Mark 14:1

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.

Mark 14:1 Meaning and Commentary

Mark 14:1

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 ) .

Mark 14:1 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.