Charles Ellicott Commentary John 12:6

"Now this he said, not because he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and having the bag took away what was put therein." — John 12:6 (ASV)

This verse, which follows from the reference to Judas, is of course, like that reference, peculiar to Saint John.

But because he was a thief, and had the bag.—Compare notes on John 13:29 and Luke 8:1-3. We must consider Judas as treasurer of the common fund that supplied the needs of the small group and from which gifts to the poor were made. The word rendered “bag” here (the only passage in the New Testament where it occurs) and “chest” (in 2 Chronicles 24:8–11) literally means the “key-chest,” in which musicians carried their flute-keys. Therefore, it was applied to a chest in a wider sense and, especially in this context, to a small and portable chest.

And bare what was put therein.—This is merely to say again, if we take the words in their ordinary sense, what is already implied by the fact that he kept the bag. The form of the word expresses the continuance of the act and may refer to recurring opportunities for fraud, as distinct from the mere fact of carrying the chest with a known sum in it. However, we can certainly render the word “bare away,” as Saint John himself uses it in this sense in John 20:15. This clause would then mean “and purloined what was put in it.”