The Given Body and the Scattered Disciples

Only here does the closing formula say “all these sayings”; the four earlier ones lack “all” (7:28; 11:1; 13:53; 19:1). The phrasing recalls Moses at the end of Deuteronomy, who “made an end of speaking all these words to all Israel” (Deuteronomy 32:45). The teaching is over; from here Jesus mostly acts and suffers.

“Is betrayed” is present tense in Greek, as if the handing over were already under way. This is the fourth passion prediction in Matthew (16:21; 17:22–23; 20:18–19) and the first to fix a date. Jesus names the feast before his enemies set their plan in the next verse.

Joseph Caiaphas held the high priesthood from about AD 18 to 36, longer than anyone else in that century, and John makes him son in law of Annas (John 18:13). In 1990 an ornate ossuary inscribed “Yehosef bar Qayafa” was found in Jerusalem. The “palace” is aule, the courtyard of a great house.

“Subtilty” is the 1611 spelling of subtlety; the Greek dolos means guile, a trick, originally bait. Jesus had taught openly in the temple every day (verse 55); they want to take him by stealth, away from the crowds who hold him a prophet (21:46).

“The feast” covers the whole week of Passover and Unleavened Bread, when Jerusalem swelled with pilgrims. Josephus records a Passover riot under the governor Cumanus, set off by a soldier’s obscene gesture, in which thousands died in the crush (War 2.224–227). The fear of an uproar was realistic.

A leper had to live alone outside the camp (Leviticus 13:46), so Simon cannot still have had the disease if he was hosting a dinner; he keeps the name as others kept theirs. Matthew and Mark name him; neither says whether Jesus had healed him.

An alabastron was a slender flask of translucent stone, often sealed, with a neck snapped off to pour. Matthew and Mark have the ointment poured on the head, as kings were anointed: Samuel poured oil on Saul’s head (1 Samuel 10:1). “Sat at meat” means reclined at table.

“Waste” is apoleia, the word for destruction or ruin. Matthew uses it in only one other place: “the way, that leadeth to destruction” (7:13). The disciples reach for a strong word to describe perfume poured out on their teacher.

Mark gives the price, more than three hundred pence (Mark 14:5), close to a labourer’s wages for a year. Matthew leaves the figure out and keeps only “much”. Giving to the poor at Passover was customary, so the objection sounds pious and well timed.

“When Jesus understood it” suggests the complaint was muttered among them, not said to him. “A good work” is kalon ergon, a fine or beautiful deed, the phrase of 5:16: “that they may see your good works.”

The book ends with another kind of presence: “lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world” (28:20). What they will not always have is the body reclining at this table, which is about to be handed over.

Bodies were anointed with spices after death. In Mark and Luke the women bring spices to the tomb; in Matthew they come only “to see the sepulchre” (28:1). So in this book this is the only anointing Jesus’ body ever receives, given in advance by a woman at dinner.

“Memorial” is mnemosynon, the word the Greek Old Testament uses for the “memorial” portion of an offering burned on the altar (Leviticus 2:2). Her deed will rise before God and the world. Matthew never gives her a name; the memorial is to what she did.

“Iscariot” is most often explained as ish Kerioth, man of Kerioth, a town in Judah (Joshua 15:25), which would make him perhaps the one Judean among Galileans; others connect it with sicarius, a dagger man. “Then” ties his visit tightly to the scene in Bethany.

Only Matthew has Judas ask for a price. “Covenanted” is histemi, to weigh out, the verb of Zechariah 11:12: “they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver.” Thirty shekels was the compensation the law set for a slave gored by an ox (Exodus 21:32).

“Opportunity” is eukairia, a convenient moment. What Judas can sell is exactly what the leaders lacked in verse 5: knowledge of where Jesus would be at night, away from the crowd.

Strictly the lambs were killed on the fourteenth of Nisan and the feast of Unleavened Bread began on the fifteenth, but in common speech the fourteenth, when leaven was cleared from every house, was counted its first day; Josephus speaks the same way.

“Such a man” is deina, the Greek for “so and so”, a way of not naming someone; it appears nowhere else in the New Testament. The man is not identified, and the message assumes he will understand “The Master” without further explanation. “My time” is kairos, the appointed moment.

Making ready meant having the lamb slaughtered in the temple court and roasting it whole (Exodus 12:8–9), with unleavened bread, bitter herbs and wine, and preparing a room large enough for thirteen to recline.

“Sat down” is anakeimai, to recline. The first Passover was eaten standing, staff in hand (Exodus 12:11), but by Jesus’ day it was eaten reclining, the posture of free people; the Mishnah says even the poorest man must recline that night (Pesahim 10:1).

Psalm 41:9 speaks of the familiar friend “which did eat of my bread”, who lifted up his heel. Matthew does not quote it, though John does (John 13:18). “As they did eat” sets the announcement in the middle of the meal, with everyone’s hand still at the table.

The question in Greek, meti ego eimi, kyrie, expects the answer no: “Surely it is not I, Lord?” Eleven men ask it honestly. None of them asks it of anyone else.

Everyone dipped bread or herbs into shared bowls; at Passover the bitter herbs went into a sauce. The words do not single out one man but stress closeness: it is someone eating from the same dish as Jesus.

“Goeth” is hypago, to go on one’s way. First Enoch says of sinners who deny the Lord of Spirits that “it would have been good for them if they had not been born” (1 Enoch 38:2). The sentence is lament and verdict at once.

“Thou hast said” is sy eipas: yes, but put back on the questioner. Jesus gives the same answer to the high priest in verse 64, and Pilate hears something like it in 27:11, “Thou sayest.” It affirms without volunteering.

The blessing was said to God, not over the bread: “Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the world, who bringest forth bread from the earth” (Mishnah Berakhot 6:1). The four verbs, took, blessed, brake, gave, are those of the feeding of the five thousand (14:19).

“All” refers to the disciples, not the contents: “Drink of it, all of you.” Mark reports “they all drank of it” (Mark 14:23); Matthew turns the report into a command. The Passover meal had four cups of wine through the evening (Mishnah Pesahim 10).

Mark describes John’s baptism as “for the remission of sins” (Mark 1:4); Matthew removes the phrase from John’s preaching (3:1–2) and places it here, at the cup. “Shed” is present, being poured out, the verb for pouring blood at the base of the altar (Leviticus 4:7). “For many” recalls the ransom of 20:28.

“Fruit of the vine” is the language of the blessing over wine: “who createst the fruit of the vine” (Mishnah Berakhot 6:1). Only Matthew adds “with you”. The next drink offered to Jesus, mingled with gall at the cross, he will taste and refuse (27:34).

At the end of the Passover meal the second half of the Hallel, Psalms 115 to 118, was sung (Mishnah Pesahim 10:7), so this was almost certainly the hymn. It ends with Psalm 118, the rejected stone and “Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the LORD.”

Zechariah 13:7 in Hebrew is a command, “smite the shepherd”. Matthew’s quotation makes it first person, “I will smite”, with God as the one who strikes. “Offended” is skandalizo: they will trip over what happens to him.

“Go before you” is proago, the verb of a shepherd walking ahead of his flock, which carries on the image of verse 31: the scattered sheep will be gathered by the same shepherd. The angel at the tomb will repeat the promise almost word for word (28:7).

This is the second time Peter has contradicted a passion prediction. In 16:22 he said, “this shall not be unto thee”; now he says it of himself. He takes up Jesus’ own verb, offended, and turns the prophecy into a boast.

The Romans called the third watch of the night, ending around three in the morning, gallicinium, cockcrow, and Mark lists “at the cockcrowing” among the watches (Mark 13:35). Whether a bird or the hour is meant, the prediction gives Peter only part of one night.

“Deny” is aparneomai, the verb of 16:24: “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself.” Peter is about to deny Jesus in place of himself. “Die with thee” is one Greek verb, synapothnesko, to die together.

Gethsemane is Aramaic gat shemanim, oil press, a plot on the Mount of Olives. The words echo Abraham at Moriah: “Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship” (Genesis 22:5). In both, the one who goes on alone goes to face a sacrifice.

The two sons of Zebedee are the brothers who told Jesus “We are able” when he asked if they could drink his cup (20:22); now they are brought to watch him face it. “Very heavy” is ademoneo, to be distressed or in anguish, a strong word used of Epaphroditus near death (Philippians 2:26).

“Exceeding sorrowful” is perilypos, the word of the refrain in the Greek of Psalms 42 and 43: “Why art thou cast down, O my soul?” “Even unto death” echoes Jonah’s cry, “I do well to be angry, even unto death” (Jonah 4:9).

He falls on his face as the three had fallen on theirs at the transfiguration (17:6). Only Matthew adds “my” to “O Father”. Where Mark’s Jesus begins “all things are possible unto thee” (Mark 14:36), Matthew’s says “if it be possible”, a request placed inside a condition.

He speaks to Peter, but the verb is plural: could you not, all of you. Passover night was “a night to be much observed unto the LORD” (Exodus 12:42), a night of keeping watch. They cannot manage an hour of it.

“Enter not into temptation” is the petition of the Lord’s Prayer, “lead us not into temptation” (6:13), now urged on the three as a present danger. “Willing” is prothymos, eager, ready. Peter’s eagerness in verse 35 was real.

“Thy will be done” is word for word the third petition of the Lord’s Prayer (6:10), genetheto to thelema sou. The disciples had been taught to pray it; here it is prayed by the teacher, with a cup in front of him.

“Heavy” is barynomai, weighed down. This time Matthew records no word from Jesus to them at all. He finds them sleeping, sees why, and goes back to pray.

Three prayers and, before morning, three denials. Many readers have seen the pattern: the one who prays three times does not fail, and the one who swore he would not deny fails three times. Paul too asked three times for relief and received an answer other than the one he sought (2 Corinthians 12:8–9).

“Sleep on now, and take your rest” can be read as a question, “Are you still sleeping?”, or as a weary concession; the Greek allows either. “Sinners” was often used by Jews of Gentiles, as Paul’s “sinners of the Gentiles” (Galatians 2:15), which may point to the Romans.

“At hand” is engiken, the verb of the first preaching, “the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (3:2; 4:17). “Let us be going” moves toward the arresting party, not away. The command to rise is the one he gave on the mountain in 17:7.

“Staves” are xyla, wooden clubs. In Matthew the crowd comes from the chief priests and elders, probably temple police and household servants; John adds Roman soldiers (John 18:3). “One of the twelve” is repeated as though the reader might have forgotten which side Judas was on.

The Pharisees had asked Jesus for a sign (12:38; 16:1) and been refused. The only “sign”, semeion, given tonight is Judas’s kiss. “Hold him fast” is krateo, to seize firmly, the verb they had used for their plan in verse 4, to “take” him.

“Hail” is chaire, the greeting the soldiers will turn into mockery, “Hail, King of the Jews” (27:29), and the one the risen Jesus will give the women, “All hail” (28:9). “Kissed him” is an intensive form, kissed warmly. Joab took Amasa by the beard to kiss him and stabbed him (2 Samuel 20:9–10).

The Greek is clipped, eph’ ho parei, “for what you are here”. The King James makes it a question; many modern translations take it as a command, “Friend, do what you came to do.” Either way it is the last thing Jesus says to Judas.

“Stretched out his hand” is the gesture Jesus made to heal a leper (8:3) and to catch Peter sinking in the sea (14:31). This hand draws a sword. John names the swordsman as Peter and the servant as Malchus (John 18:10); Matthew leaves both anonymous.

The saying echoes the law given to Noah: “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed” (Genesis 9:6). “Into his place” means the sheath. Jesus had taught not to resist evil in 5:39, and now applies it with an armed crowd in front of him.

A Roman legion was about six thousand men, so twelve legions would be over seventy thousand angels, a legion for each of the twelve with more to spare. “Presently” means at once. Elisha’s servant was shown a mountain full of horses and chariots of fire around them (2 Kings 6:17).

“Must” is dei, the necessity of the first prediction: “he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things” (16:21). The question turns the angels down on scriptural grounds, not practical ones.

Sitting was the teacher’s posture: Jesus sat to deliver the Sermon on the Mount (5:1) and to teach from the boat (13:2). “Daily” implies a longer teaching presence in the temple than the few days Matthew records.

“The scriptures of the prophets”, in the plural, names no single passage. The scattering Jesus quoted from Zechariah in verse 31 is fulfilled within hours. Mark adds the young man who fled naked, leaving his linen cloth behind (Mark 14:51–52); Matthew omits him.

John says Jesus was taken first to Annas (John 18:13); Matthew goes straight to Caiaphas. The Mishnah later forbids capital trials at night or on the eve of a festival (Sanhedrin 4:1); whether those rules held in Jesus’ day is debated, but a night hearing at Passover was irregular by them.

“Afar off” is makrothen, the word used of the women watching the crucifixion “afar off” (27:55). “To see the end” is telos: Peter wants to know how it will turn out, and finds out more about himself.

The Mishnah gives the great Sanhedrin seventy one members (Sanhedrin 1:6). The law set a penalty for false witness: do to him “as he had thought to have done unto his brother” (Deuteronomy 19:19). The court is seeking evidence that the law itself would punish.

The law demanded two or three witnesses for a death sentence (Deuteronomy 17:6). Mark adds that even these two did not agree (Mark 14:59); Matthew only calls them false. It takes many attempts to find two.

Matthew’s version is “I am able to destroy”, where Mark’s has “I will destroy this temple that is made with hands” (Mark 14:58). John records something Jesus did say: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19). The passers-by at the cross will repeat the charge (27:40).

Isaiah 53:7 said of the servant, “he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter.” The high priest stands to force an answer. Silence before a charge left the accuser without the response he needed.

“I adjure thee” is exorkizo, to put under oath. Leviticus 5:1 held that a man who hears the voice of adjuration and does not speak bears his iniquity. Under oath, silence would itself become an offence, and Jesus answers.

“Power” is a reverent way of naming God without saying the name; the rabbis later spoke of God as haggevurah, “the Might”. “Ye shall see” is plural: the words are addressed to the whole council, not to Caiaphas alone.

The Mishnah later prescribed that judges tear their garments on hearing blasphemy (Sanhedrin 7:5), though Leviticus 21:10 forbade the high priest to rend his clothes in mourning. The act announces a verdict before any vote.

“Guilty of death” is enochos thanatou, liable to death. The law’s penalty for blasphemy was stoning (Leviticus 24:16), yet Jesus will die by Roman crucifixion. The council can declare a sentence but, as the next chapter shows, needs Pilate to carry it out.

Isaiah 50:6: “I hid not my face from shame and spitting.” Spitting was public disgrace (Deuteronomy 25:9). “Buffeted” is kolaphizo, to strike with the fist; “smote with the palms” is rhapizo, to slap, the verb of 5:39, “whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek”.

Mark says they blindfolded him first (Mark 14:65), which makes the taunt make sense. Matthew omits the blindfold, so the game becomes stranger: name which of many hands struck you. “Thou Christ” turns the high priest’s question into a sneer.

“Without” means outside the hall, in the open courtyard. The “damsel” is paidiske, a slave girl; John says she kept the door (John 18:17). “Jesus of Galilee” is a label with a sneer in it, the region the Judeans looked down on.

“Before them all” makes the denial public. Jesus had said, “whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father” (10:33). Peter’s first answer is the evasion of a man pretending not to follow the conversation.

The “porch” is pylon, the gateway passage from courtyard to street, where Peter has moved as if to leave. The second maid names Jesus by his hometown, Nazoraios, the title of 2:23, “He shall be called a Nazarene”.

“With an oath”: the man who heard “Swear not at all” (5:34) now swears. And he will not say the name, only “the man”. The first denial pretended ignorance of a question; this one disowns a person.

“Bewrayeth” is 1611 English for reveals or exposes, not betrays. Galilean Aramaic slurred its guttural sounds; the Talmud tells of a Galilean in the market asking for amar, and nobody could tell whether he wanted a donkey, wine, wool or a lamb (Eruvin 53b).

“Curse” is katathematizo, to call down a curse; the text does not say on whom, and it may be on himself if he is lying. The third denial repeats the second, “I know not the man”, with oaths piled on. The cock crows at once, with the words still in the air.

Judas, in the next chapter, regrets and returns the silver and goes out and hangs himself (27:3–5). Peter goes out and weeps. “Bitterly” is pikros, the word of Isaiah 22:4, “I will weep bitterly”. Both men go out; the book follows only one of them back to Galilee.