24):
() By answering their prayers (Joh. 13:12-14);
()
By sending to them the Paraclete (Joh. 13:13-17);
()
By abiding in them (Joh. 13:18-24).
(d)
His legacy of peace to them (Joh. 13:25-31).]
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
30. It was night It is a dreary image here presented. This son of night goes through the darkness of night on his message of treason. The Evangelist closes the door upon him as with a shudder; and fairly rid of his presence, yet conscious of his purpose, Jesus breaks forth in a rapture of relief.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘He then, having received the dipped bread, immediately went out. And it was night.’
Does the speed at which Judas acted suggest the torment that he was under? He did not stop for a moment for he wanted to get away as quickly as possible. He knew that he must not think about what he was going to do. And once he knew that Jesus knew what he was going to do, he would not have been able to bear being with Jesus a minute longer than was necessary. What a terrible state he had got himself into.
‘And it was night’. Again we should note the double significance. True, it was dark outside, although there would be a bright Passover moon. But the truth is that the darkness was more inside Judas. There had never been such a darkness. The blackness of the darkest night was in his heart. He had forsaken the light of the world. (Compare Luk 22:53, spoken to Jesus’ enemies, ‘this is your hour and the power of darkness’). And what was more, for Jesus also the dark hour had come.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Joh 13:30-31 . ] connecting with Joh 13:27 . With begins the fulfilment of the command of Christ, given in Joh 13:27 . How erroneous therefore is Hengstenberg’s statement, in spite of the : he went away first at the close of the meal! Before the the supper, indeed, is said to have its place, and Judas to have taken part in it!
] The meal had begun in the evening, and when one considers also the time consumed in the feet-washing had already advanced into the night. This conclusion of the narrative respecting Judas presents, unsought, something full of horror , and precisely in this simplest brevity of expression something that profoundly lays hold of the imagination. Comp. Luk 22:53 . With begins a fresh break in the narrative. To omit (see critical notes), and to connect these words with (Chrysostom, Theophylact, Euth. Zigabenus, and several others, including Bengel, Paulus, Ewald), has against it, apart from the critically certified , the considerations that the following would stand very abruptly, [132] itself would be very superfluous, and the deeper emphasis of the mere at the close would be lost.
[132] Ewald supposes that “by an old mistake” had dropped out before . But such is the reading of Cyril only.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
30 He then having received the sop went immediately out: and it was night.
Ver. 30. He then having received the sop ] So many having received the Supper of the Lord, eat their bane and drink their poison; what they eat is sauced, and what they drink is spiced, with the bitter wrath of God, their hearts are woefully hardened, and their dispositions to sin seven times more inflamed than ever before.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
30. ] The remark (which certainly concludes this period, see , Joh 13:12 ) seems to be added to bring the whole narrative from ch. Joh 13:1 to ch. Joh 18:3 into precision, as happening on one and the same night. It is perhaps fanciful to see, as Orig [177] , Olsh., Stier, &c. have done, an allusion to the in Judas’s soul, or to , Luk 22:53 ; though doubtless there the Lord alludes to its being also night: but I quite feel, with Meyer, that there is something awful in this termination it was night.
[177] Origen, b. 185, d. 254
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Joh 13:30 . Judas on his part, having accepted the sop, , the answering to , Joh 13:27 ; he went out immediately, taking the purse with him no doubt. , “and it was night”. The sudden darkness succeeding sunset in the East suddenly fell on the room, impressing John’s sensitive spirit and adding to the perturbation of the company. The note of time may however only result from John’s desire to keep his narrative exact.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
he = That One. Greek. ekeinos, emphatic. immediately. Greek eutheos, a very common word in Mark’s Gospel. Occurance in John only here, Joh 5:9; Joh 6:21 and Joh 18:27. L T Tr. A WI R read euthus, as in Joh 13:32.
night: i.e. about the third hour of the night, 9pm, Tuesday night. See App-165.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
30.] The remark (which certainly concludes this period, see , Joh 13:12) seems to be added to bring the whole narrative from ch. Joh 13:1 to ch. Joh 18:3 into precision, as happening on one and the same night. It is perhaps fanciful to see, as Orig[177], Olsh., Stier, &c. have done, an allusion to the in Judass soul, or to , Luk 22:53; though doubtless there the Lord alludes to its being also night: but I quite feel, with Meyer, that there is something awful in this termination-it was night.
[177] Origen, b. 185, d. 254
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Joh 13:30. , went out) However he afterwards returned: as appears by a comparison with Mat 26:20 [Judas was one of the Twelve, with whom He sat down on the following even, that of the paschal supper]; and indeed otherwise he could hardly have acted the part of a traitor.- , ) Moreover it was night, when he went out. A similar form of expression occurs, ch. Joh 9:14, It was moreover the Sabbath when Jesus made the clay, etc. The words which were spoken on the following day, begin at Joh 13:31.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Joh 13:30
Joh 13:30
He then having received the sop went out straightway: and it was night.-Judas having been pointed out as the person who should betray him and admonished to do it at once, immediately left the table and went out on his mission.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
went: Pro 4:16, Isa 59:7, Rom 3:15
it: Job 24:13-15
Reciprocal: Mat 26:14 – one Mar 14:10 – Judas Joh 13:26 – He it is
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
0
Judas “took Jesus at his word” and went immediately out after receiving the sop. He went to the chief priests and obtained a band of men for his wicked use. Thayer defines this band as “a detachment of soldiers.” The sop was used as a part of the passover feast. Judas went out as soon as he had received the sop and never came back. The Lord’s Supper was instituted after the passover supper. (See the comments at Mat 26:20.) From the aforesaid truths we will see that Judas was not present when the Lord’s supper was instituted.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
He then having received the sop went immediately out: and it was night.
[Went immediately out: and it was night.] So the traitor goes forth to his work of darkness under the conduct of the devil, the shelter of the night. He was to go two miles, viz. from Bethany to Jerusalem; then was he to seek out and get the chief priests together, to make his bargain with them for betraying Christ. Whether he did all this this very night or the day following, as the holy Scripture saith nothing of it, so is it of no great moment for us to make a business of inquiring about it. It is not so difficult to shew how many difficulties they involve themselves in that would have all this done the very same night wherein the paschal supper was celebrated, as it is a wonder that the favourers of this opinion should take no notice thereof themselves.
Fuente: Lightfoot Commentary Gospels
Joh 13:30. He therefore haying received the sop went immediately out. Again nothing is said of the sops being eaten.
And it was night. It is impossible to mistake the symbolic meaning of these words, which thus become important as illustrating the general character of the thought and style of the Evangelist. They illustrate, no doubt, the minute accuracy of the narrative, and the fact that it is that of an eye-witness, upon whose memory the events witnessed by him had made a profound impression. But they certainly do more. In the darkness of the night in which Judas went out the Evangelist sees the symbol of the darkness of his deed of treachery.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Judas obeyed Jesus’ command (Joh 13:27) and left the upper room immediately. He missed most of the meal including the institution of the Lord’s Supper. John’s reference to it being night would be redundant if all he wanted to do was give a time reference. In view of his light and darkness motif, it seems that he wanted to point out the spiritual significance of Judas’ departure both for Judas and for Jesus (cf. Luk 22:53; Joh 1:4-5; et al.).
"As the Light of the world was about to depart and return to the Father, the darkness had come at last (cf. Luk 22:53). Again the contrast in imagery is clear. For John, Jesus is the Light of the world, and those who believe in Him come to the light and walk in the light. At the opposite extreme is Judas Iscariot, who rejected Jesus, cast in his lot with the powers of darkness, departed into the darkness, and was swallowed up by it." [Note: Harris, p. 204.]
"Judas was enveloped in an unilluminated night, never to be relieved. He was on the way to his own place (Act 1:25)." [Note: Beasley-Murray, p. 239.]