“And if they are clean, why washeth He their feet?” That we may learn to be modest. On which account He came not to any other part of the body, but to that which is considered more dishonorable than the rest. But what is, “He that is washed”? It is instead of, “he that is clean.” Were they then clean, who had not yet been delivered from their sins, nor deemed worthy of the Spirit, since sin still had the mastery, the handwriting of the curse still remaining, the victim not having yet been offered? How then calleth He them “clean”? That thou mayest not deem them clean, as delivered from their sins, He addeth, Behold, “ye are clean through the word that I have spoken unto you.” That is, “In this way ye are so far clean; ye have received the light, ye have been freed from Jewish error. For the Prophet also saith, ‘Wash you, make you clean, put away the wickedness from your souls’ ( Isa. i. 16 , LXX.); so that such a one is washed and is clean.” Since then these men had cast away all wickedness from their souls, and had companied with Him with a pure mind, therefore He saith according to the word of the Prophet, “he that is washed is clean already.” For in that place also It meaneth not the “washing” of water, practiced by the Jews; but the cleansing of the conscience.