John 13 Bible study: The towel and the basin

"Now before the feast of the Passover, Jesus, knowing that his time had come that he would depart from this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end" (13:1) (tap loved). At the wedding he had said to his mother, "My hour has not yet come" (2:4). Now the Gospel says his time had come (13:1). Then it tells what he knew: "Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he came from God and was going to God" (13:3), "arose from supper, and laid aside his outer garments. He took a towel and wrapped a towel around his waist" (13:4). "Then he poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him" (13:5) (tap wash). Here is what almost everyone misses: John's Gospel says what Jesus knew (13:1, 13:3) in the same breath as it tells of the towel and the basin (13:4-5). It sets the two side by side and doesn't say why, and these notes don't either.

Psalms 41:9→leads toJohn 13:18

At supper, "before the feast of the Passover" (John 13:1), when he had washed his disciples' feet (John 13:12), Jesus said, "I don’t speak concerning all of you. I know whom I have chosen; but that the Scripture may be fulfilled, ‘He who eats bread with me has lifted up his heel against me.’" (John 13:18). He said why he told them beforehand: "From now on, I tell you before it happens, that when it happens, you may believe that I am he" (John 13:19). The psalm says, "Yes, my own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, who ate bread with me, has lifted up his heel against me" (Psalm 41:9). Jesus gives the second half of that verse, and the WEB words it a little differently (who ate in the psalm, He who eats in John). He doesn't give the first half, "my own familiar friend, in whom I trusted" (Psalm 41:9), and he doesn't name the psalm. Then he said, "one of you will betray me" (John 13:21), and John tells that he gave the piece of bread "to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot" (John 13:26). John gives no other line of the psalm, and the prayer "Heal me, for I have sinned against you" (Psalm 41:4) is the psalmist's own: "I said" (Psalm 41:4).

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Thayer: "to wash". Strong's: "to cleanse (especially the hands or the feet or the face)". It comes eight times in this chapter (counted in RP2018), from "began to wash the disciples’ feet" (13:5) to "you also ought to wash one another’s feet" (13:14). John's Greek has it 13 times; the other five are in chapter 9 (9:7, 9:11, 9:15). In 13:10 Jesus sets it beside another verb: "Someone who has bathed only needs to have his feet washed" (13:10) (tap bathed).