of honor, and John, being in front of Him, could readily lean back and speak to Him. Peter would be behind him.
Bosom. See on Luke vi. 38. The Synoptists do not give this incident.
24. Beckoneth (vever). Lit., noddeth.
That he should ask who it should be (ruSécSar tis av ein). The best texts read, nat réyer auto eimé tis eat, and saith unto him, Tell us who tt is.
25. Lying (érurecav). This word is, literally, zo fall upon, and is so rendered in almost every instance in the New Testa- ment. In Mark iii. 10, it is applied to the multitudes pressing upon Christ. It occurs, however, nowhere else in John, and therefore some of the best authorities read dvarreowy, leaning back, a verb which John uses several times in the Gospel, as in ver. 12.* So Rev. Whichever of the two is read, it points out the distinction, which the A. V. misses by the translation lying, between #v dvaxelpevos (ver. 23), which describes the reclining position of John throughout the meal, and the sudden change of posture pictured by avarrecoy, leaning back. The distinction is enforced by the different preposition in each case: reclining in (év) Jesus’ bosom, and leaning back (avd). Again, the words bosom and breast represent different words in the Greek; xédrros representing more generally the bend formed by the front part of the reclining person, the lap, and orjdJos the breast proper. The verb dvamlmrw, to lean back, always in the New Testament describes a change of position. It is used of a rower bending back for a fresh stroke. Plato, in the well- known passage of the “ Phsedrus,” in which the soul is de- scribed under the figure of two horses and a charioteer, says that when the charioteer beholds the vision of love he is afraid, and falls backward (avérecer), 80 that he brings the steeds upon their haunches.
* Godet’s affection for the ‘treceived reading” carries him rather beyond bounds, when it leads him to say that avameowy ‘seems absurd.”