Mark 14:1-2

The plot to arrest Jesus 14:1-2 (cf. Matthew 26:1-5; Luke 22:1-2)

These verses introduce the whole passion narrative. Passover commemorated the Israelites’ redemption from slavery in Egypt through the Exodus (Exo_12:1 to Exo_13:16). It anticipated a greater deliverance from the consequences of slavery to sin. The Jews began to celebrate Passover on the fourteenth of Nisan, and the feast of Unleavened Bread followed on the fifteenth through the twenty-first of Nisan. Mark dated the events that follow immediately as occurring two days before Passover. This would have been Wednesday, April 1, A.D. 33. [Note: Hoehner, Chronological Aspects . . ., pp. 92, 143.]

Passover, like the feasts of Tabernacles and Pentecost, was a pilgrim feast. Many Jewish families from all over the world traveled to Jerusalem to observe these feasts as the Mosaic Law required (Deuteronomy 16:16). The Jews could observe the Passover only in Jerusalem (Deuteronomy 16:5-6). Consequently mobs of people choked the city. One writer claimed that the population of Jerusalem swelled from 50,000 to 250,000. [Note: Lane, p. 490.] Jesus enjoyed a large popular following, so the religious leaders wanted to avoid a riot by executing Jesus inconspicuously. Evidently they wanted to postpone further confrontation with Jesus until after the feasts when the pilgrims would have returned to their homes. However, Judas’ offer to betray Jesus (Mark 14:10-11) was too good to refuse.