26 Jesus answered, He it is, to whom I shall give a sop, when I have dipped it. And when he had dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon.
All approached and drank from the cup, that is, only eleven of them. For when Jesus had given his bread indiscriminately to the eleven, Judas also approached to receive, just as his comrades who had approached and received. But Jesus dipped the bread in water and thus gave it to Judas. He washed the blessing from it and thereby marked off the offender. This is how the apostles recognized that it was he who would betray him. Jesus had dipped the bread and thus gave it to him so that its blessing might be removed from the bread. Thus Judas did not eat the blessed bread, nor did he drink from the cup of life. He grew angry that his bread had been dipped, for he knew that he was, then, not worthy of life. And the rage about this removed him from drinking from the cup of the blood of Jesus. He went out to the crucifiers and no longer saw the hallowed cup. Satan rushed to drive the Iscariot away from his comrades, so that he would not be a sharer with them of the living and life-giving sacrament.
(Hom. lxxii. 1) But not even then did our Lord expose the traitor by name; Jesus answered, He it is, to whom I shall give a sop when I have dipped it. Such a mode of declaring him, should itself have turned him from his purpose. Even if a partaking of the same table did not shame him, a partaking of the same bread might have. And when He had dipped the sop, He gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon.
(Tr. lxii. 3) Not as some careless readers think, that then Judas received singly Christ's body. For our Lord had already distributed the sacraments of His body and blood to all of them, while Judas was there, as Luke relates; and after this He dipped the sop, as John relates, and gave it to the traitor; the dipping of the bread perhaps signifying the deep dye of his sin; for some dipping cannot be washed out again; i. e. when things are dipped, in order to receive a permanent dye. If however this dipping meant any thing good, he was ungrateful for it, and deserved the damnation which followed him; And after the sop, Satan entered into him.
(Tr. lxii. 2) Or entered into him, that he might have more full possession of him: for he was in him, when he agreed with the Jews to betray our Lord for a sum of money, according to Luke: Then entered Satan into Judas Iscariot, and he went away, and communed with the chief priests. (Luke 22:3. 4) In this state he came to the supper. But after the sop the devil entered, not to tempt him, as though he were independent but to possess him as his own,
(Tr. lxii) But some will say, was his being given up to the devil the effect of his receiving the sop from Christ? To whom we answer, that they may learn here the danger of receiving amiss what is in itself good. If he is reproved who does not discern, i. e. who does not distinguish, the Lord's body from other food, how is he condemned who, feigning himself a friend, comes an enemy to the Lord's table?
Then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest, do quickly.
(Tr. lxii. 4) He did not however enjoin the act, but foretold it, not from desire for the destruction of the perfidious, but to hasten on the salvation of the faithful.
"Simon Peter therefore beckons, and says to him." The expression is noteworthy, as indicating that something was said not by any sound of words, but by merely beckoning with the head. "He beckons, and says;" that is, his beckoning is his speech. For if one is said to speak in his thoughts, as Scripture saith, "They said [reasoned] with themselves;" how much more may he do so by beckoning, which expresses outwardly by some sort of signs what had previously been conceived within! What, then, did his beckoning mean? What else but that which follows? "Who is it of whom He speaks?" Such was the language of Peter's beckoning; for it was by no vocal sounds, but by bodily gestures, that he spake. "He then, having leaned back on Jesus' breast,"-surely the very bosom of His breast this, the secret place of wisdom!-"saith unto Him, Lord, who is it? Jesus answered, He it is to whom I shall give a piece of bread, when I have dipped it. And when He had dipped the bread, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. And after the bread, Satan entered into him." The traitor was disclosed, the coverts of darkness were revealed. What he got was good, but to his own hurt he received it, because, evil himself, in an evil spirit he received what was good.
We might naturally be filled with admiration, and especially from this further instance, at the zealous ardour displayed by the holy disciples in their love to God, and at the excessive strictness of their devotion. For being unable of themselves to know the guilty person, whoever he might be, and refusing also to place confidence in the uncertainties of deceitful conjectures, they again give vent to their curiosity by questions, and make one who was preeminent among them, I mean Peter, the representative of their eagerness to learn the truth. Peter shrinks from putting the question by his own mouth, and entrusts the interrogation to him who is reclining next to Christ and who is beloved for his more conspicuous purity, I mean John, the author of the book before us; who, in speaking of himself as beloved by Christ, has concealed his own name, burying it in silence, lest he might seem to any to be making a boastful display. For the mind of the saints is untainted by any such ambition. And so, turning himself gently towards his Master, in a secret whisper he sought to learn who was to be the son of perdition. But the Saviour vouchsafes to him no further indication of the fact save what had been proclaimed of old by the voice of the prophet in the words: He that eateth my bread did magnify himself contemptuously against me. For when He has dipped the sop, He gives it to Judas, thereby showing who it was that was eating His bread. And He thus both removes the fear felt by the holy disciples, and seems to remind them of another prophecy, that runs thus: But it was even thou, O my companion, my guide, and mine own familiar friend: eating at the same board, thou didst make my food sweet to me: we walked in the house of God as friends. For there was a time when even the traitor himself was a companion and a familiar friend to the Saviour, eating at the same board with Him, and sharing in everything that is reckoned to denote true discipleship; inasmuch as he had his allotted portion among the other holy disciples, who, with their whole lives devoted to the Saviour, traversing in His company the length and breadth of Judaea, were zealous attendants on Him in all His mighty works, and hastened on all occasions to do whatever might redound to His honour and glory. And yet this familiar friend and companion exchanged the grateful service owed to One Who had so honoured him for slavery to disgraceful passions.
Notice again how effectually the very wise Evangelist spurs us on to a desire to live, as far as possible, in the manner most accordant with reason, and to train up the keenness of our intellectual powers so as to be able, and that with perfect ease, to act in obedience to the Divine intentions, and to endeavour, as far as in us lies, to thoroughly fulfil the conditions of the vision of God. He tells us that he was himself the object of special honour and love on the part of Christ our Saviour, so as even to recline next Him, actually in the very bosom of the Lord, deeming this circumstance a token of His surpassing affection towards him. Nearest therefore to God, and as it were in the highest place in His honour, will most especially be those whose heart is pure: and to them also the Saviour Himself assigns conspicuous honour when He says that the pure in heart shall be blessed, for they shall see God. And we shall bring forward, as evidence of the truth of this saying, even this very wise Evangelist himself. For he has seen the glory of Christ, according to his own words, for he says: I beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. For surely not with bodily eyes could any one gaze at the nature of Him Who to every creature is absolutely invisible. For, according to the Saviour's words: No man hath seen the Father, save He Which is from God, that is, the Son; He hath seen the Father. To those however who keep their mind untainted by worldly stain, and freed from vain imagination whose only concern is with this life, it seems that Christ reveals His own peculiar glory by a subtle and perhaps incomprehensible process, thereby showing forth also the glory of the Father. For it must have been with this meaning that He said: He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.
[AD 373] Ephrem the Syrian on John 13:26