John 13:18

I speak not of you all There is one who knows these things, and does not do them, and is the very reverse of blessed.

I know whom I have chosen The first -I" is emphatic: - Iknow the character of the Twelve whom I chose; the treachery of one has been foretold; it is no surprise to Me." Comp. John 6:70.

but that This elliptical use of -but that" (-but this was done in order that") is frequent in S. John: John 1:8; John 9:3; John 14:31; John 15:25; 1 John 2:19. Here another way of filling up the ellipsis is possible; -But I chose them in order that."

may be fulfilled See on John 12:38. The quotation is taken, but with freedom, from the Hebrew of Psalms 41:9; for -lifted up his heel" both the Hebrew and the LXX. have -magnified his heel." (See on John 6:45.) The metaphor here is of one raising his foot before kicking, but the blow is not yet given. This was the attitude of Judas at this moment. It has been remarked that Christ omits the words -Mine own familiar friend whom I trusted:" He had not trusted Judas, and had not been deceived, as the Psalmist had been: -He knew what was in man" (John 2:25).

He that eateth bread with me Or, He that eateth the bread with Me. The more probable reading gives, My bread for -the bread with Me." The variations from the LXX. are remarkable. (1) The word for -eat" is changed from the common verb (ἐσθίω) used in Psalms 41:10 to the much less common verb (τρώγω) used of eating Christ's Flesh and the Bread from Heaven (John 6:54; John 6:56-58, where see notes), and nowhere else in the N.T., excepting Matthew 24:38. (2) -Bread" or -loaves" (ἄρτους) has been altered to - thebread" (τὸν ἄρτον). (3) -My" has possibly been strengthened to -with Me:" to eat bread with a man is more than to eat his bread, which a servant might do. These changes can scarcely be accidental, and seem to point to the fact that the treachery of Judas in violating the bond of hospitality, so universally held sacred in the East, was aggravated by his having partaken of the Eucharist. That Judas did partake of the Eucharist seems to follow from Luke 22:19-21, but the point is one about which there is much controversy.

S. John omits the institution of the Eucharist for the same reason that he omits so much, because it was so well known to every instructed Christian; and for such he writes.