John 13:1

ἦλθεν for ἐλήλυθεν (from John 12:23).

1. His love in Humiliation (John 13:1-30); 2. His Love in keeping His own (John 13:30 to John 15:27); 3. the Promise of the Paraclete and of Christ’s Return (16): 4. Christ’s Prayer for Himself, the Apostles, and all Believers (17).

1. πρὸ δὲ τ. ἑορτῆς τ. π. Can this mean, Now on the Feast before the Passover (comp. John 12:1)? Nowhere else does S. John use the periphrasis ‘the Feast of the Passover,’ which occurs in N.T. only Luke 2:41. The words give a date, not to εἰδώς, nor ἀγαπήσας, nor ἠγάπησεν, but to the narrative which follows. Some evening before the Passover Jesus was at supper with His disciples; and probably Thursday, the beginning of Nisan 14. But the difficult question of the Day of the Crucifixion is discussed in Appendix A.

εἰδώς. Knowing, i.e. ‘because He knew’ rather than ‘although He knew.’ It was precisely because He knew that He would soon return to glory that He gave this last token of self-humiliating love. For ἡ ὤρα see on John 2:4; John 7:6; John 11:9. Till His hour came His enemies could do no more than plot (John 7:30; John 8:20). The ἵνα points to the Divine purpose (John 12:23; John 16:2; John 16:32; John 11:50). Winer, p. 426. With μεταβῇ ἐκ τ. κ. τ., pass over out of this world, comp. μεταβέβηκεν ἐκ τ. θανάτου (John 5:24; 1 John 3:14). For ἀγαπᾶν see on John 11:5; John 21:15.

τοὺς ἰδίους. Those whom God had given Him (John 17:11; John 6:37; John 6:39; Acts 4:23; Acts 24:23), still amid the troubles of the world.

εἰς τέλος. Vulg. in finem. ‘To the end of His life’ is probably not the meaning: this would rather be μέχρι τέλους (Hebrews 3:6; Hebrews 3:14), or ἄχρι τέλους (Hebrews 6:11; Revelation 2:26), or ἕως τέλους (1 Corinthians 1:8; 2 Corinthians 1:13). A.V. renders εἰς τέλος ‘unto the end,’ here, Matthew 10:22; Matthew 24:13; ‘continual,’ Luke 18:5; ‘to the uttermost,’ 1 Thessalonians 2:16. In all these passages εἰς τέλος may mean either ‘at last, finally,’ or ‘to the uttermost, utterly.’ To the uttermost seems preferable here. Comp. LXX. of Amos 9:8; Psalms 16:11; Psalms 49:10; Psalms 74:3. The expression points to an even higher power of love exhibited in the Passion than that which the Christ had all along displayed.