He who has dipped his hand in the dish with me, will betray me indicates that the betrayer will be a close friend, one who shares the common bowl with Jesus. This is a particularly treacherous act, since the meal signified a tie between those who participated in it. Commentators are agreed that the words of Jesus reflect Psalm 41.9.

This sentence sometimes has to be restructured to be natural; for example, “The person who will betray me is one who has dipped his bread in the dish with me.” If at all possible, this image of dipping bread in the dish should be retained. If translators find the act so foreign that their readers will not understand it, they can say “The person who has dipped his bread in the dish with me as we ate together is the one who will betray me.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .