‘They began to be sorrowful and to say to him one by one, “Is it I?” '

It is clear from this that they took His words as an overstatement. Each was conscious that he had failed Jesus in the past and would do so again. They probably felt that He was simply saying that in some way they would bring Him into disrepute, and it grieved them to think of it. Yet each asked it in a way (in the Greek) that expected Jesus to say ‘no'. Their words meant ‘surely it is not I?' Apart from the one they were good hearted men, even if weak and failing.

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