John 13:6

Then cometh he to Simon Peter: and Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet?

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(6) Then cometh he to Simon Peter.—Men who have come to these words with minds full of opinions with regard to the position of St. Peter have, of course, understood them to express that he had precedence of the other Apostles; while others have formed the opinion that Judas Iscariot was first. It is a point of no importance, and cannot be determined. The natural impression from this verse, however, is that St. Peter’s turn came after that of at least one other, and the impression from John 13:24-25 is that St. John himself, being nearest to his Master, was that other.

Lord, dost thou wash my feet?—For the title, comp. Matthew 16:22. The word “Thou” is to be strongly emphasised, but the common error of reading “my” as an emphatic word is to be avoided. The act is in itself natural; perhaps is even one that he had expected from some of the less prominent in the apostolic band. What he cannot understand is that his Master should do it. “Lord, dost Thou wash my feet?” Comp. with this feeling of the Apostle at the close of our Lord’s life that of John the Baptist at its commencement (Matthew 3:14-15).

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

13:1-17 Our Lord Jesus has a people in the world that are his own; he has purchased them, and paid dear for them, and he has set them apart for himself; they devote themselves to him as a peculiar people. Those whom Christ loves, he loves to the end. Nothing can separate a true believer from the love of Christ. We know not when our hour will come, therefore what we have to do in constant preparation for it, ought never to be undone. What way of access the devil has to men's hearts we cannot tell. But some sins are so exceedingly sinful, and there is so little temptation to them from the world and the flesh, that it is plain they are directly from Satan. Jesus washed his disciples' feet, that he might teach us to think nothing below us, wherein we may promote God's glory, and the good of our brethren. We must address ourselves to duty, and must lay aside every thing that would hinder us in what we have to do. Christ washed his disciples' feet, that he might signify to them the value of spiritual washing, and the cleansing of the soul from the pollutions of sin. Our Lord Jesus does many things of which even his own disciples do not for the present know the meaning, but they shall know afterward. We see in the end what was the kindness from events which seemed most cross. And it is not humility, but unbelief, to put away the offers of the gospel, as if too rich to be made to us, or too good news to be true. All those, and those only, who are spiritually washed by Christ, have a part in Christ. All whom Christ owns and saves, he justifies and sanctifies. Peter more than submits; he begs to be washed by Christ. How earnest he is for the purifying grace of the Lord Jesus, and the full effect of it, even upon his hands and head! Those who truly desire to be sanctified, desire to be sanctified throughout, to have the whole man, with all its parts and powers, made pure. The true believer is thus washed when he receives Christ for his salvation. See then what ought to be the daily care of those who through grace are in a justified state, and that is, to wash their feet; to cleanse themselves from daily guilt, and to watch against everything defiling. This should make us the more cautious. From yesterday's pardon, we should be strengthened against this day's temptation. And when hypocrites are discovered, it should be no surprise or cause of stumbling to us. Observe the lesson Christ here taught. Duties are mutual; we must both accept help from our brethren, and afford help to our brethren. When we see our Master serving, we cannot but see how ill it becomes us to domineer. And the same love which led Christ to ransom and reconcile his disciples when enemies, still influences him.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Dost thou wash my feet? - Every word here is emphatic. Dost thou - the Son of God, the Messiah - perform the humble office of a servant - toward me, a sinner? This was an expression of Peter's humility, of his reverence for Jesus, and also a refusal to allow him to do it. It is possible, though not certain from the text, that he came to Simon Peter first.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

6-11. Peter saith … Lord, dost thou wash my feet?—Our language cannot bring out the intensely vivid contrast between the "Thou" and the "my," which, by bringing them together, the original expresses, for it is not good English to say, "Lord, Thou my feet dost wash?" But every word of this question is emphatic. Thus far, and in the question itself, there was nothing but the most profound and beautiful astonishment at a condescension to him quite incomprehensible. Accordingly, though there can be no doubt that already Peter's heart rebelled against it as a thing not to be tolerated, Jesus ministers no rebuke as yet, but only bids him wait a little, and he should understand it all.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Christ in the performance of this ceremony cometh to Simon Peter; whether first, or last, it is not said; and therefore the papists argue ill from hence, to prove the primacy of Peter over the rest of the apostles. Peter looks upon it with a modest, but sinful and superstitions, indignation. Samuel of old determined, that obedience to God is better than sacrifice; it is then certainly better than a compliment. Peter in this case ought not to have contradicted his Master out of a compliment to him, but to have suffered him to go on in this act of ministration. There may be a voluntary humility, and pretended reverence to Christ, which is indeed but superstition, and can be no other, if contrary to any revelation of the Divine will.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Then cometh he to Simon Peter,.... After having washed the feet of some of the disciples, as is thought by some interpreters, and particularly the feet of Judas, without any repulse; though others are of opinion that he began with Peter, who modestly, and out of reverence to him, refuses to be washed by him:

and Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet! he speaks as one surprised and astonished that Christ should offer to do any such thing to him; that he, who was the Son of the living God, should wash the feet of such a sinful man as he was; that those hands, with which he had wrought such miracles, as the opening the eyes of the blind, cleansing lepers, and raising the dead, should be employed in washing his defiled feet, the meaner and inferior parts of his body; this he thought was greatly below his dignity and character, and too much to be done by him to such a worthless creature as he was.

Geneva Study Bible

Then cometh he to Simon Peter: and Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet?

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

John 13:6-9. Ἔρχεται οὖν] So that He then made a commencement with another disciple, not with Peter himself (so Augustine, Beda, Nonnus, Rupertius, Cornelius a Lapide, Maldonatus, Jansen, and other Catholics in the Romish interest; but also Baumgarten-Crusius, Ewald, Hengstenberg). With whom (Chrysostom and Euth. Zigabenus point to Judas Iscariot, whom, however, Nonnus makes to be last) is left altogether undetermined.

σύ μου, κ.τ.λ.] ἐκπλαγεὶς εἶπε τοῦτο καὶ σφόδρα εὐλαβηθείς, Euth. Zigabenus. The emphasis lies, in the first instance, upon σύ; not afterwards, however, on μου, as if ἐμοῦ had been used, but on τ. πόδας: Dost Thou wash my feet? The present νίπτεις, like λιθαζέτε, John 10:32, and ποιεῖς, John 13:27.

John 13:7. Note the antithesis of ἐγὼ … σύ. What He did was not the external work of washing (so Peter took it), but that which this washing signified in the mind of Jesus, namely, the σημεῖον of the morally purifying, ministering love.

μετὰ ταῦτα] namely, through the instruction, John 13:13-17. To refer this to the later apostolic enlightenment and experience (Chrysostom, Grotius, Tholuck, Hengstenberg, Ewald, and several others) is not justified by the text (comp. γινώσκετε, John 13:12), and would have been expressed, as in John 13:36, by the antithesis of νῦν and ὕστερον.

John 13:8. Peter, instead of now complying, as became him, refuses with definite and vehement decision. But Jesus puts before him a threat connected with the necessity of this feet-washing, which could only have its ground and justification in the higher moral meaning of which the act was to be the quiet symbolic language. Thus He intends what He now says not of the external performance as such in and by itself, but of the ethical contents which it is symbolically to set forth, after He had already indicated, John 13:7, that something higher lay in this act. It is precisely John who has apprehended and reported in the most faithful and delicate manner how Jesus knew to employ the sensuous as a foil to the spiritual, and thus to ascend, first enigmatically, then more clearly, and ever higher, towards the very highest. He says: If I shall not have washed thee, thou hast no part with me. Thereby He undoubtedly means the feet-washing which He intended to perform (τοὺς πόδας σου was to be understood as a matter of course, according to the connection,—against Hofmann, II. 2, p. 323), yet according to the ethical sense, which it was to set forth symbolically, and impress in a way not to be forgotten. Washing is the old sacred picture of moral purification. Hence the thought of Jesus divested of this symbolical wrapping is: If I shall not have purified thee, just as I now would wash thy feet, from the sinful nature still adhering to thee, thou hast no share with me (in the eternal possession of salvation). When Hengstenberg here takes the washing as the symbol of the forgiveness of sins (according to Psalm 51:4), this is opposed to John 13:12 ff.

Peter, as John 13:9 shows, did not yet understand the higher meaning of the Lord’s words; he could but take His answer in the external sense that immediately offered itself (if, in disobedience to me, thou dost not suffer thyself to be washed by me, thou hast, etc.). The thought, however, of being a man separated, by further resistance, from Jesus and His salvation, was sufficiently overpowering for His ardent love to make him offer forthwith not merely His feet, but also the remaining unclothed parts of His body, His hands and His head, to be washed; καὶ ἐν τῇ παραιτήσει καὶ ἐν τῇ συγχωρήσει σφοδρότερος, ἑκάτερα γὰρ ἐξ ἀγάπης, Cyril.

εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα] while eternity lasts, spoken with passion. Comp. 1 Corinthians 8:13.

μέρος ἔχειν μετά τινος] denotes the participation in the same relation, in the like situation with any one, Matthew 24:51, Luke 12:46, after the Hebrew תֵלֶק אֶת (Deuteronomy 12:12), and תֵלֶק עַם (Deuteronomy 10:9; Deuteronomy 14:27; Psalm 50:18). The expression in the classics would be οὐκ ἔχεις or μετέχεις μέρος μου. It is the denial of the συγκληρονόμον εἶναι Χριστοῦ, and thus the threatening of exclusion from the ζωή and δόξα of the Lord.

Expositor's Greek Testament

John 13:6. ἔρχεται οὖν, apparently in the order in which they happened to be sitting, and having first washed some of the other disciples, He comes to Simon Peter, who draws up his feet out of reach and exclaims, Κύριε, σύ μου νίπτεις τοὺς πόδας; The σύ μου are brought together for the sake of the contrast.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

6. Then cometh he] Better, He cometh therefore, i.e. in consequence of having begun to wash the feet of each in turn. The natural impression is that S. Peter’s turn at any rate did not come first. But if it did, this is not much in favour of the primacy of S. Peter, which can be proved from other passages, still less of a supremacy, which cannot be proved at all.

dost thou wash my feet?] There is a strong emphasis on ‘Thou.’ Comp. ‘Comest Thou to me?’ (Matthew 3:14.)

Bengel's Gnomen

John 13:6. Ἔρχεται, He cometh) He seems to have come to Peter not absolutely before all the rest, but, however, among the first; and from his case the other disciples learned that they ought not to oppose the proceeding of the Saviour. A lovely grace is ἀπεριεργία [artlessness], the obedient simplicity of believers.—Κύριε, Lord) Peter on this occasion speaks thrice: in the first and third instance he calls Him, Lord: the second address is as it were a continuance of the first.—σύ μου, thou my) He takes it indignantly, as though a thing unworthy of the Lord.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 6. - It cannot be determined with whom our Lord commenced the feet-washing. Some of the older expositors have said it was with Judas. The οϋν might denote that several of the disciples, in awestruck wonder, had submitted without a word, and then (οϋν resumptive) he cometh to Simon Peter. But the great bulk of ancient and modern expositors suppose that Peter was the first to whom this great grace was offered. At all events, in his impulsive manner always rushing forwards, and ready to give his Master advice, and to be the mouthpiece of otherwise unuttered feelings, Peter was the first to exclaim, (and) he saith unto him, and with strong emphasis on the Σύ and the μου, Dost thou wash my feet? The protest was natural. It corresponds with many another scene in Peter's life; as when he said, "Depart from me; for I am a sinful man," or cried, "That be far from thee," and later on in this chapter, "Why cannot I follow thee now?" or, "I have never eaten anything common or unclean." This trait in Peter's character is wonderfully accurate, and corresponds with the portraiture of the same man in the synoptic narrative (see Introduction, p. 115.). There is here an analogous blending of reverence and self-will, of outwardness and forwardness - a new illustration of one who would distinguish himself by the greatness of his humility. John 13:6

Vincent's Word Studies

Dost thou wash (σύ μου νίπτεις)? The two pronouns Thou, my, stand together at the beginning of the sentence in emphatic contrast. Dost thou of me wash the feet?