Shortly after, in the same place and during the same meeting, Jesus speaking to them of his near departure, affectionately and sadly said, “Little children, but a little while longer am I with you. Ye shall seek me; and as I said to the Jews, ‘whither I go, ye cannot come,’——so now I say to you.” To this Simon Peter soon after replied by asking him, “Lord whither goest thou?” Jesus answered him, “Whither I go thou canst not follow me now, but thou shalt follow me afterwards.” Peter, perhaps beginning to perceive the mournful meaning of this declaration, replied, still urging, “Lord, why cannot I follow thee now? I will lay down my life for thy sake.” Jesus answered, “Wilt thou lay down thy life for my sake? I tell thee assuredly, the cock shall not crow till thou hast denied me thrice.”——Soon after, at the same time and place, noticing the confident assurance of this chief disciple, Jesus again warned him of his danger and his coming fall. “Simon! Simon! behold, Satan has desired to have you (all) that he may sift you as wheat; but I have prayed for thee (especially) that thy faith fail not; and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.” Never before had higher and more distinctive favor been conferred on this chief apostle, than by this sad prophecy of danger, weakness and sin, on which he was to fall, for a time, to his deep disgrace; but on him alone, when rescued from ruin by his Master’s peculiar prayers, was to rest the task of strengthening his brethren. But his Master’s kind warning was for the present lost on his immovable self-esteem; he repeated his former assurance of perfect devotion through every danger, “Lord, I am ready to go with thee into prison and to death.” Where was affectionate and heroic devotion ever more affectingly and determinedly expressed? What heart of common man would not have leaped to meet such love and fidelity? But He, with an eye still clear and piercing, in spite of the tears with which affection might dim it, saw through the veil that would have blinded the sharpest human judgment, and coldly met these protestations of burning zeal with the chilling prediction again uttered, “I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day, before thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me.” Then making a sudden transition, to hint to them the nature of the dangers which would soon try their souls, he suddenly reverted to their former security. “When I sent you forth without purse, or scrip, or shoes, did ye need any thing?” And they said “Nothing.” Then said he to them “But now, let him that has a purse, take it, and likewise his scrip; and let him that has no sword sell his cloak and buy one.” They had hitherto, in their wanderings, every where found friends to support and protect them; but now the world was at war with them, and they must look to their own resources both for supplying their wants and guarding their lives. His disciples readily apprehending some need of personal defense, at once bestirred themselves and mustered what arms they could on the spot, and told him that they had two swords among them, and of these it appears that one was in the hands of Peter. It was natural enough that among the disciples these few arms were found, for they were all Galileans, who, as Josephus tells us, were very pugnacious in their habits; and even the followers of Christ, notwithstanding their peaceful calling, had not entirely laid aside their former weapons of violence, which were the more needed by them, as the journey from Galilee to Jerusalem was made very dangerous by robbers, who lay in wait for the defenseless traveler wherever the nature of the ground favored such an attack. Of this character was that part of the road between Jerusalem and Jericho, alluded to in the parable of the wounded traveler and the good Samaritan,——a region so wild and rocky that it has always been dangerous, for the same reasons, even to this day; of which a sad instance occurred but a few years ago, in the case of an eminent English traveler, who going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, fell among thieves and was wounded near the same spot mentioned by Christ, in spite of the defenses with which he was provided. It was in reference to such dangers as these, that two of his disciples had provided themselves with hostile weapons, and Peter may have been instigated to carry his sword into such a peaceful feast, by the suspicion that the danger from the chief priests, to which Christ had often alluded, might more particularly threaten them while they were in the city by themselves, without the safeguard of their numerous friends in the multitude. The answer of Jesus to this report of their means of resistance was not in a tone to excite them to the very zealous use of them. He simply said, “It is enough,” a phrase which was meant to quiet them, by expressing his little regard for such a defense as they were able to offer to him, with this contemptible armament.
Some have conjectured that this washing of feet (page [97]) was a usual rite at the Paschal feast. So Scaliger, Beza, Baronius, Casaubon and other learned men have thought. (See Poole’s Synopsis, on John xiii. 5.) But Buxtorf has clearly shown the falsity of their reasons, and Lightfoot has also proved that it was a perfectly unusual thing, and that there is no passage in all the Rabbinical writings which refers to it as a custom. It is manifest indeed, to a common reader, that the whole peculiar force of this ablution, in this instance, consisted in its being an entirely unusual act; and all its beautiful aptness as an illustration of the meaning of Jesus,——that they should cease their ambitious strife for precedence,——is lost in making it anything else than a perfectly new and original ceremony, whose impressiveness mainly consisted in its singularity. Lightfoot also illustrates the design of Jesus still farther, by several interesting passages from the Talmudists, showing in what way the ablution would be regarded by his disciples, who like other Jews would look upon it as a most degraded action, never to be performed except by inferiors to superiors. These Talmudic authorities declare, that “Among the duties to be performed by the wife to her husband, this was one,——that she should wash his face, his hands and his feet.” (Maimonides on the duties of women.) The same office was due from a son to his father,——from a slave to his master, as his references show; but he says he can find no precept that a disciple should perform such a duty to his teacher, unless it be included in this, “The teacher should be more honored by his scholar than a father.”
He also shows that the feet were never washed separately, with any idea of legal purification,——though the Pharisees washed their hands separately with this view, and the priests washed their hands and feet both, as a form of purification, but never the feet alone. And he very justly remarks upon all this testimony, that “the farther this action of Christ recedes from common custom, the higher its fitness for their instruction,——being performed not merely for an example but for a precept.” (Lightfoot’s Horae Hebraica in Gospel of John xiii. 5.)
Laid aside his garments.——The simple dress of the races of western Asia, is always distinguishable into two parts or sets of garments,——an inner, which covered more or less of the body, fitting it tightly, but not reaching far over the legs or arms, and consisted either of a single cloth folded around the loins, or a tunic fastened with a girdle; sometimes also a covering for the thighs was subjoined, making something like the rudiment of a pair of breeches. (See Jahn Archaeologia Biblica § 120.) These were the permanent parts of the dress, and were always required to be kept on the body, by the common rules of decency. But the second division of the garments, (“superindumenta,” Jahn,) thrown loosely over the inner ones, might be laid aside, on any occasion, when active exertion required the most unconstrained motion of the limbs. One of these was a simple oblong, broad piece of cloth, of various dimensions, but generally about three yards long, and two broad, which was wrapped around the body like a mantle, the two upper corners being drawn over the shoulders in front, and the rest hanging down the back, and falling around the front of the body, without any fastenings but the folding of the upper corners. This garment was called by the Hebrews שמלה or שלמה, (simlah or salmah,) and sometimes בגד; (begedh;)——by the Greeks, ἱματιον. (himation.) Jahn Archaeologia Biblica. This is the garment which is always meant by this Greek word in the New Testament, when used in the singular number,——translated “cloak” in the common English version, as in the passage in the text above, where Jesus exhorts him that has no sword to sell his cloak and buy one. When this Greek word occurs in the plural, (ἱματια, himatia,) it is translated “garments,” and it is noticeable that in most cases where it occurs, the sense actually requires that it should be understood only of the outer dress, to which I have referred it. As in Matthew xxi. 8, where it is said that the people spread their garments in the way,——of course only their outer ones, which were loose and easily thrown off, without indecent exposure. So in Mark xi. 7, 8: Luke xix. 35. There is no need then, of supposing, as Origen does, that Jesus took off all his clothes, or was naked, in the modern sense of the term. A variety of other outer garments in common use both among the early and the later Jews, are described minutely by Jahn in his Archaeologia Biblica, § 122. I shall have occasion to describe some of these, in illustration of other passages.
My exegesis on the passage “He that is washed, needs not,” &c. may strike some as rather bold in its illustration, yet if great authorities are necessary to support the view I have taken, I can refer at once to a legion of commentators, both ancient and modern, who all offer the same general explanation, though not exactly the same illustration. Poole’s Synopsis is rich in references to such. Among these, Vatablus remarks on the need of washing the feet of one already washed, “scil. viae causa.” Medonachus says of the feet, “quos calcata terra iterum inquinat.” Hammond says, “he that hath been initiated, and entered into Christ, &c. is whole clean, and hath no need to be so washed again, all over. All that is needful to him is the daily ministering of the word and grace of Christ, to cleanse and wash off the frailties, and imperfections, and lapses of our weak nature, those feet of the soul.” Grotius says, “Hoc tantum opus ei est, ut ab iis se purget quae ex occasione nascuntur. Similitudo sumpta ab his qui a balneo nudis pedibus abeunt.” Besides these and many others largely quoted by Poole, Lampius also (in commentary in Gospel of John) goes very fully into the same view, and quotes many others in illustration. Wolfius (in Cur. Philology) gives various illustrations, differing in no important particular, that I can see, from each other, nor from that of Kuinoel, who calls them “contortas expositiones,” but gives one which is the same in almost every part, but is more fully illustrated in detail, by reference to the usage of the ancients, of going to the bath before coming to a feast, which the disciples no doubt had done, and made themselves clean in all parts except their feet, which had become dirtied on the way from the bath. This is the same view which Wolf also quotes approvingly from Elsner. Wetstein is also on this point, as on all others, abundantly rich in illustrations from classic usage, to which he refers in a great number of quotations from Lucian, Herodotus, Plato, Terence and Plutarch.
Sift you as wheat.——The word σινιαζω (siniazo) refers to the process of winnowing the wheat after threshing, rather than sifting in the common application of the term, which is to the operation of separating the flour from the bran. In oriental agriculture the operation of winnowing is performed without any machinery, by simply taking up the threshed wheat in a large shovel, and shaking it in such a way that the grain may fall out into a place prepared on the ground, while the wind blows away the chaff. The whole operation is well described in the fragments appended to Taylor’s editions of Calmet’s dictionary, (Hund. i. No. 48, in Vol. III.) and is there illustrated by a plate. The phrase then, was highly expressive of a thorough trial of character, or of utter ruin, by violent and overwhelming misfortune, and as such is often used in the Old Testament. As in Jeremiah xv. 7. “I will fan them with a fan,” &c. Also in li. 3. In Psalm cxxxix. 2. “Thou winnowest my path,” &c.; compare translation “Thou compassest my path.” The same figure is effectively used by John the Baptist, in Matthew iii. 12, and Luke iii. 17.
Galilean pugnacity.——Josephus, who was very familiar with the Galileans by his military service among them, thus characterizes them. “The Galileans are fighters even from infancy, and are every where numerous, nor are they capable of fear.” Jewish War, book III. chapter iii. section 2.
From Jerusalem to Jericho.——The English traveler here referred to, is Sir Frederic Henniker, who in the year 1820, met with this calamity, which he thus describes in his travels, pp. 284–289.
“The route is over hills, rocky, barren and uninteresting; we arrived at a fountain, and here my two attendants paused to refresh themselves; the day was so hot that I was anxious to finish the journey, and hurried forwards. A ruined building situated on the summit of a hill was now within sight, and I urged my horse towards it; the janissary galloped by me, and making signs for me not to precede him, he rode into and round the building, and then motioned me to advance. We next came to a hill, through the very apex of which has been cut a passage, the rocks overhanging it on either side. Quaresmius, (book vi. chapter 2.) quoting Brocardus, 200 years past, mentions that there is a place horrible to the eye, and full of danger, called Abdomin, which signifies blood; where he, descending from Jerusalem to Jericho, fell among thieves. I was in the act of passing through this ditch, when a bullet whizzed by, close to my head; I saw no one, and had scarcely time to think, when another was fired some distance in advance. I could yet see no one,——the janissary was beneath the brow of the hill, in his descent; I looked back, but my servant was not yet within sight. I looked up, and within a few inches of my head were three muskets, and three men taking aim at me. Escape or resistance were alike impossible. I got off my horse. Eight men jumped down from the rocks, and commenced a scramble for me; I observed also a party running towards Nicholai. At this moment the janissary galloped in among us with his sword drawn.