The Promised Road Reaches the Night of Betrayal

Passover fell on the fourteenth of Nisan, and the seven days of unleavened bread ran on from it, so the two names are used together for one festival. “By craft” is dolos, deceit, the word in Jesus’ list of what comes out of the heart (7:22).

Pilgrims swelled Jerusalem many times over at Passover, and the Roman governor came up from Caesarea with troops against trouble. Josephus tells of a Passover riot under Cumanus in which thousands died. The council’s caution fails anyway: Jesus is arrested and executed during the feast.

Bethany lay about two miles east of Jerusalem over the Mount of Olives. Simon “the leper” can only be hosting if he has been healed; he appears nowhere else. The alabaster was a sealed flask with a long neck, snapped off to pour, and spikenard was imported from the Himalayas. Kings were anointed on the head.

The objectors are simply “some”; John 12:4 names Judas. “Waste” is apoleia, a word that also means destruction and perdition, and “indignation” is the verb used of the ten against James and John (10:41).

Three hundred pence, denarii, came close to a labourer’s wages for a year once sabbaths and feast days were taken out. “Murmured” is a much stronger word than it sounds: it means to snort with anger, the verb used when Jesus sternly charged the healed leper in 1:43.

“A good work” is kalon ergon, a beautiful thing. Later rabbinic teaching ranked deeds of kindness, among them burying the dead, above almsgiving, since alms could be given only to the living and the poor. Jesus places her act in that higher category before he says why.

The first half echoes Deuteronomy 15:11, “the poor shall never cease out of the land”, a verse whose next words command Israel to open its hand wide to them. Quoting it does not excuse neglect of the poor; the Law it comes from requires the opposite.

The Greek reads “what she had, she did”. Bodies were anointed after death, but when the women bring spices on Sunday morning (16:1) there will be no body to anoint. In Mark this is the only anointing Jesus receives, and it comes before he dies.

“Memorial” is the word the Greek Old Testament uses for the portion of an offering burned to be remembered before God (Leviticus 2:2), and the angel uses it of Cornelius’ alms in Acts 10:4. “Throughout the whole world” picks up 13:10, the gospel preached among all nations.

The Greek has “the one of the twelve”. “Iscariot” is often explained as “man of Kerioth”, a town in southern Judea (Joshua 15:25), which would make him the only Judean among Galileans; that derivation is likely but not certain.

The problem of verses 1–2, how to take him without an uproar, is solved by an insider who knows where he sleeps. Mark gives no sum; the thirty pieces of silver are Matthew’s detail. “Conveniently” means at a good opportunity, a moment chosen rather than stumbled on.

The lambs were slaughtered in the temple court on the afternoon of the fourteenth, each householder killing his own while priests caught the blood. Josephus gives the count at one Passover as over 250,000 lambs. Mark counts this as “the first day of unleavened bread”, a looser reckoning than the calendar’s.

Carrying water in a jar was normally women’s work; men carried water in skins. A man with a pitcher would be easy to spot in a crowded street, which may be the point of the sign. Luke 22:8 names the two disciples as Peter and John.

“Goodman of the house” was 1611 English for the master of a household. “Guestchamber” is kataluma, the word Luke uses for the “inn” that had no room at Jesus’ birth (Luke 2:7). The message assumes the householder knows who “the Master” is.

The Passover had to be eaten inside Jerusalem’s walls, so pilgrims needed rooms in the city. “Furnished” means spread with couches and cushions, since the meal was eaten reclining, the posture of free people rather than slaves.

Making ready meant taking a lamb to the temple for slaughter, roasting it whole, and setting out unleavened bread, bitter herbs, wine and the fruit paste later called charoset. Two men had a full afternoon’s work.

Exodus 12:8 required the lamb to be eaten “in that night”, so the meal began after sunset, when the fifteenth of Nisan had started. Josephus says a Passover company numbered at least ten. Mark says the twelve came, Judas among them.

“One of you which eateth with me” echoes Psalm 41:9: “mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me”. John quotes that psalm outright; Mark lets the phrase suggest it. They “sat” means they reclined.

The Greek form of “Is it I?” expects the answer no: surely not I? Each man asks in hope of being cleared. Nobody points at anyone else.

All of them were dipping bread and herbs into the shared bowls, so the words narrow nothing down; they only say the betrayer is within arm’s reach. To share a dish was the plainest sign of friendship at an Eastern table.

“Goeth” is a gentle word for departing, used here of going to death. “As it is written” points to Scripture without naming one passage. The final sentence is severe and proverbial; a similar line about sinners appears in the Jewish writing First Enoch (38:2).

At a Jewish meal the blessing was spoken over bread to God, thanking him “who bringest forth bread from the earth”; the bread is not what is blessed. At Passover it was unleavened. Take, bless, break, give: the four verbs of 6:41 and 8:6 return in the same order.

Passover was drunk with four cups of wine through the evening, and which one this is has been argued for centuries; many identify it with the third, the cup of blessing (1 Corinthians 10:16). “Given thanks” is eucharisteo, the root of Eucharist. Judas drinks with the rest.

“Shed” is literally being poured out, the verb used for blood poured at the base of the altar in Leviticus 4:7. Many early manuscripts of Mark lack the word “new”; where it stands, it points to Jeremiah 31:31 and the new covenant promised there.

“The fruit of the vine” comes from the Jewish blessing over wine. The Greek doubles its negative, making the sentence almost a vow. On the cross, when he is offered wine mingled with myrrh, he will not take it (15:23).

At Passover the Hallel, Psalms 113–118, was sung in two parts, the second after the meal, and custom points to that. If so, the company walked out singing Psalm 118, the rejected stone that Jesus had quoted in the temple two days earlier (12:10).

“Offended” is the verb used in the parable for the rocky-ground hearers who fall away when persecution arises (4:17). Zechariah 13:7 in Hebrew is a command, “smite the shepherd”; Jesus gives it as “I will smite”, making God the one who strikes.

“Go before” is the shepherd’s verb, since an Eastern shepherd walks ahead of the flock rather than driving it. It is the word used in 10:32 when Jesus went ahead of them on the road up to Jerusalem, and the young man at the tomb will repeat this promise in 16:7.

Peter’s answer in Greek ends on three short words, “but not I”, with the pronoun pressed hard. He does not deny the prophecy; he accepts it for everyone else and exempts himself.

The Jewish day began at sunset, so “this day, even in this night” is one span of time. Only Mark has the cock crowing twice, making the forecast more exact, not less. Cockcrow was also the name of the third watch of the night, the one named in 13:35.

“Vehemently” renders a word found nowhere else in the New Testament, meaning beyond all measure. The Greek double negative makes it “I will never, ever deny thee”. Mark adds that they all said the same, so the flight in verse 50 belongs to every one of them.

Gethsemane is Aramaic for “oil press”, an olive grove on the lower slope of the Mount of Olives where olives were crushed. John calls it a garden; only Matthew and Mark give its name.

The same three went up the mountain in 9:2 and into Jairus’ house in 5:37. “Sore amazed” is a strong Greek word for alarm that only Mark uses, and he uses it again of the women who see the young man in the tomb (16:5).

“Exceeding sorrowful” is the word of the refrain in the Greek of Psalms 42 and 43, “Why art thou cast down, O my soul?” “Unto death” means a grief heavy enough to kill, as when Jonah says he does well to be angry “even unto death” (Jonah 4:9).

The verbs are in the imperfect tense, suggesting he fell and went on praying rather than a single act. Mark first reports the prayer indirectly, as a request that the hour might pass, and only then gives the words themselves.

“Abba” is the Aramaic word for father, kept untranslated, as Paul keeps it in Romans 8:15 and Galatians 4:6. In the prophets the cup is the cup of God’s wrath (Isaiah 51:17). James and John, asleep a few yards off, once said they could drink his cup (10:39).

“Simon” is the name Jesus has not used since he gave him the name Peter in 3:16. The question is singular and aimed at the man who had just vowed to die with him. One hour of wakefulness is all that was asked.

Now the command is plural, to all three. “Temptation” is peirasmos, which means testing or trial as well as enticement. “Ready” means willing, eager. The contrast of spirit and flesh sets human willingness against human frailty, not soul against body.

Mark reports the second prayer but does not repeat it, and he never reports a third, though Jesus returns three times. The count of three matches the three denials that are coming in the courtyard below the high priest’s house.

“Wist” is the old past tense of wit, to know. The phrase is nearly the one used of Peter on the mountain of the transfiguration, when “he wist not what to say” (9:6). The same three men are twice lost for words, once in glory and once in agony.

“Sleep on now” may be read as a question: are you still sleeping? “It is enough” translates apechei, an obscure word here. In business papyri it means “paid in full”, and some read it as the account being settled, perhaps with Judas’ money in mind. That reading is possible, not proven.

“Rise up, let us go” is not a call to escape; the direction is toward the approaching party. “Is at hand” is the verb Jesus used at the start of his preaching, “the kingdom of God is at hand” (1:15).

“Immediately” is euthys, Mark’s signature word, used over forty times in the book. The party comes from all three groups of the council, chief priests, scribes and elders, the same three named in 8:31 when Jesus first foretold his rejection. “Staves” are clubs.

“Token” means a prearranged signal. A kiss was the ordinary greeting of a disciple to his teacher, and in the dark among olive trees the soldiers needed to know which man was Jesus. “Safely” means securely, under guard, so that he does not slip away.

In verse 44 Judas says “kiss” with the simple verb; here Mark switches to a compound form that can carry the sense of kissing warmly or at length. “Master” in the Greek is Rabbi, spoken twice.

“Laid their hands on him” uses the verb of 12:12, where the leaders “sought to lay hold on him” and dared not for fear of the people. At night, with no crowd, they do it.

Mark says only “one of them that stood by” and does not say he was a disciple. John 18:10 names the swordsman as Peter and the servant as Malchus. The word for ear is a diminutive, which may mean the earlobe or outer ear.

“Thief” is lestes, bandit, the word Josephus uses for armed insurgents. Jesus used it in the temple, “a den of thieves” (11:17), and two lestai will be crucified on either side of him (15:27).

Mark has shown Jesus in the temple on three successive days (11:11 to 13:1), which is what “daily” covers. The last clause in Greek has no main verb, only “but that the scriptures might be fulfilled”, and the King James supplies “must be” to finish it.

“Forsook” is the verb used when the first disciples “left” their nets and their father to follow him (1:18, 20). Peter had said, “we have left all” (10:28). Now they leave him. Zechariah’s scattered sheep of verse 27 are scattered within hours.

“Young man” is neaniskos, the word Mark uses again for the young man in white sitting in the empty tomb (16:5). “Linen cloth” is sindon, the word for the linen Joseph of Arimathea buys to wrap the body (15:46). The young men who seize him are the arresting party.

The picture recalls Amos 2:16: “he that is courageous among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day.” Mark leaves the young man there, running into the dark with nothing on.

Mark does not name the high priest; Matthew gives his name, Caiaphas. The Mishnah, written down later, forbids capital trials at night, which is one reason historians debate whether this was a formal trial or a preliminary hearing.

“Afar off” is the phrase Mark later uses of the women who watch the cross from a distance (15:40). The palace is the courtyard. Peter warms himself at the fire, but the Greek word is “light”: he is sitting in its glow, where his face can be seen.

The council, the Sanhedrin, numbered seventy-one members under the high priest. “Sought” is imperfect: they kept looking for testimony, and kept failing. Their verdict is fixed before the evidence, and the evidence will not come.

Deuteronomy 19:15 required two or three witnesses to establish any charge, and 17:6 insisted on it in capital cases. Witnesses who disagreed cancelled one another, so the law itself protected Jesus here, until his own answer made witnesses unnecessary.

“There arose certain, and bare false witness” is close to Psalm 35:11, “False witnesses did rise up; they laid to my charge things that I knew not”, a psalm of a righteous man hounded by enemies.

“Made with hands” is the Greek Old Testament’s term for idols (Leviticus 26:1, Isaiah 46:6), so the charge puts idol language into Jesus’ mouth about the temple. The accusation will be flung at him again on the cross by passers-by (15:29).

“Neither so” means not even so. Under Deuteronomy 19:18–19 a false witness was to suffer the penalty he had tried to bring on the accused. The best charge the council had collapses in its own disagreement.

The high priest rises from his seat, a formal move to take charge of a hearing that is failing. His two questions invite Jesus to defend himself and so give them something to work with.

The silence recalls Isaiah 53:7, “he opened not his mouth”. “The Blessed” is a reverent way of avoiding the name of God, and this is the only place in the New Testament it stands as a title. In one sentence the high priest joins the two titles of the book’s first verse, Christ and Son of God.

In Matthew and Luke the answer is guarded (“Thou hast said”); in Mark it is plain: “I am.” “Power” is another reverent substitute for the name of God, so the right hand of power means God’s right hand.

Later Jewish law required judges who heard blasphemy to tear their garments. Leviticus 21:10 forbade the high priest to rend his clothes in mourning, which makes the gesture a judicial act rather than grief. The witnesses who could not agree are dismissed in one question.

The Mishnah defines blasphemy narrowly as pronouncing the divine name itself, which Jesus avoided; the charge presumably rests on his claim to sit at God’s right hand. “They all condemned him”, though Luke 23:51 says Joseph of Arimathea, a council member, did not consent.

Isaiah 50:6: “I gave my back to the smiters ... I hid not my face from shame and spitting.” Matthew and Luke add the taunt “who is he that smote thee?”; Mark gives only the bare command, “Prophesy.” The servants’ blows may have been slaps or strokes with rods.

The courtyard is “beneath”, so the hearing was upstairs in the house. A “maid” is a slave girl; John says she kept the door (18:17). The first person to challenge Peter is the least powerful person in the building.

“Looked upon him” means she stared, studying his face in the firelight. “Jesus of Nazareth” is literally “the Nazarene”, a provincial label for a man from an obscure Galilean village, not a flattering one.

Peter’s words resemble a set formula of denial found in later Jewish law, used to deny a claim outright: I neither know nor understand what you mean. The porch is the forecourt by the gateway, and he is edging toward the exit.

The Greek has “the maid”, the same girl, where Matthew has another. This time she does not speak to Peter but to the bystanders, turning a private remark into a public accusation.

Galileans were known for their accent; the Talmud tells of Galileans who blurred their gutturals so badly that words could not be told apart. Peter can deny the facts but cannot change his voice. “A little after” is an hour, according to Luke 22:59.

“Curse” and “swear” together describe the oath form that calls a divine penalty down on the speaker if he lies, like “The LORD do so to me, and more also” in Ruth 1:17. Peter will not even say the name, only “this man”.

“When he thought thereon” translates epibalon, an obscure word that has been read as he broke down, he covered his head, or he rushed out. An early tradition preserved by Papias says Mark wrote down Peter’s own preaching, which would make this humiliation Peter’s own report.