extinguishes tbe light of reason, and destroys every feeling of shame."
4. — [The Cdptains!] These were not Roman officers. They were commanders of the Jewish guard of the Temple.
5. — [To give him money.'] Quesnel remarks, *' It is avarice and the desire of earthly riches, which generally lays open the hearts of ecclesiastical persons to the devil, as it did that of the apostle. They deliver up the key of their hearts when they deliver up themselves to this passion."
6. — Iffe promised.'] The Greek word so rendered, is translated in every other place where it is used in the New Testament, " thauk," or " confess." Hammond thinks that it indicates " promising with great professions of thankfulness and gratitude."
7. — [The day. ..when the passover must be JnUed.'} There is a diffi- culty here which has occasioned much speculation among com- mentators.
The difficulty is this. Our Lord appears to have eaten the passover one day in the week, and the Jews his enemies to have eaten it on another. . He ate the passover on Thursday Evening, while we are distinctly told that the next morning early " they went not into the judgment hall, lest they should be defiled, but that they might eat the passover." (John xviii. 28.) The law was distinct that the passover was to be killed the evening of the fourteenth day, and eaten that night. Why then did our Lord and the chiei priests and Scribes not eat the passover at the same time ? How is this to be explained ?
L Some think that our Lord kept the passover on the right and lawful day, but the Jews on the wrong one. They think that the Jews Kept it on the wrong day, because of some tradi- tion they had adopted, or because their time, on the lawful night, was entirely occupied with taking Christ prisoner, and preparing for His trifd. This last view is that of Chrysostom and Eusebius.
2. Fearce says, that " in the days of Jesus, the number of Jews assembled to eat the passover was exceedingly great, and that from necessity they took the liberty of eating the passover on any hour before the second evening, or fifteenth day."
I offer no opinion on the difficulty beyond the two following remarks.
For one thing, I think it noteworthy that at the original ap- pointment of the passover, the command is distinct to kill the lamb in the evening, but not equally distinct to eat it im- mediately. On the contrary, it is only said " they shall eat the flesh in that night." (Exodus xii. 8.) May it not therefore be possible, that when the chief priests would not go into the
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jndgment hall at the " early hour,** mentioned by St John, they seized the opportanity to eat the passover, before the day broke, and 80 kept within the letter of the law? — Ouf Lord woiild then, in that case, have eaten the passover at the beginning of the night, and his enemies at the end of it
For another thing, I venture to suggest, that in the passover, as well as in other things, it is highly probable that great irregularities had crept in among the Jews, and that the letter of the law was not strictly observed, but infringed in many things, on the authority of rabbinical traditions. That our Lord kept the passover at the right day and hour, I feel no doubt I see much force in the Greek word, " when the passover must be killed." But that His enemies may have been less strict in their time of keeping it, I think highly probable.
10. — [There shall a man meet you, de."] There is difference of opinion among commentators about this man. Some think that he was a friend and disciple of our Lord, and that He knew well what Peter and John meant, when they spoke of the ** Master.'* Others think that He was an entire stranger, and that the ease with which He received the disciples and made all the arrange- ments, may be accounted for by the fact, that the inhabitants of Jerusalem were accustomed to receive strange Jews, and accomodate them at the time of the passover feast The latter view seems perhaps the more probable of the two.
Here, as in other places, we ought to note our Lord's perfect knowledge. He mentions a number of circumstances in this and the following verses, with as much minuteness and precision as if the whole transaction had been previously arranged. And yet the disciples found things exactly as He had said to them.
[Bearing a pitcher of water.'] Some writers see much signi- ficance in this pitcher of water, and remind us of the many occasions where mercies are described in Scripture as having be- fallen some in connexion with water, and hint that there is here an allusion to the water of baptism introducing us to the Lord's Supper! I cannot see anything in the circumstance beyond a simple fact designating the man and marking him out to the disciples. '
13. — [They made ready the passover.] We may suppose that the following things were required, in order to make ready, — the lamb, the wine, the bitter herbs and the unleavened bread. These things being procured and placed in order, the upper room was ready.