John 13:30 — Community Reflections

JOHN 13:30 — KING JAMES VERSION 0

“He then having received the sop went immediately out: and it was night.”

So, having received the piece of bread, he immediately went out. And it was night — the narrative returns to its obsession with light and darkness; Judas departs into literal night, which becomes the perfect emblem of his spiritual state and his trajectory toward the dark work of betrayal. The adverb "immediately" (euthys) marks the swift transition from light into darkness, from Jesus' presence into satanic dominion. Night in John's Gospel is never merely temporal but spiritual: it is the time of darkness, of opposition to the light that Jesus is. Judas's exit is his exit from the light of Christ into the darkness of the world's rebellion.

Church Fathers on John 13:30

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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