After two days was [the feast of] the passover
That is, two days after Christ had delivered the foregoing
discourse concerning the destruction of the temple at Jerusalem,
was the feast of the passover; which was kept in commemoration of
God's passing over the houses of the Israelites, when he
destroyed the firstborn of Egypt, and made way for the
deliverance of the children of Israel from thence: and which was
kept by eating the passover lamb; and which, properly speaking,
is the feast of the passover:
and of unleavened bread;
which was the same feast with the other, called so from the
unleavened bread which was then eaten; though with this
difference, the passover lamb was only eaten on the first night,
but unleavened bread was eaten for seven days together. The
Syriac, Persic, and Ethiopic versions render it, "the passover of
unleavened bread", leaving out the copulative "and".
And the chief priests and Scribes sought how they might
take him by
craft;
that is, Jesus,
and put him to death:
for which purpose they assembled together in Caiaphas the high
priest's palace, and there took counsel together how to
accomplish it; see ( Matthew
26:2-4 ) .
