---
title: "Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 2: Lamentations to Revelation"
author: "Adam Clarke"
languages: [en]
shelf: "Commentaries"
section: 356 of 769
url: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/356/
cite: "Adam Clarke, Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 2: Lamentations to Revelation, section 356. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/356/"
---

# Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 2: Lamentations to Revelation

*Adam Clarke*

Clarke's learned notes on the Hebrew and Greek, verse by verse, from Genesis to Revelation: volume 2 of 2.

## 356. John · 39 of 57

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/356/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/356/#p-N

[¶0] I know whom I have chosen - I am not deceived in my choice; I perfectly foresaw every thing that has happened, or can happen. I have chosen Judas, not as a wicked man, nor that he should become such; but I plainly foresaw that he would abuse my bounty, give way to iniquity, deliver me into the hands of my enemies, and bring ruin upon himself.

[¶1] That the scripture may be fulfilled - Or, thus the scripture is fulfilled. Christ applies to Judas what David had said of his rebellious son Absalom, [Psa 41:9], who was one of the most express emblems of this traitor. See on [Joh 12:38], [Joh 12:39] (note).

[¶2] He that eateth bread with me - That is, he who was in habits of the utmost intimacy with me.

[¶3] Hath lifted up his heel - An allusion to a restive, ill-natured horse, that sometimes kicks even the person who feeds and takes care of him.

### Verse 19

[¶5] That - ye may believe - These frequent predictions of his death, so circumstantial in themselves, had the most direct tendency to confirm the disciples, not only in the belief of his being the Messiah, but also in that of his omniscience.

### Verse 20

[¶7] He that received whomsoever I send - See similar words, [Mat 10:40], etc. Our Lord spoke this to comfort his disciples: he showed them that, although they should be rejected by many, they would be received by several; and that whoever received them should reap the utmost benefit by it.

### Verse 21

[¶9] Was troubled in spirit - See the note on [Joh 11:33].

[¶10] And testified - Spoke with great earnestness.

[¶11] Shall betray me - Παραδωσει με, Will deliver me up. Judas had already betrayed our blessed Lord, and he was now on the point of delivering him up into the hands of the chief priests. By all these warnings, did not our Lord intend that Judas should be benefited? - that he should repent of his iniquity, and turn and find mercy?

### Verse 22

[¶13] Looked one on another doubting of whom he spake - See the notes on [Mat 26:20-25] (note). Every one but Judas, conscious of his own innocence, looked about upon all the rest, wondering who in that company could be such a traitor! Even Judas himself is not suspected. Is not this a proof that his general conduct had been such as to subject him to no suspicion?

### Verse 23

[¶15] Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom - The Jews of those days, at their suppers, reclined, supported by their left arm, on couches placed round the table, as the Greeks and Romans did. On each couch there were two or three persons; and the head of one of them came near to the bosom of him who reclined above him on the same couch. The person here mentioned was John, the writer of this history, who, being more tenderly loved by Christ than the rest, had always that place at table which was nearest to his Lord.

### Verse 25

[¶17] He then lying on Jesus' breast - Επιπεσων, laying his head against the breast of Christ, in a loving, respectful manner. As the expressions in the text are different here from those in the preceding verse, it shows that John altered his position at table, in order to ask the question which Peter suggested, which he probably did by whispering to our Lord; for, from [Joh 13:28], we may learn that the other disciples had not heard what John said; and it is likely that the following words - It is he to whom I shall give the morsel when I have dipped it, were whispered back by Christ to John.

### Verse 26

[¶19] And when he had dipped the sop - Dr. Lightfoot observes that it was no unusual thing to dip a sop and give it to any person; and it is probable that the rest of the disciples considered it as given to Judas that he might hurry to do some work on which he wished to employ him, and not wait to finish his supper in a regular manner. They did not hear the question that John asked, nor our Lord's answer; but they no doubt heard the words, That thou doest do quickly - and might understand them as above.

### Verse 27

[¶21] Satan entered into him - He had entered into him before, and now he enters again, to strengthen him in his purpose of delivering up his Master. But the morsel was not the cause of this entering in; the giving of it only marks the time in which the devil confirmed Judas in his traitorous purpose. Some have thought that this morsel was the sacrament of the Lord's Supper: but this is an utter mistake.

[¶22] That thou doest, do quickly - As if he had said: "Thou art past all counsel; thou hast filled up the measure of thy iniquity, and hast wholly abandoned thyself to Satan; I will not force thee to turn from thy purpose, and without this thou wilt not. Thy designs are all known to me; what thou art determined to do, and I to permit, do directly; delay not, I am ready."

### Verse 29

[¶24] Buy those things that we have need of against the feast - Calmet's observation here has weight so it. "The disciples who thought that our Lord had said this to Judas, knew well that on the day of the passover there was neither buying nor selling in Jerusalem. This, therefore, did not happen on the paschal evening; for the feast, according to the common opinion, must have begun the preceding evening, and Jesus have eaten the passover with his disciples the night before his death; but it appears to me, by the whole text of St. John, that the passover did not begin till the time in which our Lord expired upon the cross. It was then that they were sacrificing the paschal lambs in the temple. It is therefore probable that the apostles believed that Judas went to purchase a lamb, and the other necessary things for the evening, and for the day of the Passover." On this subject the reader is requested to consult the observations at the end of Matthew 26, where the subject is considered at large.

[¶25] Give something to the poor - It is well known that our Lord and his disciples lived on public charity; and yet they gave alms out of what they had thus received. From this we learn that even those who live on charity themselves are expected to divide a little with those who are in deeper distress and want.

### Verse 30

[¶27] He - went immediately out: and it was night - He set off to Jerusalem from Bethany, which was about two miles distant; and, under the conduct of the prince of darkness, and in the time of darkness, he did this work of darkness.

### Verse 31

[¶29] Now is the Son of man glorified - Νυν εδοξασθη, Hath been glorified. Now it fully appears that I am the person appointed to redeem a lost world by my blood. I have already been glorified by this appointment, and am about to be farther glorified by my death, resurrection, and ascension.

### Verse 32

[¶31] And shall straightway glorify him - Or, glorify him, ευθυς, immediately; "he did, not only in the miracles wrought at his death, but also in that remarkable case mentioned, [Joh 18:6], when the whole crowd that came to seize him were driven back with a word of his mouth, and fell to the ground.

### Verse 33

[¶33] Little children - Or, rather, beloved children. Τεκνια, a word frequently used by this apostle in his epistles. It is an expression which implies great tenderness and affection, and such as a fond mother uses to her most beloved babes. Now that Judas was gone out, he could use this epithet without any restriction of meaning.

[¶34] Yet a little while - The end of my life is at hand; Judas is gone to consummate his treason; I have but a few hours to be with you, and you shall be by and by scattered.

[¶35] Ye shall seek me - For a few days ye shall feel great distress because of my absence.

[¶36] Whither I go, ye cannot come - Your time is not up. The Jews shall die in their sins, martyrs to their infidelity; but ye shall die in the truth, martyrs for your Lord.

### Verse 34

[¶38] A new commandment I give unto you - In what sense are we to understand that this was a new commandment? Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, was a positive precept of the law, [Lev 19:18], and it is the very same that Christ repeats here; how then was it new? Our Lord answers this question, Even As I have loved you. Now Christ more than fulfilled the Mosaic precept; he not only loved his neighbor As himself, but he loved him More than himself, for he laid down his life for men. In this he calls upon the disciples to imitate him; to be ready on all occasions to lay down their lives for each other. This was, strictly, a new commandment: no system of morality ever prescribed any thing so pure and disinterested as this. Our blessed Lord has outdone all the moral systems in the universe in two words:

[¶39] 1. Love your enemies;

[¶40] 2. Lay down your lives for each other.

### Verse 35

[¶42] By this shall all men know, etc. - From this time forward, this mutual and disinterested love shall become the essential and distinctive mark of all my disciples. When they love one another with pure hearts, fervently, even unto death, then shall it fully appear that they are disciples of that person who laid down his life for his sheep, and who became, by dying, a ransom for all.

[¶43] The disciples of different teachers were known by their habits, or some particular creed or rite, or point of austerity, which they had adopted; but the disciples of Christ were known by this love which they bore to each other. The primitive Christians were particularly known by this among the Gentiles. Tertullian, in his Apology, gives us their very words: Vide, inquiunt, ut se diligunt; et pro alterutro mori parati sunt. "See, said they, how they love one another, and are ready to lay down their lives for each other."