Mark 14:2

2 However, they said, "We shouldn't arrest him during the festival, or else there will be a riot among the people."

Mark 14:2 Meaning and Commentary

Mark 14:2

But they said not on the feast day
The feast of the passover, and of unleavened bread, which was nigh at hand, and would be two days hence, when there would be a great concourse of people from all parts to keep it: and therefore they did not choose to seize him, and put him to death at that time,

lest there should be an uproar of the people;
or among them, lest they should rise in his favour, and rescue him out of their hands; (See Gill on Matthew 26:5).

Mark 14:2 In-Context

1 It was two days before the Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread. The chief priests and the scribes were looking for some underhanded way to arrest Jesus and to kill him.

2 However, they said, "We shouldn't arrest him during the festival, or else there will be a riot among the people."

3 Jesus was in Bethany at the home of Simon, a man who had suffered from a skin disease. While Jesus was sitting there, a woman went to him. She had a bottle of very expensive perfume made from pure nard. She opened the bottle and poured the perfume on his head.

4 Some who were there were irritated and said to one another, "Why was the perfume wasted like this?

5 This perfume could have been sold for a high price, and the money could have been given to the poor." So they said some very unkind things to her.