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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - John 13:1 - 13:1
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Before the Feast of the Passover
This clause is to be construed with ἠγάπησεν, loved, at the close of this verse. Notice that John, in mentioning the Passover, here drops the explanatory phrase of the Jews (Joh 11:55). It is not the Passover of the Jews which Jesus is about to celebrate, which had degenerated into an empty form, but the national ordinance, according to its true spirit, and with a development of its higher meaning.
Knowing (εἰδὼς)
Or, since he knew.
His hour
See on Joh 12:23, and compare Joh 2:4.
That (ἵνα)
In order that; marking the departure as a divine decree.
Depart (μεταβῇ)
The compounded preposition μετά, signifies passing over from one sphere into another.
His own (τοὺς ἰδίους)
See on Act 1:7. Compare Joh 17:6 sqq.; Act 4:23; Act 24:23; 1Ti 5:8; Joh 1:11.
He loved (ἠγάπησεν)
Notice that John uses the word indicating the discriminating affection: the love of choice and selection. See on Joh 5:20.
Unto the end (εἰς τέλος)
Interpretations differ. The rendering of the A.V. and Rev. is of doubtful authority. The passages cited in support of this, Mat 10:22; Mat 24:13; Mar 13:13, may all be rendered to the uttermost. Morever, other formulas are used where the meaning to the end is unquestionable. In Rev 2:26, the only other instance in John's writings where τέλος is used in an adverbial phrase the expression is ἄχρι τέλους, unto the end. Similarly Heb 6:11. In Heb 3:6, Heb 3:14, μέχρι τὲλους, unto the end. The phrase may mean at last, and so is rendered by many here, as Meyer, Lange, Thayer (Lex.). “At last He loved them;” that is, showed them the last proof of His love. This is the most probable rendering in Luk 18:5, on which see note. It may also mean to the uttermost, completely. So Westcott and Godet. But I am inclined, with Meyer, to shrink from the “inappropriate gradation” which is thus implied, as though Jesus' love now reached a higher degree than before (ἀγαπήσας). Hence I prefer the rendering at last, or finally He loved them, taking ἠγάπησεν, loved, in the sense of the manifestation of His love. This sense frequently attaches to the verb. See, for instance, 1Jo 4:10 (“love viewed in its historic manifestation” Westcott), and compare Joh 3:16; Eph 2:4; Eph 5:2, Eph 5:25; 2Th 2:16; Rev 3:9.