, "I am telling you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe that I am who I am". Indeed, the whole of John's Gospel is written so that [his readers] "may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing [they] may have life in his name" ( NIV). Jesus anticipates being betrayed by one of His friends (), a consideration which He finds deeply troubling. The disciples cannot imagine who Jesus might be referring to, and ask "Lord, who is it?" (). Jesus does not identify His betrayer by name, but provides an answer by sign: Verse 23 “One of his disciples—the one whom Jesus loved—was reclining next to him.” The formal introduction of the Beloved Disciple is a “stunningly apparent” stroke of "narrative genius", for he is introduced immediately after Jesus demonstrates his love for the disciples in the act of washing the disciples’ feet () and immediately before the commandment to “love one another just as I have loved you” (). The framing device places the Beloved Disciple at "center stage", highlighting his importance in the Gospel and his special relationship with Jesus. His position next to Jesus (literally, the one “who is in the bosom of Jesus”, ) describes not only his proximity to Jesus at the supper but also his “closest communion” with him. Verse 26 "It is he to whom I shall give a piece of bread when I have dipped it." And having dipped the bread, He gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon.The word in (bapsas, "dipped"), appears only once in the New Testament, here. The text refers to "the piece" or "morsel" or "sop" of bread (, to psómion), and William Robertson Nicoll states that "some argue from the insertion of the article τὸ that this was the sop made up of a morsel of lamb, a small piece of unleavened bread, and dipped in the bitter sauce, which was given by the head of the house to each guest as a regular part of the Passover; and that therefore John as well as the Synoptists considered this to be the Paschal Supper. But not only is the article doubtful, but it is an ordinary Oriental custom for the host to offer such a tid-bit to any favoured guest; and we are rather entitled to see in the