John 13:2 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

And supper being ended Or, as δειπνου γενομενου should rather be translated, supper, or supper-time, being come, or, while they were at supper, as Dr. Campbell renders it. Thus, John 21:4, πρωιας γενομενης, when morning was come. Acts 12:18; Acts 16:35, ημερας γενομενης, when day was come; and Acts 21:40, σιγης λενομενης, when silence was made: in all which places, and in many more, which might easily be collected from the Greek writers, it would be absurd to translate the word, ended. “When γενομενης,” says Dr. Campbell, “is joined with πρωιας, οψιας, ημερας, or with any term denoting a precise portion of time, it invariably signifies that the period denoted by the noun is begun, not ended.” Of this he produces several incontrovertible examples. “That this was the passover-supper, may be proved by four arguments: 1st, In John's history of this supper we are told, when Jesus had washed the disciples' feet he sat down again at table, and explained the meaning of the action, John 13:12; and then declared that one of them should betray him, John 13:18-21. This occasioned the beloved disciple first, and after him the other disciples, to inquire which of them should do the horrid deed, John 13:23. But, by the consent of all the evangelists, that declaration and inquiry were first made while they were eating the last passover. 2d, At this supper, mentioned by John, Jesus declared that Peter should deny him, John 13:38; and the words of his declaration are not, The cock shall not crow the next, the third, or the fourth day, but, The cock shall not crow till thou hast denied me thrice: therefore the declaration must have been made on the night of the denial; and consequently the supper, at which it was made, must have been the paschal-supper, for all the evangelists agree that Peter denied his Master the night in which that supper was celebrated. 3d, The connection in which John's supper stands with the subsequent facts mentioned by him shows plainly that it was the paschal-supper. For the discourse, (John 14,) being intended to give the disciples consolation, was delivered by Christ immediately after he had foretold Peter's denial, and the cowardice of the rest. Having ended that discourse, Jesus went out of the house, (John 14:31,) and delivered the allegorical sermon, (John 15.,) which, from the subject of it, seems to have been preached in a place where there were many vines growing, probably on the mount of Olives, whither, as the other evangelists inform us, he retired after the paschal-supper. Immediately after the allegorical sermon, he spake that which is contained in the 16th and 17th Chapter s, and then went with his disciples over the brook Cedron, into the garden of Gethsemane, where he was apprehended. From this series of facts it appears, that the supper was the paschal-supper, because, between it and Jesus's crucifixion, there is not the least chasm in John's history, where the passover can be brought in. 4th, We are told, (chap. John 13:27-30,) that after Jesus had ordered Judas to do quickly what he was about to do, he went out; upon which Jesus mentioned the near prospect he had of being glorified, to intimate that he knew Judas was gone out to betray him. From this time forth there is nothing said of Judas by John till he appeared with the armed band. Nevertheless, by the accounts of the other evangelists, Judas was present at the institution of the sacrament of the supper, after the passover. Wherefore the passover being celebrated before Judas went out, the supper mentioned by John must have been that solemnity.” Macknight. The devil having now put it into the heart of Judas to betray him By this version the English reader would be led to apprehend, that it was at this paschal-supper that the devil first tempted Judas to betray Christ: but the original expression may be properly rendered, the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas, &c., for the participle βεβληκοτος is of the perfect tense, and denotes an action done at some time past, and the particle ηδη, rendered now, often signifies already, or before: so that what Christ says here concerning Judas, may refer to what had passed between him and the chief priests, after the reproof given him in the supper at Bethany. And therefore when John says afterward, (John 13:27,) that after the sop was given him, Satan entered into Judas, the meaning must be, that he was then again incited by the devil to execute the treachery which he had before resolved upon, by a like instigation of the same evil spirit.