ESV Global Study Bible :: Footnotes for John 13

13:1–20:31 The Farewell Teaching and the Passion Narrative. The second half of John’s Gospel consists of Jesus’ farewell teaching (chs. 13–17) and the events surrounding his death and resurrection (chs. 18–20). Now that the Jews have rejected Jesus, he turns his attention to his new messianic community. Jesus is arrested, tried, crucified, and buried. This is followed by the resurrection, resurrection appearances, and Jesus’ commissioning of his disciples. The section concludes with John stating his reason for writing his Gospel (20:30–31).

John 13:1–17:26 Jesus prepares his new messianic community (the remaining 11 apostles) for the time following his resurrection and return to the Father. The community is cleansed literally and symbolically through the footwashing (13:1–17), and then figuratively through the removal of the betrayer (13:18–30). The Farewell Discourse (13:31–16:33) contains Jesus’ final instructions to his followers. The discourse, recorded only in John’s Gospel, concludes with Jesus’ final prayer (ch. 17).

John 13:1 Jesus’ own are the 11 faithful disciples. They represent his new messianic community. to depart out of this world. Jesus will soon leave the earth, but in his divine nature Jesus is with believers “always” (Matt. 28:20).

John 13:8 To have no share with Jesus means that one does not belong to him. Here the footwashing symbolizes Jesus’ death for his people. It washes away their sins.

John 13:9–11 Those who have been washed through Jesus’ once-for-all death also need daily cleansing of their sins.

John 13:14 you also ought to wash one another’s feet. Footwashing continues as a regular ceremony in some Christian denominations. Others see it as a symbolic teaching about serving one another.

John 13:18 I know whom I have chosen refers not to choosing for salvation but to Jesus’ choosing of the Twelve, including Judas, to be disciples (see also 6:70). Jesus cites Ps. 41:9.

John 13:19 Jesus’ statement is one of several references to his knowledge of the future in this section (see also 14:29; 16:1; 4; 32; 33). I am he very likely is a claim to deity (see note on 8:24; also 8:28; 58; 18:5; 6; 8).

John 13:20 The one I send refers first to the disciples whom Jesus would specifically send out at 20:22. More broadly it applies to all messengers of Christ, in every age, who proclaim the gospel. receives. To truly “receive” such a messenger is to accept and believe the gospel and to trust in Christ. (See also 1:12; 3:32–33; 5:43; 12:48.)

John 13:21 troubled in his spirit. See 12:27; compare Ps. 55:2–14.

John 13:23 This is the first reference to the disciple whom Jesus loved (see Introduction: Author, Date, and Recipients). On reclining, see note on 12:2. In such a situation it would be easy for John to lean back a bit and whisper privately to Jesus, as he does in 13:25. See also 21:20.

John 13:27 Satan entered into him. Satan had earlier put the desire to betray Christ into Judas’s heart (see v. 2).

John 13:31–32 The passage echoes Isa. 49:3.

John 13:34–35 Love must be the distinguishing mark of Jesus’ disciples (compare 15:13; Lev. 19:18; Mark 12:28–33).

John 13:38 the rooster will not crow. See also Matt. 26:34; Mark 14:30; Luke 22:34. Mark specifies the first two individual crowings (as evidently Jesus did), while Matthew, Luke, and John focus on Peter’s denial and report Jesus as referring to the entire set of crowings.