11 

11:23 I received - By an immediate revelation.

11:24 This is my body, which is broken for you - That is, this broken bread is the sign of my body, which is even now to be pierced and wounded for your iniquities. Take then, and eat of, this bread, in an humble, thankful, obediential remembrance of my dying love; of the extremity of my sufferings on your behalf, of the blessings I have thereby procured for you, and of the obligations to love and duty which I have by all this laid upon you.

11:25 After supper - Therefore ye ought not to confound this with a common meal. Do this in remembrance of me - The ancient sacrifices were in remembrance of sin: this sacrifice, once offered, is still represented in remembrance of the remission of sins.

11:26 Ye show forth the Lord's death - Ye proclaim, as it were, and openly avow it to God, and to all the world. Till he come - In glory.

11:27 Whosoever shall eat this bread unworthily - That is, in an unworthy, irreverent manner; without regarding either Him that appointed it, or the design of its appointment.Shall be guilty of profaning that which represents the body and blood of the Lord.

11:28 But let a man examine himself - Whether he know the nature and the design of the institution, and whether it be his own desire and purpose throughly to comply therewith.

11:29 For he that eateth and drinketh so unworthily as those Corinthians did, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself - Temporal judgments of various kinds, Co1 11:30.Not distinguishing the sacred tokens of the Lord's body - From his common food.

11:30 For this cause - Which they had not observed. Many sleep - In death.

11:31 If we would judge ourselves - As to our knowledge, and the design with which we approach the Lord's table. We should not be thus judged - That is, punished by God.

11:32 When we are thus judged, it is with this merciful design, that we may not be finally condemned with the world.

26 

26:1 When Jesus had finished all these discourses - When he had spoken all he had to speak. Till then he would not enter upon his passion: then he would delay it no longer. Mar 14:1; Luk 22:1.

26:2 After two days is the passover - The manner wherein this was celebrated gives much light to several circumstances that follow.The master of the family began the feast with a cup of wine, which having solemnly blessed, he divided among the guests, Luk 22:17. Then the supper began with the unleavened breadand bitter herbs; which when they had all tasted, one of the young persons present, according to Exo 12:26, asked the reason of the solemnity. This introduced the showing forth, or declaration of it: in allusion to which we read of showing forth the Lord's death, Co1 11:26. Then the master rose up and took another cup, before the lamb was tasted. After supper, he took a thin loaf or cake, which he broke and divided to all at the table, and likewise the cup, usually called the cup of thanksgiving, of which he drank first, and then all the guests.It was this bread and this cup which our Lord consecrated to be a standing memorial of his death.

26:3 The chief priests and the scribes and the elders of the people - (Heads of families.) These together constituted the sanhedrim,or great council, which had the supreme authority, both in civil and ecclesiastical affairs.

26:5 But they said, Not at the feast - This was the result of human wisdom. But when Judas came they changed their purpose. So the counsel of God took place, and the true paschal Lamb was offered up on the great day of the paschal solemnity.

26:6  Mar 14:3.

26:8 His disciples seeing it, had indignation, saying - It seems several of them were angry, and spoke, though none so warmly as Judas Iscariot.

26:11 Ye have the poor always with you - Such is the wise and gracious providence of God, that we may have always opportunities of relieving their wants, and so laying up for ourselves treasures in heaven.

26:12 She hath done it for my burial - As it were for the embalming of my body. Indeed this was not her design: but our Lord puts this construction upon it, to confirm thereby what he had before said to his disciples, concerning his approaching death.

26:13 This Gospel - That is, this part of the Gospel history.

26:14  Mar 14:10; Luk 22:3.

26:15 They bargained with him for thirty pieces of silver - (About three pounds fifteen shillings sterling; or sixteen dollars sixty - seven cents,) the price of a slave, Exo 21:32.

26:17 On the first day of unleavened bread - Being Thursday, the fourteenth day of the first month, Exo 12:6, Exo 12:15. Mar 14:12 Luk 22:7

26:18 The Master saith, My time is at hand - That is, the time of my suffering.

26:20  Mar 14:17; Luk 22:14.

13 

13:1 Before the feast - Namely, on Wednesday, in the paschal week. Having loved his own - His apostles, he loved them to the end - Of his life.

13:2 Having now - Probably now first.

13:3 Jesus knowing - Though conscious of his own greatness, thus humbled himself.

13:4 Layeth aside his garments - That part of them which would have hindered him.

13:5 Into the basin - A large vessel was usually placed for this very purpose, wherever the Jews supped.

13:7 What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter - We do not now know perfectly any of his works, either of creation, providence, or grace. It is enough that we can love and obey now, and that we shall know hereafter.

13:8 If I wash thee not - If thou dost not submit to my will, thou hast no part with me - Thou art not my disciple. In a more general sense it may mean, If I do not wash thee in my blood, and purify thee by my Spirit, thou canst have no communion with me, nor any share in the blessings of my kingdom.

13:9 Lord, not my feet only - How fain would man be wiser than God!Yet this was well meant, though ignorant earnestness.

13:10 And so ye, having been already cleansed, need only to wash your feet - That is, to walk holy and undefiled.

13:14 Ye ought also to wash one another's feet - And why did they not? Why do we not read of any one apostle ever washing the feet of any other? Because they understood the Lord better.They knew he never designed that this should be literally taken.He designed to teach them the great lesson of humble love, as well as to confer inward purity upon them. And hereby he teaches us,

1. In every possible way to assist each other in attaining that purity;
2. To wash each other's feet, by performing all sorts of good offices to each other, even those of the lowest kind, when opportunity serves, and the necessity of any calls for them.

13:16 The servant is not greater than his lord - Nor therefore ought to think much of either doing or suffering the same things.

24 

24:21 Then shall be great tribulation - Have not many things spoken in the chapter, as well as in Mar 13:14 etc, Luk 21:21 etc a farther and much more extensive meaning than has been yet fulfilled?

24:22 And unless those days were shortened - By the taking of Jerusalem sooner than could be expected: No flesh would be saved - The whole nation would be destroyed. But for the elect's sake - That is, for the sake of the Christians.

24:23  Mar 13:21; Luk 17:23.

24:24 They would deceive, if possible, the very elect - But it is not possible that God should suffer the body of Christians to be thus deceived.

24:27 For as the lightning goeth forth - For the next coming of Christ will he as quick as lightning; so that there will not be time for any such previous warning.

24:28 For wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles he gathered together - Our Lord gives this, as a farther reason, why they should not hearken to any pretended deliverer. As if he had said, Expect not any deliverer of the Jewish nation; for it is devoted to destruction. It is already before God a dead carcass, which the Roman eagles will soon devour. Luk 17:37.

24:29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days - Here our Lord begins to speak of his last coming. But he speaks not so much in the language of man as of God, with whom a thousand years are as one day, one moment. Many of the primitive Christians not observing this, thought he would come immediately, in the common sense of the word: a mistake which St. Paul labours to remove, in his Second Epistle to the Thessalonians. The powers of the heavens - Probably the influences of the heavenly bodies. Mar 13:24; Luk 21:25.

24:30 Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven - It seems a little before he himself descends. The sun, moon, and stars being extinguished, (probably not those of our system only,) the sign of the Son of man (perhaps the cross) will appear in the glory of the Lord.

24:31 They shall gather together his elect - That is, all that have endured to the end in the faith which worketh by love.

24:32 Learn a parable - Our Lord having spoke of the signs preceding the two grand events, concerning which the apostles had inquired, begins here to speak of the time of them. And to the question proposed, Mat 24:3, concerning the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, he answers Mat 24:34. Concerning the time of the end of the world, he answers Mat 24:36. Mar 13:28; Luk 21:29.

24:34 This generation of men now living shall not pass till all these things be done - The expression implies, that great part of that generation would be passed away, but not the whole. Just so it was. For the city and temple were destroyed thirty - nine or forty years after.

24:36 But of that day - The day of judgment; Knoweth no man - Not while our Lord was on earth. Yet it might be afterward revealed to St. John consistently with this.

24:37  Luk 17:26.

22 

22:43 Strengthening him - Lest his body should sink and die before the time.

22:44 And being in an agony - Probably just now grappling with the powers of darkness: feeling the weight of the wrath of God, and at the same time surrounded with a mighty host of devils, who exercised all their force and malice to persecute and distract his wounded spirit. He prayed more earnestly - Even with stronger cries and tars: and his sweat - As cold as the weather was, was as it were great drops of blood - Which, by the vehement distress of his soul, were forced out of the pores, in so great a quantity as afterward united in large, thick, grumous drops, and even fell to the ground.

26 

26:41 The spirit - Your spirit: ye yourselves. The flesh - Your nature. How gentle a rebuke was this, and how kind an apology!especially at a time when our Lord's own mind was so weighed down with sorrow.

26:45 Sleep on now, if you can, and take your rest - For any farther service you can be of to me.

26:47  Mar 14:43; Luk 22:47; Joh 18:2.

26:50 The heroic behaviour of the blessed Jesus, in the whole period of his sufferings, will be observed by every attentive eye, and felt by every pious heart: although the sacred historians, according to their usual but wonderful simplicity, make no encomiums upon it. With what composure does he go forth to meet the traitor! With what calmness receive that malignant kiss! With what dignity does he deliver himself into the hands of his enemies! Yet plainly showing his superiority over them, and even then leading as it were captivity captive!

26:51 And one of them striking the servant of the high priest - Probably the person that seized Jesus first; Cut off his ear - Aiming, it seems, to cleave his head, but that by a secretprovidence interposing, he declined the blow. Mar 14:47; Luk 22:49; Joh 18:10.

26:52 All they that take the sword - Without God's giving it them: without sufficient authority.

26:53 He will presently give me more than twelve legions of angels - The least of whom, it is probable, could overturn the earth anddestroy all the inhabitants of it.

26:55  Mar 14:48; Luk 22:52

26:57 They led him away to Caiaphas - From the house of Annas, the father - in - law of Caiaphas, to whom they had carried him first. Mar 14:53; Luk 22:54; Joh 18:12.

26:58 But Peter followed him afar off - Variously agitated by conflicting passions; love constrained him to follow his Master; fear made him follow afar off. And going in, sat with the servants - Unfit companions as the event showed.

26:60 Yet found they none - On whose evidence they could condemn him to die. At last came two false witnesses - Such they were, although part of what they said was true; because our Lord did not speak some of those words at all; nor any of them in this sense.

26:64 Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man - He speaks in the third person, modestly, and yet plainly; Sitting on the right hand of power - That is, the right hand of God: And coming upon the clouds of heaven - As he is represented by Daniel, Dan 7:13-14. Our Lord looked very unlike that person now!But nothing could be more awful, more majestic and becoming, than such an admonition in such circumstances!

26:65 Then the high priest rent his clothes - Though the high priest was forbidden to rend his clothes (that is, his upper garment) in some cases where others were allowed to do it, Lev 21:10; yet in case of blasphemy or any public calamity, it was thought allowable. Caiaphas hereby expressed, in the most artful manner, his horror at hearing such grievous blasphemy.

26:67 Then - After he had declared he was the Son of God, the sanhedrim doubtless ordered him to be carried out, while they were consulting what to do. And then it was that the soldiers who kept him began these insults upon him.

26:72 He denied with an oath - To which possibly he was not unaccustomed, before our Lord called him.

26:73 Surely thou art also one of them, for thy speech discovereth thee - Malchus might have brought a stronger proof than this. But such is the overruling providence of God, that the world, in the height of their zeal, commonly catch hold of the very weakest of all arguments against the children of God.

26:74 Then began he to curse and to swear - Having now quite lost the reins, the government of himself.

27 

27:1 In the morning - As the sanhedrim used to meet in one of the courts of the temple, which was never opened in the night, they were forced to stay till the morning before they could proceed regularly, in the resolution they had taken to put him to death. Mar 15:1; Luk 22:66; Luk 23:1; Joh 18:28.

27:2 Having bound him - They had bound him when he was first apprehended. But they did it now afresh, to secure him from any danger of an escape, as he passed through the streets of Jerusalem.