bear a tvorld's sins, in my own "body on the tree ; and painful as it is to say, the first step in the history of my passion shall be my betrayal by one of yourselves."
Let us note our Lord's thorough foreknowledge of all the de- tails of His sufferings, as well as of the great fact that He was about to be killed.
22. — [The7i the disciples looked... another. 1 The first effect of our Lord's declaration seems to have been silence. Like men stunned and amazed, the disciples looked at one another in as- tonishment. The thing announced was the last thing they ex- pected to hear.
[Doubting of whom he spake.} The word " doubting " hardly conveys the full force of the Greek here. It is rather, as 2 Cor. iv. 8, " perplexed," "puzzled."
Let us note that neither here nor afterwards does any sus- picion appear to have fallen on Judas. For anything we can see he looked as good as Peter, James, and John, and as un- likely to betray his Master. The length to which hypocrisy can go is very awful.
23. — [Wow... leaning... Jesus' bosom.] To understand this we must remember the customs of the East, in the time of our Lord, about the position and attitude of the guests at a meal. They did not sit, but reclined. The famous picture of the Last Sup- per, by Leonardo Da Vinci, gives a totally inaccurate idea of the scene.
[One.. .disciples. ..Jesus loved.] There can be no doubt this was John, the writer of this Gospel. It is the first time he speaks of himself in this way, and the expression occurs afterwards four times, xix. 26, xx. 7, xx. 20.
The Greek word rendered " loved " deserves notice. It signi fies the higher, nobler, and more refined kind of love. There are two words in the Greek language translated " love " in the New Testament.
Let it be noted that the general special love with which our Lord loved all His disciples did not prevent His having a par- ticular love for one individual. Why He specially loved John we are not told. Gifts certainly do not appear so much in John as grace. But it is worth noticing that love seems more the characteristic of John than of any disciple, and that in this he showed more of the mind of C'hrist. It is quite clear that special friendship for one individual is quite consistent with love for all.
It is noteworthy that of all the writers of the New Testa- ment, none goes so deep and reveals so much of the hidden things of God as he who lay in the bosom of Christ.
24. — [Simon Peter therefore beckoned, etc.] The characteristic foR