John 13:4

He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(4) He riseth from supper, and laid aside’ his garments.—Comp. Notes on Luke 22 et seq. We there read of “a strife among them which of them should be accounted the greatest.” It is placed by St. Luke after the Supper; but our Lord’s words, “I am among you as he that serveth,” point almost certainly to a connection with this parabolic act. There had been, we may well think, some self-assertion in acts or omissions, which He by His act rebukes. They may have claimed, each above his brother, the place of honour at the table, or it may be that no one had offered the customary refreshment of water for the feet, before sitting down to meat (Luke 7:44). “We cannot say what was the immediate cause which suggested His act, but if we attempt to realise the whole scene, we must believe that there was in the disciples themselves some such cause. The garment laid aside would be the outer garment, which would impede His action, leaving the tunic, which was the ordinary dress of a servant.

And took a towel, and girded himself.—This was itself a mark of the servant’s position, and was meant to signify His assumption of the servant’s work. The successive minute details of this picture carry with them their own authenticity.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

13:1-17 Our Lord Jesus has a people in the world that are his own; he has purchased them, and paid dear for them, and he has set them apart for himself; they devote themselves to him as a peculiar people. Those whom Christ loves, he loves to the end. Nothing can separate a true believer from the love of Christ. We know not when our hour will come, therefore what we have to do in constant preparation for it, ought never to be undone. What way of access the devil has to men's hearts we cannot tell. But some sins are so exceedingly sinful, and there is so little temptation to them from the world and the flesh, that it is plain they are directly from Satan. Jesus washed his disciples' feet, that he might teach us to think nothing below us, wherein we may promote God's glory, and the good of our brethren. We must address ourselves to duty, and must lay aside every thing that would hinder us in what we have to do. Christ washed his disciples' feet, that he might signify to them the value of spiritual washing, and the cleansing of the soul from the pollutions of sin. Our Lord Jesus does many things of which even his own disciples do not for the present know the meaning, but they shall know afterward. We see in the end what was the kindness from events which seemed most cross. And it is not humility, but unbelief, to put away the offers of the gospel, as if too rich to be made to us, or too good news to be true. All those, and those only, who are spiritually washed by Christ, have a part in Christ. All whom Christ owns and saves, he justifies and sanctifies. Peter more than submits; he begs to be washed by Christ. How earnest he is for the purifying grace of the Lord Jesus, and the full effect of it, even upon his hands and head! Those who truly desire to be sanctified, desire to be sanctified throughout, to have the whole man, with all its parts and powers, made pure. The true believer is thus washed when he receives Christ for his salvation. See then what ought to be the daily care of those who through grace are in a justified state, and that is, to wash their feet; to cleanse themselves from daily guilt, and to watch against everything defiling. This should make us the more cautious. From yesterday's pardon, we should be strengthened against this day's temptation. And when hypocrites are discovered, it should be no surprise or cause of stumbling to us. Observe the lesson Christ here taught. Duties are mutual; we must both accept help from our brethren, and afford help to our brethren. When we see our Master serving, we cannot but see how ill it becomes us to domineer. And the same love which led Christ to ransom and reconcile his disciples when enemies, still influences him.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

He riseth from supper - Evidently while they were eating. See John 13:2.

Laid aside his garments - His outer garment. See the notes at Matthew 5:40. This was his mantle or robe, which is said to have been without seam. It was customary to lay this aside when they worked or ran, or in the heat of summer.

Took a towel and girded himself - This was the manner of a servant or slave. See the notes at Luke 17:8.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

4, 5. He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments—outer garments which would have impeded the operation of washing.

and took a towel and girded himself—assuming a servant's dress.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

He riseth from supper. What supper? Is the question. We are told, that the Jews had two suppers upon the paschal night, which was the 14th day of the month Nisan. The first was the passover supper, which was a religious rite in obedience to the law. The second, a common supper (as on other nights); to which our Saviour added a third, which was the Lord’s supper. To me it seemeth rather that their common supper was first, then the passover supper; and that Christ arose from this common supper to do this act. Augustine understood it of the common supper; so doth Beza, Heinsius, Tarnovius, and others; which seemeth to me most probable, though others understand it of the passover supper. Whatever supper the evangelist meaneth, Christ rose up from it before it was done. Calvin, Pareus, Beza, Petargus, Tossanus, and divers others amongst the protestant interpreters; Tolet, Maldonate, and Jansenius, amongst the papists; do agree a common supper this night, besides the paschal supper, and the Lord’s supper: from which it is most probable that Christ, as is here said, rose up, and laid aside his garment; that is, his outward loose garment, (for such they used), which servants were wont to gird up when they waited at table, Luke 17:8: Christ laid one aside, and girdling up the other, takes a towel.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

He riseth from supper,.... In the midst of the entertainment, and which no doubt was considerable, his mind being intent on something else; and it being his meat and drink to do his Father's will, he rises and leaves his disciples sitting to finish their meal; and whilst they were murmuring at the waste of the ointment poured on his head, and were filled with indignation at it, as they all of them were, see Matthew 26:8; he rises up to wash their feet; amazing patience and humility!

And laid aside his garments; not all his garments, only his upper ones, that he might better dispatch the business he was going about; and which was an emblem of his laying aside, as it were for a while, his glory and dignity as the Son of God, and of his appearing in the form of a servant.

And took a towel; or "linen cloth", the same with in the Jerusalem Talmud (r):

and girded himself; with the towel, or linen cloth, which served both for a girdle, and after he had washed his disciples' feet, to wipe them with. This was a servile habit; so servants used to stand at the feet of their masters, girt about with a linen cloth (s); and shows, that the son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister.

(r) Sabbat, fol. 3. 1. & 12. 1.((s) Suetonius in Caligula, c. 26.

Geneva Study Bible

He {c} riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself.

(c) In that he is said to rise, it argues that there was a space of time between the ceremony of the passover and this washing of feet, at which time it seems that the Lord's supper was instituted.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Expositor's Greek Testament

John 13:4. This person, and in this mood and in these circumstances, on the brink of His own passion, is free to attend to the wants of unworthy men, and ἐγείρεται … διεζωσμένος. “He rises,” having reclined at the table in expectation that one or other of the disciples would do the feet-washing.—καὶ τίθησι τὰ ἱμάτια, “and lays aside His garments,” i.e., His Tallith, appearing in His χιτών, similar to our “in His shirt sleeves”. τίθημι is similarly used in τίθημι τὴν ψυχήν, John 10:11, etc. [See also Kypke on Luke 19:21.]—καὶ λαβὼν λέντιον διέζωσεν ἑαυτόν, “and having taken a linteum,” a towel or long linen cloth, “He girt Himself,” tying the towel round Him. Cf. ἐγκομβώσασθε, 1 Peter 5:5. The middle διεζώσατο is used in John 21:7; the expression here more emphatically indicates that He was the sole Agent. The condescension is understood in the light of what Suetonius tells of Caligula (Cal. 26), that he was fond of making some of the senators wait at his table “succinctos linteo,” that is, in the guise of waiters.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

4. He riseth from supper, &c.] Or, from the supper: the article perhaps marks the supper as no ordinary one. “This is the realism of history indeed.… The carefulness with which here, as in the account of the cleansing of the temple, the successive stages in the action are described, proclaim the eye-witness.” S. p. 216. One is unwilling to surrender the view that this symbolical act was intended among other purposes to be a tacit rebuke to the disciples for the ‘strife among them, which of them should be accounted the greatest’ (Luke 22:24); and certainly ‘I am among you as he that serveth’ (John 13:27) seems to point directly to this act. This view seems all the more probable when we remember that a similar dispute was rebuked in a similar way, viz. by symbolical action (Luke 9:46-48). The dispute may have arisen about their places at the table. That S. Luke places the strife after the supper is not fatal to this view; he gives no note of time, and the strife is singularly out of place there, immediately after their Master’s self-humiliation and in the midst of the last farewells. We may therefore believe, in spite of S. Luke’s arrangement, that the strife preceded the supper. “One thing is clear, that S. John, if he had read S. Luke’s Gospel at this point, has not copied or followed it. He proceeds with the same peculiar independence which we have noticed in him all through.” S. p. 215.

his garments] Or, His upper garments, which would impede His movements.

Bengel's Gnomen

John 13:4. Ἐγείρεται, He riseth) Jesus always connected with the remembrance of His entering on His glory specimens of His humility.—τὰ ἱμάτια, His garments) Those which would be an encumbrance to Him in the act of washing.

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 4, 5 - Commentators differ as to the motive which induced our Lord to perform this menial act, to adopt the gesture, girding, and duties of the δοῦλος, to divest himself of his ἱμάτια or upper garments, and to appear and veritably to act as a slave. Strauss regards it as a mythical representation of one of our Lord's discourses on humility. Lange, with much pertinence, believes it to correspond to the pain, which he manifested, at the very last Supper, with the unseemly contest for pre-eminence among the apostles (cf. Luke 22:27, "Whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? I am among you as he that serveth"). Others, like Meyer, see no such reference, and require the presence of no such motive. It is remarkable that at such a season this dispute could have arisen at all. I-laving undoubtedly broken out on more than one occasion, our Lord chose the midst of this feast, when we learn from other sources there was such an outbreak, for this emphatic revelation of the royalty of service. Wunsche ('Erl.,' p. 550) says that both "before" and "alter" the Passover festival it was customary, in order to demonstrate the equality and liberty of the guests, to practice mutual interchanges of the ordinary menial service of hand-washing ('Pesachin,' fol. 108). In this verse every sentence is a distinct picture. He riseth from the supper, and layeth down his upper garments, and when he had taken a towel, he girded himself (Edersheim and Wunsche both give proof that the Talmud repeatedly Grecizes the word here rendered "towel," λέντιον, "linen cloth," by the word lentith or alen-tith) after the fashion of the humblest slave; then he poureth water into the washing-basin (νιπτῆρα), the article of furniture in the room ("Nihil ministerii omittit," says Grotius. Thus he discharges every part of the duty, while the disciples wonder at the new revelation). And he began to wash the feet of the disciples, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded. Westcott refers to the rabbinic commentators on Ezekiel 16:9, "Among men, the slave washes his master, but with God it is not so." So then the inversion of all human social relations forced on John's mind the deep truth that we are here face to face with the Divine - with the Divine-human. John here strains his words to give some conception of what passed in his own mind when he saw our Lord's face, and witnessed this great revelation of his character. Though this evangelist did not record the "Transfiguration," there were moments in Christ's history which produced a still pro-founder impression upon him, and in which he veritably saw the glory of the Only Begotten of God in his Master's form. On this occasion the highest conception of his Divine Personality, origin, and destiny, was blended with the deepest descent of the Lord's entire humanity to the level of weakness, pollution, and sin. The greatest manifestation of God was in the revelation of the exceeding limits, the infinite depth, which love could compass. We may see a little farther on what were the special steps our Lord took to give this sense of love "to the uttermost" on the part of him to whom all the universe had been entrusted, who had come from, and was going back to, the Father. John 13:4

Vincent's Word Studies

From the supper (ἐκ τοῦ δείπνου)

Out of the group gathered at the table.

Laid aside (τίθησι)

Present tense: layeth aside.

Garments (ἱμάτια)

See on Matthew 5:40. Upper garments.

Towel (λέντιον)

A Latin word, linteum. A linen cloth. Only here and John 13:5.

Girded (διέζωσεν)

Only in this chapter and John 21:7. The compound verb means to bind or gird all round.