Sop

Joh 13:26, a small portion of bread, dipped in sauce, wine, or some other liquid at table, Rth 2:14 . Modern table utensils were unknown or little used by the ancients. The food was conveyed to the mouth of the thumb and fingers, and a choice morsel was often thus bestowed on a favored guest.\par Similar customs still prevail in Palestine. Jowett says, "There are set on the table in the evening two or three messes of stewed meat, vegetables, and sour milk. To me the privilege of a knife, spoon, and plate was granted; but the rest helped themselves immediately from the dish, in which five Arab fingers might be seen at once. Their bread, which is extremely thin, tearing and folding up like a sheet of paper, is used for rolling together a large mouthful, or sopping up the fluid and vegetables. When the master of the house found in the dish any dainty morsel, he took it out with his fingers, and put it to my mouth."\par

Sop. In eastern lands, where our table utensils are unknown, the meat, with the broth, is brought upon the table in a large dish, and is eaten, usually, by means of pieces of bread dipped into the common dish. The bread so dipped is called "sop". It was such a piece of bread, a sop dipped in broth, that Jesus gave to Judas, Joh 13:26, and again, in Mat 26:23. It is said "he that dippeth his hand with me in the dish," that is, to make a sop by dipping a piece of bread into the central dish.

Morsel. Joh 13:26-30.

SOP

1. The meaning of the word.—‘Sop’ occurs in Authorized and Revised Versions only in Joh 13:26 bis. 27, 30 (AVm [Note: Vm Authorized Version margin.] ‘morsel’). It is akin in derivation to ‘sup’ and ‘soup,’ and denotes food soaked in liquid before being eaten. The Gr. word in each case is ψωμίον, dim. of ψωμός, ‘a morsel.’ ψωμίον does not occur in LXX Septuagint , but ψωμός is found in Rth 2:14, Job 31:17, and in Authorized and Revised Versions is rendered ‘morsel.’ Its use in Ruth—‘Dip thy morsel (ψωμόν) in the vinegar’—is exactly analogous to that of ψωμίον in John.

2. The nature of the sop given to Judas.—Edersheim (LT [Note: T Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah [Edersheim].] ii. 506) and others, on the ground especially of the definite art. (τὸ ψωμίον. Edersheim says, ‘Mark the definite article—not “a sop” ’), hold that it was a specific sop, used at the Passover supper in the time of Christ, which consisted of a piece of the flesh of the Paschal lamb, a piece of unleavened bread, and some bitter herbs, all wrapped together and dipped in the harôseth—a sauce made of raisins, dates, and other fruits, mixed with vinegar—and then passed round to the company by the host. Jesus, as the host at the Last Supper, would hand this sop, first of all, to Judas, who is supposed to have occupied the place of chief honour at the table (see art. Passover [I.], p. 326^b, and Upper Room). It is not enough to brush this view aside, as Meyer does, on the ground that, according to John, the Last Supper was not a Passover meal; for, even though it was not the regular Passover of the Jews, it may have been a Supper of a similar kind (see art. Passover [II.], p. 327^b). On the other hand, Edersheim’s argument from the definite art. is precarious, since its use in v. 26b is doubtful (see WH [Note: H Westcott and Hort’s text.] ); and, in any case, the Evangelist, writing long afterwards and with a profound sense of the momentous character of the incident, probably wrote ‘the sop,’ meaning thereby ‘the tragic sop,’ ‘that fatal sop’—which sealed the traitor’s doom. It seems much more probable, then, that this sop was not the specific Paschal sop passed round to the company by the host, but a particular sop that Jesus offered to Judas on purely personal grounds. At an Oriental feast the host sometimes presented a guest with a special tit-bit from the food on the table, as a distinguishing mark of his favour. And it was not by any accident of Judas’ position at the table, but because of a deep purpose in the heart of Jesus, that this sop was given.

3. Its significance.—This offering of the sop to Judas, which is not mentioned by the Synoptists (though Mt. and Mk. make Jesus say that the betrayer should be the one who dipped his hand with Him in the dish [Mat 26:23, Mar 14:20]), comes before us with a double significance. (a) It was a sign given to the beloved disciple, in response to his question, ‘Lord, who is it?’ that Judas was the one of the company who was about to betray his Master (Joh 13:25-26). (b) But it was much more than this. There was nothing hypocritical on Christ’s part in the action. He did not make a show of friendliness to Judas merely for the sake of giving John a private sign. What was commonly understood to be a token of hospitable goodwill was, without doubt, meant in this case to be the expression of a feeling deeper than any ordinary human affection, and at the same time to be a last appeal to the better nature of this erring disciple, with a note of warning underlying the appeal (cf. Joh 13:18; Joh 13:21). A whole world of blessed possibility lay for Judas in that proffered sop; Divine love was in it, and free forgiveness, and full restoration—if only he would repent of his meditated crime. And just because of the immensity of meaning that lay in Christ’s gift was the awfulness of its result. Judas ‘received the sop’ (Joh 13:30), and doubtless ate it. He understood what Jesus wished him to understand—the mingled love and warning and promise and appeal that lay in His act. But at this crisis of his fate he closed his ears to Christ’s offers and his heart to Christ’s grace. And immediately the light that still lingered in him was turned into darkness. For ‘after the sop, then [τότε—at that very moment] Satan entered into him.’ ‘The violent effort he made to close his heart to the heavenly power opened it to the powers of evil’ (Godet). Jesus knew that all was over. ‘That thou doest,’ He said, ‘do quickly’ (Joh 13:27). And so Judas, ‘having received the sop, [note the significant repetition of the ominous word], ‘went out straightway: and it was night.’

Literature.—The Lexx. s.vv. ψωμίον, ψωμός; Hasting’s Dictionary of the Bible , art. ‘Sop’; the Comm. of Meyer, Godet, Westcott, Dods, in loc.; Edersheim, LT [Note: T Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah [Edersheim].] ii. 505 ff.; ExpT [Note: xpT Expository Times.] iii. [1891] 107; Martin, Winning the Soul, 17.

J. C. Lambert.

SOP.—See Meals, 5.

sop (ψωμίον, psōmı́on): A thin, wafer-like piece of bread dipped into the common dish as a sort of improvised spoon, is thus designated in Joh 13:26 ff. See MORSEL.