'As he sat at meat.' That is, at supper. In the original, as he reclined at supper. See note, Matt. xxiii. 6. She came behind him, as he reclined at the table; and bending down over the couch, poured the ointment on his head and his feet; and probably, kneeling at his feet, wiped them with her hair.

8 But when his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste?

"They had indignation.' John says that Judas expressed indignation. Probably some of the others felt indignation, but Judas only gave vent to his feelings. The reason why Judas was indignant was, that he had the bag, John xii. 6, that is, the purse, or repository of articles given to the disciples and to the Saviour. He was a thief; and was in the habit, it seems, of taking out and putting to his own use what was put in for them in common. "Is this waste.' This loss or destruction of property. They could see no use in it, and they therefore supposed it was lost.

9 For this ointment might have been sold for much, and given to the poor.

'Sold for much.' Mark and John say for three hundred pence. This to them was a large sum. Mark says, they murmured against her. There was also an implied murmuring against the Saviour for suffering it to be done. The murmuring was, however, without cause. It was the property of Mary. She hada right to dispose of it as she pleased, being accountable not to them, but to God. So christians now are at liberty to dispose of their property as they please, either in distributing the bible, in supporting the gospel, in sending it to heathen nations, or in aiding the poor. The world, like Judas, esteems it to be wasted. Like Judas, they are indignant, They say it might be disposed of in a better way. Yet, like Judas, they are interfering in that whicn concerns them not. Like other men, christians have the right to dispose of their property, and are accountable only to God.

10 When Jesus understood it, he said unto them, Why trouble ye the woman? for she hath wrought a good work upon me.

6

The

'Why trouble ye the woman? That is, disturb her mind by insinuations, as if she had done wrong. A good work upon me. She has done it with a mind grateful, and full of love to me. work was good, also, as it was preparative to his death, ver. 12. 11 For ye have the poor always with you, but me ye have not always.

'For ye have the poor,' &c. Mark adds, 'Whensoever ye will, ye may do them good. It was right that they should regard the poor. I vas a plain precept of religion, see Psa. xli. I. Prov

xiv. 21; xxix. 7. Gal. ii. 10; and our Saviour would not prohibit it, but do all that was possible to excite his followers to the duty. But every duty should be done in its place, and the duty ther incumbent was that which Mary had performed. Me ye have not always.' He alludes here to his dying, and his going away to heaven.

12 For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial.

She did it for my burial.' It is not to be supposed that Mary understood clearly that he was then about to die; but she had done it as an act of kindness and love, to show her regard for her Lord. Anciently, bodies were anointed and embalmed for the purpose of the sepulchre. Jesus said that this was really a preparation for that burial.

13 Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her.

A memorial.' This should be told as a memorial of her piety and self-denial; and it is right that the good deeds of the pious should be recorded and had in remembrance.

14 Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests,

Luke says that Satan entered into Judas. That is, Satan. tempted or instigated him to do it. Judas Iscariot.' See note, Matt. x. 4. Unto the chief priests.'. The high priest, and those who had heen high priests. The ruling men of the sanhedrim. Luke adds that he went also to the captains, xxii. 4. It was necessary, on account of the great wealth deposited there, to guard the temple by night. Accordingly men were stationed around it, whose leaders or commanders were called captains. Acts iv. 1. These men were commonly of the tribe of the Levites, were closely connected with the priests, were men of influence, and Judas went to them, therefore, as well as to the priests, to offer himself as a traitor.

15 And said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver.

And they covenanted with him. Made a bargain with him. Agreed to give him. Mark says they promised to give him money. They did not pay it to him then, but before he was made sensible of his guilt, they paid him. See Matt. xxvii. 3. Acts i. 18. Thirty pieces of silver.' Mark and Luke do not mention

the sum. They say that they promised him money. In the original,' silver.' In Matthew, in the original, it is thirty silvers or silverlings. This was the price of a slave. See Ex. xxi. 32. And it is not unlikely that this sum was fixed on by them to show their contempt of Jesus, and that they regarded him as of little value. The money usually denoted by 'pieces' of silver, when the precise sum is not mentioned, is a shekel-a silver Jewish coin, amounting to about two shillings and three-pence. The whole sum, therefore, for which Judas committed this crime, was three pounds, seven shillings, and sixpence.

16 And from that time he sought opportunity to betray him.

6

Sought opportunity to betray him.' Luke adds,' in the absence of the multitude.' The opportunity which he sought, therefore, was one in which the multitude would not see him, or could not rescue the Saviour. To betray him.' The word means to deliver up, or to give into their hands. He sought opportunity how he might deliver him up to them, agreeably to his contract.

17 Now the first day of the feast of unleavened bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying unto him, Where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the passover?

See also Mark xiv.12—16. Luke xxři. 7-13. 'The first day,' &c. The feast continued eight days, including the day on which the paschal lamb was killed and eaten, Ex. xii. 15. That was the fourteenth day of the month Abib, answering to parts of our March and April. Of unleavened bread.' Called so, because, during those eight days, no bread made with yeast or leaven was allowed to be eaten. Luke says, 'in which the passover must be killed.' That is, in which the paschal lamb, or the lamb eaten on the occasion, must be killed. See Ex. xii. 43. Numb. ix. 11. John xviii. 28. Also 1 Cor. v. 7. where Christ, our passover, is said to be slain for us; that is, our paschal lamb, so called on account of his being offered as a victim, or sacrifice, for our sins.

18 And he said, Go into the city to such a man, and say unto him, The Master saith, My time is at hand; I will keep the passover at thy house with my disciples.

'Go into the city to such a man.' That is, Jerusalem, called the city,' by way of eminence. Luke says, that the disciples whom he sent were Peter and John. The man to whom they were to go it seems he did not mention by name, but he told them that when they came into the city, a man would meet them, bearing a pitcher of water. See Mark and Luke. Him they were to follow, and in the house which he entered they would find a room prepared.

The direction which he gave his disciples most clearly proves that he was omniscient. Amidst so great a multitude going at that time into the city, or at any time, it was impossible to know that a particular man would be met a man bearing a pitcher of water-unless Jesus had all knowledge, and was therefore divine. The Master saith.' This was the name by which Jesus was probably known among the disciples, and one which he directed them to give him. See Matt. xxiii. 8, 10. It means literally the teacher, as opposed to the disciple, or learner; not the master, as opposed to the servant, or slave. The fact that they used this name as if the man would know whom they meant, and the fact that he understood them, and made no inquiries about him, shows that he was acquainted with Jesus, and was probably himself a disciple. My time is at hand.' That is, is near. By his 'time' here was meant the time of his death.

Mark and Luke add, that he would show them 'a large upper room, furnished and prepared.' Ancient writers remark that at the time of the great feasts, all the houses in Jerusalem were open to receive guests; that the houses were in a manner common to the people of Judea; and there is no doubt, therefore, that the master of a house would have it ready on such occasions for company. The word rendered 'furnished,' means literally spread, that is, spread with carpets, and with couches, on which to recline at the table, after the manner of the east. See note, Matt. xxiii. 6.

19 And the disciples did as Jesus had appointed them; and they made ready the passover.

"They made ready the passover.' That is, they procured a paschal lamb, multitudes of which were kept for sale in the temple; they procured it to be killed and flayed by the priests, the blood to be poured at the altar; they roasted the lamb, and prepared the bitter herbs, the sauce, and the unleavened bread. This was done, it seems, while our Lord was absent, by the two disciples.

20 Now when the even was come, he sat down with the twelve.

'When the even was come.' The lamb was killed between the evenings, Ex. xii. 6. (Hebrew). That is, between three and nine o'clock in the evening. The Jews reckoned two evenings, one from three o'clock P. M. to sunset, the other from sunset to the close of the first watch in the night, or nine o'clock. 'He sat down. At first the supper was eaten standing, with their loins girded, and their staff in their hand, denoting the haste with which they were about to flee from Egypt. Afterwards, however, they introduced the practice, it seems, of partaking of this as they did of their ordinary meals. Note. Matt.

xxiii. 6. While sitting there at the supper, the disciples had a dispute which should be the greatest, Luke xxii. 24-30. At this time, before the institution of the Lord's supper, Jesus washed the feet of his disciples, to teach them humility, John xiii. 1–20.

21 And as they did eat, he said, Verily I say unto you, That one of you shall betray me.

'As they did eat,' &c. The account contained in these verses is also recorded in Mark xiv. 18-21. Luke xxii. 21-23. Jonn xiii. 21, 22. John says, that before Jesus declared that one of them should betray him, 'he was troubled in spirit, and testified.' That is, he felt deeply the greatness of the crime that Judas was about to commit, and anticipated with much feeling the sufferings that he was to endure. He testified.' He bore witness; or he declared.

22 And they were exceeding sorrowful, and began every one of them to say unto him, Lord, is it I?

They were exceeding sorrowful.' John says, they looked on one another, like men in anxiety, conscious each one, except Judas, of no such intention, and each one beginning to examine himself, to find whether he was the person intended. This evinced their innocence, and showed their attachment to Jesus. It showed how sensitive they were to the least suspicion of the kind. It showed that they were willing to know themselves: thus evincing the spirit of the true christian. Judas only was silent, and was the last to make the inquiry, and that after he had been plainly indicated, ver. 25. The guilty would, if possible, always conceal their crimes. The innocent, the friend, is ready to suspect that he may have done wrong.

23 And he answered and said, He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me.

The Jews, at the observance of this ordinance, used a bitter sauce, made of palm branches, raisins, &c., mixed with vinegar and other seasonings of the like kind, which they said represented the clay which their fathers were compelled to use in Egypt in making brick; thus reminding them of their bitter bondage there. This was probably the dish' to which reference is made here. John adds, xiii. 23-30, see note on the place, that a disciple (that is, John himself) was reclining on Jesus' bosom; that Simon Peter beckoned to him to ask Jesus more particularly who it was; that Jesus signified who it was, by giving Judas a sop; that is, a piece of bread or meat, dipped in the thick sauce; and that Judas having received it, went out to accomplish his wicked design of betraying him.

24 The Son of man goeth, as it is written of him: