Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

John 13:23

ἦν … Ἰησοῦς, the disciple whom Jesus loved lay next Him, ἐν τῷ κόλπῳ. Two arrangements of guests at a table were in vogue. They either lay at right angles to the table and parallel to one another, each resting on his left elbow and having his right hand free (see Rich's Dict., s. v. Trielinium, Lectus, Accubo); or they lay obliquely, the second reaching with his head to “the sinus of the girdle (κόλπος)” of the first, and with the feet of the first at his back; while the third occupied the same posture relatively to the second (see the engraving in Becker's Charicles, 327, and Lightfoot, p. 1095, who says that this second arrangement prevailed in Palestine in the time of Christ). John was lying, then, next to Jesus, his position being inside that of Jesus. To him Peter νεύει, “beckons” (cf. νεύσω μέν τοι ἐγὼ κεφαλῇ, Od., xvi. 283), taking the initiative as usual, but not himself asking, perhaps because he had made so many mistakes that evening already, perhaps because a private matter might better be transacted in a whisper from John.

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Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

John 13:23

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