most, and cries most frequently, " Hold Thou me up, and I shall be safe." (Psalm cxix. 117 ; Prov. xxviii. 14.)
Notes. John xiii. 21—30.
21. — [When Jesus had thus said. 1 This would be more literally- rendered, " had said these things," referring to all He had just been saying.
There seems to be a kind of break or pause in the narrative here. This is the point in St. John's narrative where the in- stitution of the Lord's Supper seems to come in. At any rate there seems no point, comparing his account of this evening with that of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, where it can be so well fitted in. This is the view of Jansenius, Lampe, and Burgon.
[He was troubled in spirit.'] This expression applied to our Lord is peculiar to St. John. We find it only in his Gospel, here and at xi. 33 and xii. 27. Here it seems to mean principally the pain and sorrow which our Lord experienced, on seeing one of his own chosen Apostles about to betray him. In addition to this, it probably includes that peculiar agony and distress of soul which our Lord was subject to under the presence of a world's sin laid upon Him, and which we see intensified in tho garden of Gethsemane.
Let it be noted, that of all the Gospel writers John is the one who dwells most fully on the Divine nature of our Lord, and also is the one who describes most fully the reality of His hu- man affections.
Observe that to be troubled and disturbed in mind is not in itself sinful. Brentius remarks, after Augustine, how foolish were the Stoic philosophers, who taught that a wise man is never disturbed in mind.
Musculus thinks that our Lord's distress and sorrow at the sight of the wickedness of Judas had much to do with this " trouble of spirit." Nothing so sad as the sight of a hardened, incorrigible backslider.
[And testified, and said.] The frequency with which John used the word " testified " is very remarkable. It occurs thirty- three times in his Gospel, and only three times in all the other three Gospels. Why our Lord is said to " testify " in this place is hard to see. We must suppose that it means He made an open, solemn declaration in a very impressive manner, like a witness bearing testimony to some great and unexpected fact.
[ Verily...! say. ..one of you...hetray me.] The solemn " Amen, amen," here, as elsewhere, was calculated to arrest the atten- tion of the disciples to the declaration our Lord was going to make. " One out of you {i. e., out of your number) shall betray Me. My last and crowning trial draws near. 1 am about to