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Mark14:12–16

Preparing the Passover

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Mark 14:12–16 — Preparing the Passover. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

12

On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb was to be sacrificed, Jesus’ disciples asked Him, “Where do You want us to prepare for You to eat the Passover?”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai tē prōtē hēmera tōn azymōn hote to pascha ethyon autou hoi mathētai legousin autō Pou theleis apelthontes hetoimasōmen hina phagēs to pascha

Word by word23 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
τῇtēOn theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Feminine Singular
πρώτῃprōtēfirstG4413
√ πρῶτος — foremost (in time, place, order or importance)AdjectiveDative Feminine Singular
prōtos: foremost in time, place, order or importance Dative, agreeing with “day.” The sources in this brief do not agree on which day is meant: Gill says “the fourteenth of Nisan,” Pulpit says the first day of unleavened bread “would begin on the evening of the Thursday (the 14th day of the month Nisan),” and Geneva glosses it as “this day, and at the evening of the same day, which was the beginning of the fifteenth.” The reckoning is disputed in the record itself; see the apparatus.
ἡμέρᾳhēmeradayG2250
√ ἡμέρα — day, iNounDative Feminine Singular
τῶνtōnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Neuter Plural
ἀζύμωνazymōnof the Feast of Unleavened [Bread]G106
√ ἄζυμος — unleavened, iAdjectiveGenitive Neuter Plural
azymos: unleavened A rare word (the Verifier finds it in only 9 verses), and every one of its neighbours here is a feast word. Its presence sets the clock: the leaven has already been hunted out of the houses of Jerusalem, and the unleavened bread that Jesus will take in His hands a few verses later is lying ready because the law required it to be.
ὅτεhotewhenG3753
√ ὅτε — at which (thing) too, iAdverb
τὸtotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
πάσχαpaschaPassover lambG3957
√ πάσχα — the Passover (the meal, the day, the festival or the special sacrifices connected with it)NounAccusative Neuter Singular
pascha: the Passover, the meal, the day, the festival or the special sacrifices The lexicon itself refuses to narrow the word, and Mark exploits every sense of it in five verses: here the victim (Cambridge: “the Paschal victim”), in v. 14 the meal, in v. 16 the whole provision. Geneva marks the shift as deliberate rhetoric, “spoken thus, by the figure of speech called metonymy, which is commonly used when talking about sacraments.”
ἔθυονethyonwas to be sacrificedG2380
√ θύω — properly, to rush (breathe hard, blow, smoke), iVerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
thyō: properly to rush, breathe hard, to sacrifice Imperfect active: the customary killing. Gill supplies the mechanics from the Mishnah, an Israelite kills and a priest catches the blood, and adds the limit that “it was always killed in the court of the temple, and after the middle of the day.” So the clause is not scene-setting: it is a death notice with a time attached, and Mark places it in the same sentence as the first words the disciples speak.
αὐτοῦautou[Jesus’]G846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
οἱhoiG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
μαθηταὶmathētaidisciplesG3101
√ μαθητής — a learner, iNounNominative Masculine Plural
λέγουσινlegousinaskedG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
legō: to lay forth, to say Historic present, third plural. The disciples speak before Jesus does; the whole unit is answer, not initiative.
αὐτῷautōHimG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ΠοῦPouWhereG4226
√ ποῦ — as adverb of placeAdverb
pou: where The question is not “whether” and not “when,” only “where.” Pulpit is precise about why: “They do not inquire in what city or town. The Passover could not be sacrificed anywhere but in Jerusalem. The question was in what house it was to be prepared.” The same adverb returns on Jesus' own lips in v. 14, where He asks the householder the disciples' question back.
θέλειςtheleisdo You wantG2309
√ θέλω — to determine (as an active option from subjective impulseVerbPresent Indicative Active2nd Person Singular
ἀπελθόντεςapelthontesvvvG565
√ ἀπέρχομαι — to go off (iVerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
aperchomai: to go off, go away Aorist participle: the going away precedes the preparing, and in this narrative it also precedes knowing where they are going.
ἑτοιμάσωμενhetoimasōmenus to prepareG2090
√ ἑτοιμάζω — to prepareVerbAorist Subjunctive Active1st Person Plural
hetoimazō: to prepare Aorist subjunctive, first plural, the first of three occurrences of this verb in five verses (here, ἑτοιμάσατε in v. 15, ἡτοίμασαν in v. 16). The unit is built on that repetition: the disciples propose preparing, are commanded to prepare, and prepare. What they do not control is the place, and the place is the only thing they asked about.
ἵναhinaforG2443
√ ἵνα — compare G3588 (ὁ))Conjunction
φάγῃςphagēsYou to eatG5315
√ φάγω — to eat (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Subjunctive Active2nd Person Singular
τὸtotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
πάσχαpaschaPassoverG3957
√ πάσχα — the Passover (the meal, the day, the festival or the special sacrifices connected with it)NounAccusative Neuter Singular
13

So He sent two of His disciples and told them, “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jug of water will meet you. Follow him,

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai apostellei dyo tōn autou mathētōn kai legei autois Hypagete eis tēn polin kai anthrōpos bastazōn keramion hydatos apantēsei hymin akolouthēsate autō

Word by word22 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiSoG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἀποστέλλειapostelleiHe sentG649
√ ἀποστέλλω — set apart, iVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
apostellō: set apart, send out Present indicative singular. Mark gives the number, two; Ellicott records that “the names, Peter and John,” come from St. Luke only, and that “the sign of the pitcher of water is common to both Gospels, but not to St. Matthew.” Mark's reticence about Peter here is, Pulpit argues, characteristic of this Gospel.
δύοdyotwoG1417
√ δύο — "two"AdjectiveAccusative Masculine Plural
τῶνtōnofG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Plural
αὐτοῦautouHisG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
μαθητῶνmathētōndisciplesG3101
√ μαθητής — a learner, iNounGenitive Masculine Plural
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
λέγειlegeitoldG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
αὐτοῖςautoisthemG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Plural
ὙπάγετεHypageteGoG5217
√ ὑπάγω — to lead (oneself) under, iVerbPresent Imperative Active2nd Person Plural
hypagō: to lead oneself under, to withdraw Present imperative: the errand begins as a quiet departure.
εἰςeisintoG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
τὴνtēntheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
πόλινpolincityG4172
√ πόλις — a town (properly, with walls, of greater or less size)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
polis: a town, properly with walls Accusative of goal. The city is not named because it cannot be anything else; Gill grounds the necessity in law, “for there only the passover might be eaten,” citing Deuteronomy.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἄνθρωποςanthrōposa manG444
√ ἄνθρωπος — from G3700 (ὀπτάνομαι))NounNominative Masculine Singular
anthrōpos: a man, a human being Nominative, anarthrous: “a man,” never named, never spoken to in the narrative. He is a sign, not a character.
βαστάζωνbastazōncarryingG941
√ βαστάζω — to lift, literally or figuratively (endure, declare, sustain, receive, etcVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
bastazō: to lift, to bear, to carry Present participle. The whole force of the sign lies in this participle, and two of the brief's sources explain it in incompatible ways: Cambridge on social custom, “It was generally the task of women to carry water,” and Pulpit on ritual, “It was a solemn religious act preparatory to the Passover.” Either way the man is conspicuous; the brief cannot decide between them and neither will this note.
κεράμιονkeramiona jugG2765
√ κεράμιον — an earthenware vessel, iNounAccusative Neuter Singular
keramion: an earthenware vessel Accusative: the object carried. Gill reads it domestically, water “to mix with the wine, at the passover.”
ὕδατοςhydatosof waterG5204
√ ὕδωρ — water (as if rainy) literally or figurativelyNounGenitive Neuter Singular
ἀπαντήσειapantēseiwill meetG528
√ ἀπαντάω — to meet away, iVerbFuture Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
apantaō: to meet away, to meet Future indicative. A near-unique verb in this Gospel corpus (the Verifier records it in 2 verses), which is why the sentence reads less like a plan than like a prophecy, and why Barnes takes it as proof of omniscience.
ὑμῖνhyminyouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounDative 2nd Person Plural
ἀκολουθήσατεakolouthēsateFollowG190
√ ἀκολουθέω — properly, to be in the same way with, iVerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Plural
akolutheō: properly, to be in the same way with, to follow Aorist imperative. The word Mark has used throughout for discipleship is here spent on an unnamed water carrier: the two who follow Jesus are told to follow a stranger, and are given no destination but the one his feet choose.
αὐτῷautōhimG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
14

and whichever house he enters, say to the owner, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is My guest room, where I may eat the Passover with My disciples?’

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai hopou ean eiselthē eipate tō oikodespotē hoti HO Didaskalos legei Pou estin mou to katalyma hopou phagō to pascha meta mou tōn mathētōn

Word by word24 · parsed
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ὅπουhopouwhichever {house}G3699
√ ὅπου — what(-ever) where, iAdverb
ἐὰνeanG1437
√ ἐάν — a conditional particleConjunction
εἰσέλθῃeiselthēhe entersG1525
√ εἰσέρχομαι — to enter (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Subjunctive Active3rd Person Singular
eiserchomai: to enter Aorist subjunctive after the indefinite ὅπου ἐάν: the house is defined only by the stranger's footsteps.
εἴπατεeipatesayG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Plural
τῷtōto theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Singular
οἰκοδεσπότῃoikodespotēownerG3617
√ οἰκοδεσπότης — the head of a familyNounDative Masculine Singular
oikodespotēs: the head of a family Dative of the person addressed. He is told, not asked; and the messengers who tell him have no letter, no token and no name to give, only a title and a question.
ὅτιhotiG3754
√ ὅτι — demonstrative, that (sometimes redundant)Conjunction
ὉHOTheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ΔιδάσκαλοςDidaskalosTeacherG1320
√ διδάσκαλος — an instructor (genitive case or specially)NounNominative Masculine Singular
didaskalos: an instructor, a teacher With the article, “The Teacher,” and that is the entire credential. The message assumes the householder will know which teacher is meant, which is why Cambridge quotes Bengel's judgment, “Discipulus, sed non ex duodecim,” a disciple, but not of the Twelve, and why both Cambridge and Gill note that the guesses (Joseph of Arimathea, John Mark) are guesses.
λέγειlegeiasksG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
legō: to say Present: “the Teacher says,” a messenger formula, delivered word for word.
ΠοῦPouWhereG4226
√ ποῦ — as adverb of placeAdverb
ἐστινestinisG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
μουmouMyG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 1st Person Singular
τὸtoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Neuter Singular
κατάλυμάkatalymaguest roomG2646
√ κατάλυμα — properly, a dissolution (breaking up of a journey), iNounNominative Neuter Singular
katalyma: a breaking up of a journey, a lodging Nominative, with the possessive. A rare noun (the Verifier records 3 verses), and its other appearance in a nativity narrative is the reason the word carries more freight than “guest room” suggests. Here the lodging is claimed before it is offered.
ὅπουhopouwhereG3699
√ ὅπου — what(-ever) where, iAdverb
φάγωphagōI may eatG5315
√ φάγω — to eat (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Subjunctive Active1st Person Singular
phagō: to eat Aorist subjunctive, first singular, in a clause of place. The purpose of the whole errand is stated by the guest Himself: not that a room be found, but that a meal be eaten, and eaten “with my disciples.”
τὸtotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
πάσχαpaschaPassoverG3957
√ πάσχα — the Passover (the meal, the day, the festival or the special sacrifices connected with it)NounAccusative Neuter Singular
μετὰmetawithG3326
√ μετά — properly, denoting accompanimentPreposition
meta: denoting accompaniment With the genitive: the meal is defined by company, not by menu.
μουmouMyG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 1st Person Singular
τῶνtōnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Plural
μαθητῶνmathētōndisciplesG3101
√ μαθητής — a learner, iNounGenitive Masculine Plural
15

And he will show you a large upper room, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai autos deixei hymin mega anagaion estrōmenon hetoimon kai hetoimasate hēmin ekei

Word by word12 · parsed
καὶkaiAndG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
αὐτὸςautosheG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounNominative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
δείξειdeixeiwill showG1166
√ δεικνύω — to show (literally or figuratively)VerbFuture Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
deiknyō: to show, literally or figuratively Future indicative. Jesus does not say the householder will consent, debate, or be persuaded; He says he will show. Everything after the message is told in futures, and v. 16 reports every one of them fulfilled.
ὑμῖνhyminyouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounDative 2nd Person Plural
μέγαmegaa largeG3173
√ μέγας — big (literally or figuratively, in a very wide application)AdjectiveAccusative Neuter Singular
megas: big, literally or figuratively Gill draws the plain inference: “large enough for such a company, for thirteen persons.”
ἀνάγαιονanagaionupper roomG508
√ ἀνώγεον — above the ground, iNounAccusative Neuter Singular
anagaion: above the ground, an upper room Accusative. Barnes notes the room's ordinary uses, “prayer, repose, and often of eating.” Pulpit passes on the tradition, honestly labelled as tradition, that this house was John Mark's and later the first meeting place of the Church.
ἐστρωμένονestrōmenonfurnishedG4766
√ στρώννυμι — to "strew," iVerbPerfect Participle Middle or PassiveAccusative Neuter Singular
strōnnymi: to strew, to spread Perfect participle, and a rare verb: the Verifier finds it in only 5 verses, two of them the parallel at Luke 22:12 and the spreading of garments on the road at Matthew 21:8. The room is in the state its owner put it in before anyone knocked.
ἕτοιμονhetoimon[and] readyG2092
√ ἕτοιμος — adjusted, iAdjectiveAccusative Neuter Singular
hetoimos: adjusted, ready The pivot of the unit. The room is already ἕτοιμον before the disciples arrive, and the command that follows is to ἑτοιμάζω it anyway. Grace and errand are not rivals here: what they are told to do is real work, and it is done inside a readiness they did not create. Cambridge presses the same point from the other side, inferring from this word that the leaven had already been searched out.
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἑτοιμάσατεhetoimasateMake preparationsG2090
√ ἑτοιμάζω — to prepareVerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Plural
hetoimazō: to prepare Aorist imperative plural, the second of the three. The preparing is theirs; the place, the room and its furnishing are given.
ἡμῖνhēminfor usG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounDative 1st Person Plural
hēmin: for us First person plural dative. Not “for me”: the supper is spoken of as the company's before the company arrives.
ἐκεῖekeithereG1563
√ ἐκεῖ — thereAdverb
ekei: there The adverb that finally answers the disciples' “where” of v. 12, and it answers it without ever naming an address.
16

So the disciples left and went into the city, where they found everything as Jesus had described. And they prepared the Passover.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai hoi mathētai exēlthon kai ēlthon eis tēn polin kai heuron kathōs eipen autois kai hētoimasan to pascha

Word by word18 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiSoG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
οἱhoiG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
μαθηταὶmathētaithe disciplesG3101
√ μαθητής — a learner, iNounNominative Masculine Plural
ἐξῆλθονexēlthonleftG1831
√ ἐξέρχομαι — to issue (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
exerchomai: to issue, to go out Aorist: obedience reported without comment or delay.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἦλθονēlthonwentG2064
√ ἔρχομαι — to come or go (in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
εἰςeisintoG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
τὴνtēntheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
πόλινpolincityG4172
√ πόλις — a town (properly, with walls, of greater or less size)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
καὶkai[where]G2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
εὗρονheuronthey foundG2147
√ εὑρίσκω — to find (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
heuriskō: to find Aorist indicative. This is Mark's verification verb, and he supplies it no object in the Greek. Gill reads the verse as evidentiary, “a considerable proof of the prescience of Christ”; Maclaren, who suspects a prearrangement, would read the same verb as proof that the arrangement held. The text records the correspondence and does not adjudicate the cause.
καθὼςkathōs[everything] asG2531
√ καθώς — just (or inasmuch) as, thatAdverb
kathōs: just as, inasmuch as The hinge word of the verse: everything Mark has narrated in futures (ἀπαντήσει, δείξει) is now folded into this one adverb.
εἶπενeipen[Jesus] had describedG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
epō: to speak or say Aorist, subject unexpressed. The sentence turns on a word already spoken, which is the same logic Henry draws from the passage, that “our Lord knows all things about us before they come to pass.”
αὐτοῖςautois. . .G846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Plural
καὶkaiAndG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἡτοίμασανhētoimasanthey preparedG2090
√ ἑτοιμάζω — to prepareVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
hetoimazō: to prepare Aorist indicative plural: the third and final form of the unit's governing verb. Pulpit and Cambridge both fill in what it covered, the lamb taken to the temple to be killed by the priests, then roasted, with unleavened cakes, bitter herbs and the cups of wine. Two disciples spend an afternoon making ready a death meal, and one of the things they are handling is a killed lamb.
τὸtotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
πάσχαpaschaPassoverG3957
√ πάσχα — the Passover (the meal, the day, the festival or the special sacrifices connected with it)NounAccusative Neuter Singular
pascha: the Passover The unit's last word, as it was the last word of v. 12. Between the two occurrences nothing has been added but a room and an obedience.

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. The day the lambs die — 14:12

Mark dates the scene twice in one clause, by feast and by slaughter: the first day τῶν ἀζύμων (G106, a word the Verifier finds in only 9 verses), “when they were sacrificing the Passover.” Ellicott insists on the tense: “Better, when they used to sacrifice; the Greek tense implying a custom,” and adds that Mark and Luke write this way for Gentile readers who would not know the practice. Gill supplies the practice from the Mishnah, an Israelite kills the lamb and a priest catches the blood, and fixes the hour, “always killed in the court of the temple, and after the middle of the day.” Cambridge takes the name back to its root, that Pesach and Pascha come from a root meaning to “step over” or “overleap,” pointing to Exodus 12. ⚙ The effect of Mark's clause is that the first fact of the Last Supper narrative is a killing that is already under way, and the first human words in it are a question about logistics. Gill notes they are at Bethany, two miles out; Pulpit notes what they do not ask, “They do not inquire in what city or town,” because the law had settled that. What is left to ask is the one thing Jesus will not tell them: which house.

ii. An errand with no address — 14:13-14:14

Two are sent, and Ellicott records the division of the sources exactly: “The number is given by St. Mark; the names, Peter and John, by St. Luke only. The sign of the pitcher of water is common to both Gospels, but not to St. Matthew.” Everything after that is future indicative: ἀπαντήσει (G528, a verb the Verifier finds in only 2 verses), δείξει. Why a man with a jar is a sign at all divides the brief's sources: Cambridge on custom, “It was generally the task of women to carry water”; Pulpit on ritual, “It was a solemn religious act preparatory to the Passover”; Gill on domestic errand, a servant fetching water “to mix with the wine, at the passover.” Deeper still lies the question Maclaren puts first and answers against himself: “Miracle or Plan?” He thinks “there is nothing decisive either way in the narrative” and inclines to a preconcerted signal. Barnes takes the other road without hesitation, holding that the meeting “could have been known only by the infinite knowledge of Christ,” since “the disciples themselves proposed the inquiry.” ⚙ This study Bible does not adjudicate. What both readings agree on is the secrecy, and Maclaren names its purpose: to baffle the traitor. The message itself is stranger than the sign. Two men are to walk into a stranger's house and say only Ὁ Διδάσκαλος λέγει, “The Teacher says,” and claim a room with a possessive, “my κατάλυμα.” Ellicott holds the better manuscripts read it so and that the possessive “implies discipleship on the part of the owner of the house.” Cambridge quotes Bengel: “Discipulus, sed non ex duodecim.” Gill guesses Nicodemus or Joseph of Arimathea; Cambridge answers that “the Gospels and tradition alike are silent,” and that silence is the honest verdict.

iii. Ready, and yet make ready — 14:15-14:16

The room is described in two words that sit on either side of the unit's central paradox. ἐστρωμένον (G4766, perfect participle, a verb in only 5 verses by the Verifier's count) means spread and still spread; Barnes keeps the literal sense, “‘spread’ and ‘ready.’ Spread with a carpet, or with ‘couches’ such as were used in eating.” Ellicott separates the pair: the first word says it was not “a bare, empty chamber,” the second that “it was specially arranged for the Paschal Supper of that evening.” Then comes ἑτοιμάσατε, the imperative from the same root as the adjective ἕτοιμον three words earlier. ⚙ The room is ready; make it ready. Cambridge draws its own inference from that adjective, that the leaven had already been searched out with a candle, and marks it as inference (“We may conclude”). Verse 16 then spends only aorists: went out, came, found, prepared. Mark writes καθὼς εἶπεν αὐτοῖς, “just as he said to them,” with no object and no named subject. Gill calls the outcome “a considerable proof of the prescience of Christ”; Henry generalises it, “our Lord knows all things about us before they come to pass.” Pulpit and Cambridge fill in the content of that last verb in grim detail: the lamb fetched, taken to the temple, killed by the priests, brought back and roasted, with the unleavened cakes, the bitter herbs and the cups of wine.

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

⚙ Read under Sola Scriptura and offered to be tested: this unit is about who prepares whom. The disciples ask where they should prepare for Him; He answers by telling them where He has already had a room prepared for them. Every future in His mouth (a man will meet you, he will show you) turns into an aorist in v. 16, and Mark reports the turn with no comment beyond καθὼς εἶπεν, “just as he said.” The one grammatical joint that will not smooth out is v. 15: the room is ἕτοιμον, ready, and the command is ἑτοιμάσατε, make ready. Both are true at once, and neither cancels the other. The obedience is real work, unglamorous and bloody (Pulpit: the lamb taken to the temple to be killed by the priests), and it happens entirely inside a readiness the workers did not arrange and were never told the address of. That is the shape of the whole evening that follows, and, if this reading is right, the shape of the cross: a supper He provides, at which they are served, by a host who is Himself the provision. The line set out below is this tool's own sentence about the passage, not a verse of Scripture, and should be weighed as such.

The Lamb sends two men into the city to make ready the supper at which He is the lamb.

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

The parallel room: Luke's account of the same errand verbal / quotation: confirmed

Luke 22:10-13 tells this errand in the same words, and the Verifier's strongest match in the whole canon is Luke 22:12, sharing στρώννυμι (G4766) and ἑτοιμάζω (G2090). Ellicott records the division of the tradition precisely: Mark gives the number of disciples, Luke alone the names Peter and John, “the sign of the pitcher of water is common to both Gospels, but not to St. Matthew.” Cambridge and Pulpit both take the names from Luke 22:8 rather than from Mark. ⚙ The rare perfect participle “having been spread” standing in both Gospels is the tightest verbal tie: it is not a common word for furnishing.

Luke 22:10 · Luke 22:11 · Luke 22:12 · Luke 22:13

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G4766 στρώννυμι (rare, in 5 vv) and G2090 ἑτοιμάζω (40 vv) at Luke 22:12, plus G3101, G3957, G4226 at Luke 22:11 and G941, G5204, G190 at Luke 22:10. Greek to Greek within the New Testament, parallel account rather than citation.

κατάλυμα: no room at the beginning, a room at the end verbal / quotation: confirmed

The noun Jesus uses for the room He claims, κατάλυμα (G2646), is found by the Verifier in only 3 verses. Ellicott states the link flatly: “The word translated ‘guest-chamber’ is the same as that which appears in Luke 2:7 as ‘inn.’ It was, in fact, the generic term for a hired lodging.” Cambridge quotes the Nativity verse in full at this point for the same reason. ⚙ English translation hides what Greek keeps: the word that had no room for Him at the start of Luke's Gospel is the word He claims as His own at the end of His life, and this time it is large, upper, spread and ready.

Luke 2:7 · Luke 22:11

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G2646 κατάλυμα at Luke 2:7, rare (in 3 vv). A genuine verbal link within the Greek New Testament; the ironic reading built on it is synthesis, not a claim of quotation.

“Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us” verbal / quotation: confirmed

Cambridge cites 1 Corinthians 5:7 in this very unit, glossing the Passover as “Christ our Passover (= Paschal Lamb) is sacrificed for us,” and again at v. 15 when explaining the removal of leaven. The Verifier confirms the lexical overlap: Paul uses the same three words Mark uses to date the day, θύω (G2380), ἄζυμος (G106) and πάσχα (G3957). ⚙ Mark writes the clause as a calendar note; Paul writes the same vocabulary as doctrine. The overlap is real and it is Greek to Greek, but Paul is not quoting Mark and Mark is not citing Paul; they share the festival's own language.

1 Corinthians 5:7 · Luke 22:7

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G2380 θύω (in 13 vv), G106 ἄζυμος (in 9 vv), G3957 πάσχα (in 27 vv) at 1 Corinthians 5:7 and the same cluster at Luke 22:7. Relatively rare festival vocabulary, Greek to Greek; no claim of citation in either direction.

The lamb that must be killed at the place He chooses (Exodus 12) typological

Every dated element of v. 12 comes from the Passover law: the fourteenth day and the killing between the evenings, the seven days of unleavened bread, the lamb taken beforehand. Cambridge quotes Exodus 12:13 directly here (“And when I see the blood, I will pass over you”) and notes that the lamb “had, we may believe, already been bought on the tenth of Nisan, according to the rule of the Law (Exodus 12:3), the very day on which He, the true Paschal Lamb, entered Jerusalem in meek triumph.” Cambridge also cites Exodus 12:18 for the unleavened cakes and Exodus 12:26-27 for the child's question. ⚙ The figure is the plainest in the unit: the one who arranges this killing of a lamb is the one who will be killed, and Mark sets the two facts in a single clause. This is a figural reading, not a quotation: Mark makes no citation formula here.

Exodus 12:3 · Exodus 12:6 · Exodus 12:13 · Leviticus 23:5

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew), so no shared Strong's numbers are possible and no verbal tier can be claimed. Basis is the Passover law itself, cited inside the brief by Cambridge (Exodus 12:3, 12:13, 12:18) and Gill (the Mishnaic rules for slaying it). Typological: the lamb is prepared by the one about to be killed. Ancient and widely held, not novel.

Why it had to be Jerusalem: the place the LORD chooses structural / thematic: confirmed

Pulpit states the constraint as settled law: “They do not inquire in what city or town. The Passover could not be sacrificed anywhere but in Jerusalem.” Gill grounds it in Deuteronomy, “for there only the passover might be eaten,” citing Deuteronomy 26:2 at this point, and Cambridge notes that Bethany itself “was reckoned as regards religious purposes part of Jerusalem by the Rabbis, and the Lamb might be eaten there, though it must be killed at the Temple,” quoting Lightfoot. ⚙ The Deuteronomic rule is that the Passover may not be sacrificed “within any of thy gates,” but only at the place the LORD chooses. That is why the question is about a house and never about a city, and why two men must walk two miles carrying nothing but a message.

Deuteronomy 16:5 · Deuteronomy 16:6 · Deuteronomy 26:2

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew): shared Strong's numbers are impossible, so no verbal tier. The link is the legal constraint that governs the scene, stated by Pulpit and cited to Deuteronomy by Gill (who gives Deuteronomy 26:2; the central-place law for Passover is Deuteronomy 16:5-7). Pattern and law, no quotation claimed.

The errand met by a prearranged sign structural / thematic: confirmed

The narrative form of vv. 13-16 is old: a servant is sent out with no address, is given a sign to watch for at a water source, and finds the sign waiting. Samuel tells Saul exactly whom he will meet and what they will be carrying; Abraham's servant asks for a sign at a well and finds it before he has finished speaking. ⚙ Mark makes no allusion, and no commentator in this brief draws the comparison; it is offered here as a shape, not as a claim about Mark's intention. It does bear on the question Maclaren raises and leaves open (“Miracle or Plan?”): in the older narratives the foretold meeting is not a preconcerted arrangement, which is the reading Barnes presses.

1 Samuel 10:3 · 1 Samuel 10:5 · Genesis 24:14

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew): no shared Strong's numbers are possible, so no verbal tier. Basis is narrative form alone, the sent errand met by a foretold sign at a water source. No source in this brief asserts the link; it is offered as pattern comparison only and claims nothing about literary dependence.

ἀπαντάω: the rare verb of being met verbal / quotation: confirmed

The future “will meet you,” ἀπαντήσει (G528), is by the Verifier's count a verb of only 2 verses. The other is Luke 17:12, where ten lepers meet Jesus as He enters a village. ⚙ The shared lexeme is real and the coincidence is genuinely rare, but the two scenes have little in common beyond the meeting itself, so nothing thematic is claimed here: the point is only that Mark chose a word he almost never uses for the moment the sign appears.

Luke 17:12

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G528 ἀπαντάω, very rare (in 2 vv), plus G1525 εἰσέρχομαι (184 vv). Greek to Greek within the New Testament; a lexical rarity only, with no quotation or thematic claim attached.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The Lamb who orders the lamb ancient/widely-held

Mark dates the scene by the killing of the Passover victims and, in the same sentence, has Jesus arrange for one of them to be prepared for Him. Cambridge names the identification outright within this unit, glossing the Passover as “Christ our Passover (= Paschal Lamb) is sacrificed for us,” and observing that the lamb would have been bought on the tenth of Nisan, “the very day on which He, the true Paschal Lamb, entered Jerusalem in meek triumph.” Henry, commenting across this whole section, says “The Son of man goes, as it is written of him, as a lamb to the slaughter.” ⚙ The two disciples sent on this errand spend the afternoon at the temple watching a lamb bled by priests, and come back to set the table for the man who will be killed the next day outside the city. The Passover He prepares is the last one the old order needs.

1 Corinthians 5:7 · Exodus 12:6 · Mark 14:16

The Lord of all circumstances, freely given up ancient/widely-held

Maclaren reads the secrecy of the errand as the key to the whole incident: the precautions “emphasise the purely voluntary nature of His death: how He chose to be betrayed, taken, and to die,” and the narrative “sets Him forth as the Lord of all circumstances, as free, and arranging all events.” Geneva says the same thing from the other direction, that Christ “being made subject to the law for us celebrates the passover according to the law,” and yet shows by the sign “that he is yet God.” Barnes and Gill both read v. 16 as evidence of divine knowledge; Maclaren, who suspects a prearranged signal, still arrives at the same christological conclusion. ⚙ That agreement across a genuine disagreement about mechanism is worth noticing: whether by foreknowledge or by foresight, Mark's Jesus is arranging the circumstances of His own arrest, not being overtaken by them.

Mark 14:13 · Mark 14:16

The lodging that had no room, and the room made ready novel

The word Jesus claims in v. 14, κατάλυμα, is the word Luke uses for the lodging with no room in it at His birth: Ellicott states the identity of the terms, and Cambridge quotes Luke 2:7 in full at this verse. ⚙ Reading the two ends of the life together as one figure is our synthesis, not theirs: at the beginning a κατάλυμα with no room, at the end a κατάλυμα that is large, upper, spread and ready before He asks. Neither Ellicott nor Cambridge draws that arc, and the brief records no ancient authority for it; it is offered as a novel reading, to be tested against the plain lexical fact that the word was, as Ellicott says, simply “the generic term for a hired lodging.”

Luke 2:7 · Mark 14:14 · Mark 14:15

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

  • Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible (1834)
  • Alexander Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (c. 1905)
  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
  • Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
  • Geneva Study Bible, Marginal Notes (1599)
  • John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
  • Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
  • The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

⚙ Honesty notes for this unit. (1) The date is disputed inside the brief itself. Gill takes the first day of unleavened bread as “the fourteenth of Nisan”; Pulpit says it “would begin on the evening of the Thursday (the 14th day of the month Nisan)”; Geneva glosses it as “this day, and at the evening of the same day, which was the beginning of the fifteenth.” These are not the same reckoning, and this synthesis does not resolve them. (2) Miracle or plan is genuinely open. Barnes: the meeting “could have been known only by the infinite knowledge of Christ.” Maclaren: “I think that there is nothing decisive either way in the narrative,” and he inclines to “a preconcerted signal.” Both are printed; neither is adopted. (3) The householder is unidentified. Gill conjectures Nicodemus or Joseph of Arimathea; Pulpit passes on a tradition naming John Mark's house, expressly as tradition; Cambridge answers that “the Gospels and tradition alike are silent.” Nothing in the Greek names him. (4) Extra-biblical material is flagged where used. Gill's account of who may kill the lamb is quoted from the Mishnah (Pesachim) and Philo; Cambridge's ten-stage description of the seder rests on Buxtorf, Lightfoot and Edersheim, describes later Jewish practice, and is not reported by Mark. (5) Cross-Testament threads carry no verbal tier. Mark is Greek and Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, 1 Samuel and Genesis are Hebrew, so shared Strong's numbers are impossible by construction; those badges are typological or structural, and the 1 Samuel and Genesis pattern is our own comparison with no support from any commentator in this brief. (6) Textual note: Ellicott reports that “the better MSS.” read “Where is my guest-chamber,” with the possessive, and the interlinear before us carries μου; the reading matters because Ellicott builds an inference about the householder's discipleship on it. (7) The Verifier's frequency counts (for example G528 in 2 verses, G2646 in 3, G4766 in 5) are computed over the Greek corpus and are reported as given. (8) Two of the ten commentators in this brief say nothing about this unit. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown supply only a section heading and cross-references to Luke and John, and Poole refers the reader back to Mark 14:10. Neither is quoted above, because in this unit neither offers any comment to quote.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)