Matthew 26:21

21. As they did eat Introductory to and during this supper, some things occur not mentioned by Matthew, but furnished by the other evangelists. Our Lord at the commencement expressed the solemn desire with which he had anticipated that feast. Luke 22:14-15. Before the supper had fully begun, (Luke 22:14-18,) a strife for pre-eminence took place among the disciples, which drew forth from our Lord a lesson on humility, which he then illustrated by washing his disciples’ feet. John 13:1-20. This he probably did as they reclined upon their supper-couches. This strife, at this most unsuitable time, probably arose for the pre-eminence at the table, of which the Orientals were very tenacious. Then follow the references to his betrayer here given by Matthew. Shall betray me In regard to the conversation by which our Lord specified Judas as the betrayer, I think the true order of things, will be best ascertained by reading in sections Matthew 26:21-23, then John 13:23-26, then Matthew 26:24-25, and last John 13:27-30. We thereby trace the gradual climax by which our Lord first makes a general charge, then narrows it to a group, then so reveals it to one as that it would be soon known to all, and then identifies the traitor to himself. In the present verse, as the first of the above steps of exposure, the charge is general, and any one of the disciples may claim it to himself.