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JOHN 13:21 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
John 13:20John 13:22
“When Jesus had thus said, he was troubled in spirit, and testified, and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me.”
After saying this Jesus was troubled in spirit, and declared, 'One of you will betray me' — Jesus' disturbance (etaraxthe) is not fear but the wound of love facing rejection, the sorrow of one who has loved fully and is about to be handed over to death. This emotional transparency—showing his anguish rather than mastering it—makes Jesus fully human in his suffering. The announcement of betrayal is not made in anger but in grief; the focus is not on punishment but on the fact of separation imminent. This is a moment of profound loneliness in the midst of community, isolation in the presence of the eleven.

Church Fathers on John 13:21

Our Lord after His twofold promise of assistance to the Apostles in their future labors, remembers that the traitor is cut off from both, and is troubled at the thought: When Jesus had thus said, He was troubled in spirit, and testified, and said, Verily, verily, I say to you, that one of you shall betray Me.

Chrysostom · 4th century

This did not come into His mind then for the first time; but He was now about to make the traitor known, and single him out from the rest, and therefore was troubled in spirit. The traitor too was now just about to go forth to execute his purpose. He was troubled at the thought of His Passion being so near at hand, at the dangers to which His faithful followers would be brought at the hand of the traitor, which were even now impending over Him. Our Lord deigned to be troubled…

Augustine · 4th century

His being troubled in spirit, was the human part, suffering under the excess of the spiritual. For if every Saint lives, acts, and suffers in the spirit, how much more is this true of Jesus, the Rewarder of Saints.

Origen · 3rd century
Read all 32 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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