Mark 14:2

2 For they said, "Not during the feast, because there might be a riot of 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 now two days before the feast of the Pesach and the matzah, and the chief Kohanim and the Sofrim sought how they might sieze him by deception, and kill him.

2 For they said, "Not during the feast, because there might be a riot of the people."

3 While he was at Beit-Anyah, in the house of Shim`on the leper, as he sat at the table, a woman came having an alabaster jar of ointment of pure nard -- very costly. She broke the jar, and poured it over his head.

4 But there were some who had indignation among themselves, saying, "Why has this ointment been wasted?

5 For this might have been sold for more than three hundred denarii, and given to the poor." They grumbled against her.