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Matthew26:1–5

The Plot to Kill Jesus

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Matthew 26:1–5 — The Plot to Kill Jesus. 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.

1

When Jesus had finished saying all these things, He told His disciples,

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai egeneto hote ho Iēsous etelesen pantas toutous tous logous eipen tois autou mathētais

Word by word14 · parsed
ΚαὶKaivvvG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐγένετοegenetovvvG1096
√ γίνομαι — to cause to be ("gen"-erate), iVerbAorist Indicative Middle3rd Person Singular
gínomai: to come to be, to happen The formulaic aorist that closes all five Matthean discourses. It marks a hinge rather than a mere transition: the teaching Jesus was sent to deliver is now complete, and what follows is done to him rather than said by him. Gill reads the seam this way: “having finished his prophetic, and being about to enter on his priestly office, he gives his disciples some intimations of its near approach.”
ὅτεhoteWhenG3753
√ ὅτε — at which (thing) too, iAdverb
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἸησοῦςIēsousJesusG2424
√ Ἰησοῦς — Jesus (iNounNominative Masculine Singular
ἐτέλεσενetelesenhad finished {saying}G5055
√ τελέω — to end, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
teléō: to end, to complete, to bring to its goal The verb of finishing a set task, not of falling silent. Matthew uses it to seal a discourse; the reader who has heard chapters 24 and 25 is being told that the words are done and the deed begins. Pulpit and Ellicott agree that the referent is the discourse of chs. 24, 25, spoken (Cambridge) on Wednesday, Nisan 12.
πάνταςpantasallG3956
√ πᾶς — all, any, every, the wholeAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Plural
τούτουςtoutoustheseG3778
√ οὗτος — the he (she or it), iDemonstrative PronounAccusative Masculine Plural
τοὺςtousG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Plural
λόγουςlogousthingsG3056
√ λόγος — something said (including the thought)NounAccusative Masculine Plural
lógos: something said, a word, a discourse The plural, with the article and pántas toútous, gathers the sayings into one completed body. It is the vocabulary of authoritative teaching, and its completion here is what makes the following verses a turn from speech to suffering.
εἶπενeipenHe toldG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
eípon: he said Aorist of simple statement; the weight lies not on this verb but on what it introduces in v2.
τοῖςtois. . .G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative 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
μαθηταῖςmathētaisdisciplesG3101
√ μαθητής — a learner, iNounDative Masculine Plural
mathētḗs: a learner, a disciple Ellicott notes the ambiguity honestly: these may be the four named at Mark 13:3 or the whole Twelve. Gill says they “now were alone with him.” The brief gives no evidence to settle it, and we do not.
2

“You know that the Passover is two days away, and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Oidate hoti to pascha ginetai dyo hēmeras meta kai ho Huios tou anthrōpou paradidotai eis to staurōthēnai

Word by word17 · parsed
ΟἴδατεOidateYou knowG1492
√ εἴδω — used only in certain past tenses, the others being borrowed from the equivalent G3700 (ὀπτάνομαι) and G3708 (ὁράω)VerbPerfect Indicative Active2nd Person Plural
eídō: to know, to have seen and so to know A perfect of settled knowledge. Jesus builds on the one fact no Jewish hearer could miss, since (Gill) the feast “always began on a certain day, the fourteenth of the month Nisan,” with intercalations publicly notified. The rhetorical force is that the date they already hold and the death they do not yet grasp are the same date.
ὅτιhotithatG3754
√ ὅτι — demonstrative, that (sometimes redundant)Conjunction
τὸtotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Neuter Singular
πάσχαpaschaPassoverG3957
√ πάσχα — the Passover (the meal, the day, the festival or the special sacrifices connected with it)NounNominative Neuter Singular
páscha: the Passover, the meal, the day, the festival, the sacrifices Cambridge traces the word: the Hebrew pesach from a root meaning to leap over and so figuratively to save or shew mercy, the Greek pascha from the Aramaic, and the accidental nearness of paschein, to suffer, which early Christian writers sometimes mistook for the etymology. Pulpit warns that etymologically it “has nothing to do with” paschō or Latin passio. So the Passover-Passion wordplay is a real strand of Christian reading and a false etymology at the same time, and we mark it as such.
γίνεταιginetaiisG1096
√ γίνομαι — to cause to be ("gen"-erate), iVerbPresent Indicative Middle or Passive3rd Person Singular
gínomai: to come to be, to arrive Present tense of an event already in motion; see the same verb at v1 and v5.
δύοdyotwoG1417
√ δύο — "two"AdjectiveAccusative Feminine Plural
ἡμέραςhēmerasdaysG2250
√ ἡμέρα — day, iNounAccusative Feminine Plural
hēmérā: day Ellicott and Pulpit both note the ambiguity of “after two days”: it is not certain whether the current day is counted, though both judge the words were spoken on Wednesday, with the Passover falling Friday. Cambridge and Gill reckon the utterance on Tuesday. The brief preserves the disagreement, so we do not resolve it.
μετὰmetaawayG3326
√ μετά — properly, denoting accompanimentPreposition
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ὁhotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ΥἱὸςHuiosSonG5207
√ υἱός — a "son" (sometimes of animals), used very widely of immediate, remote or figuratively, kinshipNounNominative Masculine Singular
huiós: son “The Son of the Man,” the title Jesus uses of himself throughout Matthew. Gill grounds it in the Old Testament: it “is a character by which the Messiah is described in the Old Testament, Psalm 80:17 Daniel 7:13,” and adds that it fits here precisely because it names the human weakness in which he can be betrayed and crucified. The title therefore carries both the Danielic figure who receives dominion and the flesh that can be nailed.
τοῦtouG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ἀνθρώπουanthrōpouof ManG444
√ ἄνθρωπος — from G3700 (ὀπτάνομαι))NounGenitive Masculine Singular
ánthrōpos: man, human being The genitive completes the title; taken alone it is a function word, but it is the term Gill says expresses “the truth of his human nature” and “the weaknesses and infirmities he bore in it.”
παραδίδοταιparadidotaiwill be handedG3860
√ παραδίδωμι — to surrender, iVerbPresent Indicative Middle or Passive3rd Person Singular
paradídōmi: to hand over, to surrender, to deliver up The great passion verb. Gill reads it as a chain of handings over: Judas to the chief priests, the priests to the Gentiles, Pilate to the Jews and the soldiers, so that the single Greek word covers the whole transfer of custody that ends at the cross. The unnamed agent of the passive is the point at which the plot of vv3-5 and the purpose of God occupy the same grammar.
εἰςeisoverG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
τὸtoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
σταυρωθῆναιstaurōthēnaito be crucifiedG4717
√ σταυρόω — to impale on the crossVerbAorist Infinitive Passive
stauróō: to impale on the cross An aorist passive infinitive of purpose. Gill notes that crucifixion “was a Roman, and not a Jewish punishment,” which means Jesus is announcing in advance not only his death but its foreign, shameful mode, and Barnes observes of the paschal lamb that it was roasted on two crossed spits “so that the animal was in a manner, crucified.”
3

At that time the chief priests and elders of the people assembled in the courtyard of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas,

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Tote hoi archiereis kai hoi presbyteroi tou laou synēchthēsan eis tēn aulēn tou archiereōs tou legomenou Kaiapha

Word by word17 · parsed
ΤότεToteAt that timeG5119
√ τότε — the when, iAdverb
tóte: then, at that time A simple temporal adverb, but Pulpit makes the juxtaposition do the work: “While Christ was announcing his approaching death, the rulers were plotting its accomplishment. He was certain; they were in doubt and perplexity about it.”
οἱhoitheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
ἀρχιερεῖςarchiereischief priestsG749
√ ἀρχιερεύς — the high-priest (literally, of the Jews, typically, Christ)NounNominative Masculine Plural
archiereús: the high priest, chief priest Strong's notes the term is used both of the Jewish office and, in Hebrews, of Christ. In the plural it names, per Ellicott, “the heads of the twenty-four courses,” and per Barnes and Pulpit also the deposed high priests who kept the title, since Rome changed the incumbent at will. The same noun in this verse denotes both the assembled chief priests (nominative plural, i2) and the single high priest who hosts them (genitive singular, i13): the office has multiplied because it has been politicised.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
οἱhoiG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
πρεσβύτεροιpresbyteroieldersG4245
√ πρεσβύτερος — olderAdjectiveNominative Masculine Plural
τοῦtouof theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
λαοῦlaoupeopleG2992
√ λαός — a people (in generalNounGenitive Masculine Singular
laós: a people Here a genitive of definition, “elders of the people.” The word returns in v5 as the crowd the rulers fear; the body that claims to represent the people fears them.
συνήχθησανsynēchthēsanassembledG4863
√ συνάγω — to lead together, iVerbAorist Indicative Passive3rd Person Plural
synágō: to lead together, to gather The verb of convening an assembly, in the passive. Cambridge and Ellicott disagree on what convened: Ellicott thinks a formal session of the Sanhedrin the more probable, Pulpit argues from the aulē that it was not formal but the priestly council, including men who were not Sanhedrists. We record the disagreement.
εἰςeisinG1519
√ 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
αὐλὴνaulēncourtyardG833
√ αὐλή — a yard (as open to the wind)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
aulḗ: a yard, open to the wind The open court of a private house. Gill asks the sharp question why they met here at all, since the council's proper chamber was Gazith and later the sheds within the temple bounds, and answers from privacy: they met at the high priest's palace so “that it might not be known they were together.” The place of the meeting is itself part of the dólos of v4.
τοῦtouof theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ἀρχιερέωςarchiereōshigh priestG749
√ ἀρχιερεύς — the high-priest (literally, of the Jews, typically, Christ)NounGenitive Masculine Singular
archiereús: the high priest Genitive singular, the host. Barnes traces the office from Aaron through its sale by Antiochus Epiphanes to its Roman manipulation, concluding that it “was never more fluctuating than in the time of our Saviour.”
τοῦtouwhoseG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
λεγομένουlegomenouname wasG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Participle Middle or PassiveGenitive Masculine Singular
ΚαϊάφαKaiaphaCaiaphasG2533
√ Καϊάφας — the dellNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Kaïáphas: Caiaphas Cambridge: Joseph Caiaphas, son-in-law of Annas, appointed by the Procurator Valerius Gratus in a.d. 26 and deposed in a.d. 38. Ellicott adds that the meeting in his house “implied a coalition of parties commonly opposed,” since Caiaphas and his adherents were Sadducees who courted Rome while the scribes were mostly Pharisees and assertors of national independence. The rare name (the Verifier finds it in only nine verses) is the thread that ties this courtyard to John 11:49, John 18:13-14 and Matthew 26:57.
4

and they conspired to arrest Jesus covertly and kill Him.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai synebouleusanto hina kratēsōsin ton Iēsoun dolō kai apokteinōsin

Word by word9 · parsed
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
συνεβουλεύσαντοsynebouleusantothey conspiredG4823
√ συμβουλεύω — to give (or take) advice jointly, iVerbAorist Indicative Middle3rd Person Plural
symbouleúō: to take counsel together A rare verb, in four verses only. Its deliberative middle voice makes the killing of Jesus the resolution of a committee rather than the passion of a mob, which is the moral horror of the scene: what the crowd might have done in a riot (v5) the council does in session. The same verb is used of Caiaphas counselling the Jews in John 18:14.
ἵναhinatoG2443
√ ἵνα — compare G3588 (ὁ))Conjunction
κρατήσωσινkratēsōsinarrestG2902
√ κρατέω — to use strength, iVerbAorist Subjunctive Active3rd Person Plural
kratéō: to use strength, to seize, to hold fast Aorist subjunctive of taking into custody by force. Cambridge notes force was precisely what they could no longer safely use, so the strong verb has to be governed by dólō: strength applied secretly.
τὸνtonG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
ἸησοῦνIēsounJesusG2424
√ Ἰησοῦς — Jesus (iNounAccusative Masculine Singular
δόλῳdolōcovertlyG1388
√ δόλος — compare G1185 (δελεάζω))NounDative Masculine Singular
dólos: guile, bait, deceit Strong's connects the noun to deleázō, to catch with bait, so the image is of trapping an animal. Barnes explains the practical need for it: Jesus was held by the people to be a prophet and by most probably the Messiah, and he lodged outside the city at night, so guile was required both to find him and to take him without the crowd. The dative of manner is the hinge of the whole plot, and it is answered in v5 by the fear that governs it.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἀποκτείνωσινapokteinōsinkill [Him]G615
√ ἀποκτείνω — to kill outrightVerbAorist Subjunctive Active3rd Person Plural
apokteínō: to kill outright The bare subjunctive of the intended end. Gill's reading matters here: they plan the arrest themselves and the execution through Rome, so that the guilt is distributed and the death made legal. This is the machinery that Matthew has already named in v2 with a single passive verb.
5

“But not during the feast,” they said, “or there may be a riot among the people.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de Mē en tē heortē elegon hina mē genētai thorybos en tō laō

Word by word13 · parsed
δέdeButG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ΜὴMēnotG3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
mḗ: not, lest The negative that carries the whole resolution; with the elliptical verb supplied, “let it not be in the feast.”
ἐνenduringG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
τῇtētheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Feminine Singular
ἑορτῇheortēfeastG1859
√ ἑορτή — a festivalNounDative Feminine Singular
heortḗ: a festival The whole octave, not one day. Pulpit explains the calculation: the assembled multitudes did not leave until the close of the octave, so the danger of a rising was not removed until then, which is why the rulers wanted a delay of more than a week and why Judas' offer was irresistible.
ἔλεγονelegonthey saidG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
légō, eípon: to say Imperfect of ongoing debate. The interlinear assigns this form the same Strong's number as eîpen in v1; see the apparatus note.
ἵναhinaorG2443
√ ἵνα — compare G3588 (ὁ))Conjunction
μὴmē. . .G3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
γένηταιgenētaithere may beG1096
√ γίνομαι — to cause to be ("gen"-erate), iVerbAorist Subjunctive Middle3rd Person Singular
gínomai: to come to be Aorist subjunctive in a negative purpose clause. Placed beside v2, the grammar is quietly devastating: the Passover ginetai whatever they decide, and the thing they legislate against is the only one of the three comings-to-be that is contingent.
θόρυβοςthorybosa riotG2351
√ θόρυβος — a disturbanceNounNominative Masculine Singular
thórybos: a disturbance, an uproar A rare noun, seven verses. Barnes gives the demographic reason for the fear: a vast multitude came up from all Judea, Jerusalem is said to have held enormous crowds, and “amid such a multitude there were frequent tumults and seditions.” Cambridge supplies a precedent from Josephus: at a Passover less than thirty years earlier the people rose against Archelaus and were repressed with a slaughter of three thousand. Poole is the sharpest: what awed them was not reverence for the festival at all.
ἐνenamongG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
τῷtōtheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Singular
λαῷlaōpeopleG2992
√ λαός — a people (in generalNounDative Masculine Singular
laós: a people The same noun as v3. The elders of the people fear the people; the phrase closes the unit on the gap between the council's claim to represent Israel and its need to hide from Israel.

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

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

i. The words finished, the deed begun — Matthew 26:1-2

Matthew closes his last discourse with the formula he has used four times before, Καὶ ἐγένετο ὅτε ἐτέλεσεν: and it came to pass when he had completed. Ellicott takes “all these sayings” to point “to the great discourse of Matthew 24, 25”; Gill allows both that narrower reference and the whole body of teaching in the Gospel; Pulpit calls it “the close of his public teaching” and then states the turn as plainly as it can be stated: “Henceforward the narrative sets him forth as Priest, Victim, Redeemer.” Gill locates the same seam in the offices: “having finished his prophetic, and being about to enter on his priestly office, he gives his disciples some intimations of its near approach.” Benson, who places the saying on the Mount of Olives with Jesus already on his way to Bethany, gives the pastoral reason for the timing: because the greatest trial his disciples would ever meet was now approaching, he foretold the sufferings “together with the particular time and manner of them,” and so proved that “his sufferings were all voluntary and necessary.”

⚙ The grammar of v2 carries more than the commentators draw out. Οἴδατε is a perfect of settled knowledge, and what they settledly know is a date: the fourteenth of Nisan, publicly fixed, as Gill documents from the notices of intercalation posted at the Sanhedrin door. To that fixed calendar Jesus attaches a present tense, παραδίδοται, is being handed over. Cambridge weighs the two possible forces of that present with real care, either “the present for the future, denoting greater certainty” or “the full relative present ‘is now being betrayed;’ the treacherous scheme of Judas is already afoot,” and Gill says Christ speaks of it “as if it was already done.” Either way the English future of BSB is weaker than the Greek. And the infinitive of purpose, εἰς τὸ σταυρωθῆναι, names a Roman death: Gill notes that crucifixion “was a Roman, and not a Jewish punishment,” so the announcement already reaches past the council in the next verse to the governor who is not yet in the story.

ii. The council in the open courtyard — Matthew 26:3-4

Pulpit sets the two scenes side by side and lets the contrast stand: “While Christ was announcing his approaching death, the rulers were plotting its accomplishment. He was certain; they were in doubt and perplexity about it.” Who met, and in what capacity, the sources genuinely dispute. Ellicott thinks a formal session of the Sanhedrin “on the whole, the more probable”; Pulpit argues from the word αὐλήν that it cannot have been formal, since a formal meeting belonged in the hall of hewn stones, and reads it instead as the priestly council including temple officials and connections of the high priest. Cambridge sets out the body's constitution, seventy-one members under a president usually but not always the high priest, and records the decisive limitation: “It originally possessed the power of life and death, but this power no longer belonged to it.” That single fact explains the shape of the plot, for a body that cannot execute must procure an execution.

Gill asks why they met in a private house at all, and answers from his rabbinic sources that the council had left the paved chamber and could have met at the sheds within the temple bounds, so the choice of the high priest's palace was made “because of privacy, that it might not be known they were together.” Ellicott notes what the venue cost them politically: it “implied a coalition of parties commonly opposed,” Sadducean priests who courted Rome sitting with Pharisaic scribes who asserted national independence. ⚙ The place, the party alliance and the verb are all of one piece. συνεβουλεύσαντο is a rare middle (four verses in the New Testament) of taking counsel jointly, and δόλῳ, whose root sense Strong's ties to baiting a trap, is the dative of manner that governs the strong verb κρατήσωσιν. Cambridge explains why guile was all that remained: it was no longer possible to entrap him by argument, nor to discredit him with the Roman government, nor to take him by force. Barnes supplies the practical difficulty, that Jesus was held by the people to be a prophet and by most probably the Messiah, and lodged outside the city at night. Gill spells out the division of labour, that they meant to seize him privately and then deliver him to the governor to be put to death “according to law, publicly,” and then adds his own theological judgment, that Psalm 2:2 had its accomplishment here at least in part. We keep that reading and tier it below as structural, since Matthew himself claims no quotation.

iii. Not during the feast: the fear that fixed the hour — Matthew 26:5

The unit ends on a negative purpose clause, ἵνα μὴ γένηται θόρυβος ἐν τῷ λαῷ, and on an imperfect, ἔλεγον, that keeps the council still talking. Cambridge and Geneva both correct the older rendering: “during the feast” means the whole Passover and the seven days of unleavened bread, so the delay they voted was of more than a week. Barnes gives the reason in numbers, a vast multitude from all parts of Judea in a city where “amid such a multitude there were frequent tumults and seditions”; Cambridge supplies a precedent from Josephus, a rising against Archelaus at a Passover less than thirty years earlier put down “with a slaughter of 3000 men”; Pulpit adds the political calculation, that the rulers knew Pilate's readiness to crush any movement and so “hence arose the plan of a clandestine apprehension.” Poole refuses to let the delay pass as piety: what awed them was fear of tumult, “not any great religion for the festival, for all things now were out of order with them.” Gill says it flatly: they had no fear of God before their eyes, only the fear of the people. Gill also records, from Mishnah Sanhedrin, that their own custom was the opposite, to keep a presumptuous offender until the feast and execute him then, so that all the people might hear and fear; we flag the provenance of that rule below.

⚙ Then the policy failed. Ellicott: “They had intended to wait till the feast was over, but the temptation thus offered was too great to be resisted.” Benson draws the conclusion the whole unit exists to make: “But when Judas came, they changed their purpose. So the counsel of God took place, and the true paschal Lamb was offered up on the great day of the paschal solemnity.” Henry says the same in four words, “But it pleased God to defeat their intention,” and Geneva, commenting on this very clause, says that it came to pass through God's providence that Christ suffered at that time “so that all the people of Israel might be witnesses of his everlasting sacrifice.” The one thing the council legislated against, publicity at the feast, is the one thing that happened. Its own minutes record the hour it could not move.

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

⚙ Our own fallible reading, offered to be tested. This unit is built on one verb used three times. In v1 something came to pass: the teaching is complete. In v2 the Passover is coming to pass: the calendar is not up for a vote. In v5 the council resolves that a riot shall not come to pass: the one contingent item on the agenda is the only one they legislate. Between the second and the third stands a passive with no agent named, παραδίδοται, is being handed over. Matthew leaves that blank unfilled, and the blank is where two intentions occupy the same grammar. The council intends an arrest by guile and a death procured through Rome; Jesus has just announced the same arrest and the same death as the thing he came to complete. Nothing in the text says the rulers were not free, and nothing in the text says God was not sovereign; Matthew simply reports a plot and, two verses earlier, its schedule on the lips of its victim. We do not resolve that, and we think the passage does not either. What the passage does do is locate the responsibility precisely. The elders of the people (v3) fear the people (v5); the body that cannot lawfully kill (so Cambridge, from John 18:31) arranges a killing it can call lawful; the word for their method, δόλῳ, is a word for baiting a trap. Read that way, the sin here is not passion but procedure, and the timing that made the sacrifice public was gained not by their piety but by their cowardice being overtaken. If our reading errs, it will most likely err by making the parallel of gínomai carry more weight than a common verb can bear; weigh it against the text and set it down if it will not hold.

The council voted for a quiet week and got a public Passover: the minutes of the plot record the hour it could not move. (This line is our synthesis, not Scripture.)

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

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

Caiaphas' courtyard: one house, one rare name, four scenes verbal / quotation: confirmed

The name Καϊάφας occurs in only nine verses of the New Testament, and the Verifier finds it shared between this courtyard and John 11:49, John 18:13, John 18:14 and Matthew 26:57. The rare verb of this verse's plotting, συμβουλεύω (four verses), is shared with John 18:14, where it is Caiaphas who counsels. Ellicott reads the sequence as one continuous policy: “We learn from John 11:49-50. that the plan, as far as Caiaphas was concerned, had been formed before, immediately after the raising of Lazarus.” Cambridge identifies the man from the records: Joseph Caiaphas, son-in-law of Annas, appointed by Valerius Gratus in a.d. 26, deposed in a.d. 38, in an office that “had long ceased to be held for life.” Matthew 26:57 brings Jesus back to this same house as prisoner, so the αὐλήν where the plan is made is the αὐλήν where it is ratified, and where Peter will be standing.

John 11:49 · John 18:13 · John 18:14 · Matthew 26:57

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G2533 Καϊάφας (in 9 vv) and G4823 συμβουλεύω (in 4 vv) with John 18:14; G2533 with G749 ἀρχιερεύς with John 11:49, John 18:13 and Matthew 26:57. Both shared lexemes are rare, all refs are Greek New Testament, and no quotation of one passage by another is claimed: the verbal link is the shared rare proper name and the shared rare verb of joint counsel.

The synoptic parallel: Mark 14:1-2 and the same two fears verbal / quotation: confirmed

Mark 14:1-2 reports the same council with the same vocabulary. The Verifier finds Mark 14:1 sharing πάσχα (G3957, in 27 vv) and the two days with Matthew 26:2, and Mark 14:2 sharing the rare θόρυβος (G2351, in 7 vv) with ἑορτή and λαός against Matthew 26:5. Poole notes that “Mark saith, Mark 14:1. After two days was the feast of the passover, and of unleavened bread” and that Luke says much the same, and that in Mark the rulers seek to take him “by craft.” Jamieson, Fausset and Brown decline to expound Matthew here at all, referring the reader to their notes on Mark 14:1-11. ⚙ The overlap is close enough that the differences are informative: Mark and Luke name scribes where Matthew's text as printed in our interlinear names elders, on which see the apparatus.

Mark 14:1 · Mark 14:2

basis: Verifier: Mark 14:1 shares G3957 πάσχα (in 27 vv), G1417 δύο, G2250 ἡμέρα; Mark 14:2 shares the rare G2351 θόρυβος (in 7 vv) with G1859 ἑορτή (in 23 vv) and G2992 λαός. θόρυβος is rare and all refs are Greek New Testament. Luke 22:1-2 is named as the parallel by Poole and JFB and is discussed in the body, but it is deliberately left out of the refs because the Verifier returned no computed lexeme basis for it, and this badge should cover only what the basis carries.

The Passover that was legislated before it was feared typological

τὸ πάσχα in v2 is not an event Matthew has to explain, because it was legislated: Poole sets out “the law of the passover in its institution, which we find in Exodus 12:3 &c., Leviticus 23:4 &c., Numbers 28:16 &c.,” and notes the later modification that the lamb, once killed in every house, was afterwards slain in the temple. Cambridge cites Exodus 12:1-14 for the original ordinances and lists what later practice changed: the lamb no longer chosen on the tenth of Nisan, the blood on the altar rather than the doorpost, the participants reclining rather than standing with staff in hand. Barnes adds the calendar (the fifteenth to the twenty-first of Abib or Nisan) and Deuteronomy 16:2, 16:5-6 for the place of slaughter. ⚙ So the week the council wants to avoid and the week Jesus names as the hour of his handing over is a week whose shape was fixed in the Torah centuries earlier. The link is not a quotation; Matthew quotes nothing here. It is the plainest kind of structural dependence: a Greek narrative that presupposes a Hebrew statute.

Exodus 12:1-14 · Deuteronomy 16:1-8 · Leviticus 23:4-8 · Numbers 28:16-25

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew), so shared Strong's numbers are impossible and no verbal tier is available. Basis is the explicit institutional dependence documented by Poole (Exodus 12, Leviticus 23, Numbers 28), Cambridge (Exodus 12:1-14) and Barnes (Exodus 12; Deuteronomy 16:2, 5-6): Matthew's πάσχα names the festival these texts legislate. The figural reading of the lamb (Poole: “a figure of the true Passover Jesus Christ”) is ancient and widely held, and is marked as typology rather than quotation.

Rulers taking counsel together: Psalm 2 and the plotted righteous structural / thematic: confirmed

Gill, commenting on the taking of counsel in v4, writes that “hereby Psalm 2:2, had its accomplishment, at least in part.” ⚙ The correspondence is real and is structural: a council of rulers and elders, gathered together, deliberating against the Lord's Anointed. The pattern recurs in the Psalter's complaints of the hunted righteous, where enemies take counsel together against the sufferer's life (Psalm 31:13), and the specific motif of vv3-5, a formal body conspiring in private while fearing the crowd, sits inside it. We do not claim that Matthew is quoting or alluding; he gives no formula of fulfilment here, and Gill's own “at least in part” is properly cautious. The cross-Testament pairing cannot in any case be verbal, since no Strong's lexeme can be shared between a Greek text and a Hebrew one.

Psalm 2:1-2 · Psalm 31:13

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew): no shared Strong's numbers are possible, so the tier cannot be verbal. Basis is a shared pattern, rulers and elders in joint counsel against the Lord's Anointed and against the life of the righteous sufferer, named for Psalm 2:2 by Gill on Matthew 26:4 and for Psalm 31:13 by the motif itself. No quotation is claimed and Matthew states no fulfilment formula.

θόρυβος: the tumult the authorities always feared structural / thematic: confirmed

θόρυβος (G2351) is rare, appearing in seven verses, and the Verifier finds it in a consistent setting: Matthew 27:24, where Pilate sees that he is gaining nothing but a tumult is arising; Acts 21:34 and Acts 24:18, where the charge and the scene at Jerusalem turn on an uproar; Acts 20:1, after the disturbance at Ephesus. ⚙ The word belongs to the vocabulary of imperial and priestly crowd management. Its use here shows the council reasoning as administrators, and Pulpit supplies the political logic, that they knew Pilate was “prepared to crush any popular movement with the strong hand.” Matthew 27:24 is the sharpest pairing: the tumult the priests avoided at the start of the week is the tumult Pilate accommodates at the end of it, and in both scenes the fear of the crowd decides the fate of Jesus. We tier this structural rather than verbal: the shared lexeme is rare and real, but what it establishes is a recurring motif of administrative fear, not a quotation or a deliberate echo.

Matthew 27:24 · Acts 21:34 · Acts 24:18 · Acts 20:1

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G2351 θόρυβος (in 7 vv) with Matthew 27:24, Acts 21:34, Acts 24:18 and Acts 20:1. The lexeme is rare, which would license a verbal tier, but we under-claim deliberately: a single common-stock noun of crowd disturbance across independent narratives evidences a shared motif of fear of tumult, not quotation or literary dependence.

The feast-day execution they declined: Deuteronomy 17 by way of the Mishnah flagged: verify source

Gill records that the council's vote against acting during the feast ran “contrary to their common rules and usages,” citing the ruling that a presumptuous sinner is brought up to the great Sanhedrin at Jerusalem and kept until the feast and put to death on a feast day, “as it is said, Deuteronomy 17:13, and all the people shall hear and fear.” If that rule was in force, the irony is sharp: their own law would have had them execute him publicly at Passover, exactly as it fell out. ⚙ But we flag rather than assert. Gill's authorities are Mishnah Sanhedrin 10:4 and Maimonides, sources later than the event, whose application in a.d. 30 is not established, and Cambridge notes on the other side that capital jurisdiction had by then been taken from the council altogether. The link is worth recording and is not safe to build on.

Deuteronomy 17:12-13

basis: Provenance contested. Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew), so no shared Strong's lexeme is possible and no verbal tier is available. The connection reaches Deuteronomy 17:13 only through Gill's citation of Mishnah Sanhedrin 10:4 and Maimonides, rabbinic sources later than the narrative whose force in a.d. 30 is unverified, and Cambridge's note that the Sanhedrin no longer held the power of life and death cuts against its applicability. Recorded as reported by Gill, not as established halakhah of the period.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The true paschal Lamb, killed at the hour of the lambs ancient/widely-held

This is the reading the whole body of commentary before us converges on. Henry: “Jesus, the true paschal Lamb, was to be sacrificed for us at that very time, and his death and resurrection rendered public.” Poole, having laid out the law of Exodus 12, says the ordinance “was a figure of the true Passover Jesus Christ, whom the apostle calleth our Passover, and the evangelist calls the Lamb of God.” Gill says the feast “was typical of Christ the passover, who was now to be sacrificed for his people.” Pulpit states the evangelist's purpose in the pairing: Christ connects his death with the Passover “to mark the typical meaning and importance of this solemnity, when he, our Passover, should be sacrificed for us.” Barnes notices the detail that the lamb was roasted on two crossed spits “so that the animal was in a manner, crucified,” and that not a bone of it might be broken, referring to John 19:36 and 1 Corinthians 5:7. ⚙ The text itself makes the claim only by juxtaposition: one sentence names the Passover, the next names the crucifixion, and they name the same two days.

Exodus 12:1-14 · 1 Corinthians 5:7 · John 19:36

The hour appointed, not seized: who fixes the day of the cross ancient/widely-held

Geneva puts the claim in one line on v2: “God himself and not man appoints the time that Christ should be crucified,” and on v1 that Christ witnesses by going to death voluntarily that he will make satisfaction by his obedience. Benson argues it from the announcement itself: by foretelling the sufferings with their particular time and manner Jesus proved “that he perfectly knew whatever was to befall him, and that his sufferings were all voluntary and necessary.” Benson then reads the outcome as the proof: the council resolved on delay, “but when Judas came, they changed their purpose. So the counsel of God took place, and the true paschal Lamb was offered up on the great day of the paschal solemnity.” Henry: “But it pleased God to defeat their intention.” Gill adds that the crucifixion and death of Christ “were not casual and contingent events, but were determined by the counsel of God.” ⚙ The narrative supports this by structure rather than assertion: the only party in the passage who states the date correctly is the one who will die on it. One disclosure: Acts 2:23 is listed among the refs because it is the apostolic statement of the same point, and because Gill's phrase “determined by the counsel of God” stands very near its language, but none of the commentators in this brief cites it here, so that reference is ours and not theirs.

Matthew 26:2 · Matthew 26:5 · Acts 2:23

The Son of Man handed over: Daniel's figure in a priest's courtyard ancient/widely-held

Gill grounds the self-designation of v2 in the Hebrew Scriptures: “the son of man” is “a character by which the Messiah is described in the Old Testament, Psalm 80:17 Daniel 7:13,” and he notes that Jesus uses it here of all places because it names “the weaknesses and infirmities he bore” in true human nature. ⚙ Hold that against the grammar and the collision is stark. The title carries the Danielic figure to whom dominion is given; the verb attached to it is παραδίδοται, the passive of being handed over into custody, with the agent unnamed, and its purpose clause is εἰς τὸ σταυρωθῆναι, a Roman impalement that Gill rightly notes was no Jewish penalty at all. Two verses later a committee in a private courtyard is arranging to take that same figure δόλῳ, by bait. We mark the Son of Man reading as ancient and widely held, since Gill states it from the Old Testament texts and it is the standard reading of the title; we do not claim that Matthew here quotes Daniel, and the pairing is figural rather than verbal since the languages differ.

Daniel 7:13 · Psalm 80:17

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)
  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
  • Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
  • Geneva Study Bible, Marginal Notes (1599)
  • Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871)
  • John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
  • Joseph Benson, Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1810s)
  • Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
  • Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible (1685)
  • The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

Text. The interlinear before us reads at v3 only “the chief priests and elders of the people.” The words “and the scribes” (καὶ οἱ γραμματεῖς) stand in the Authorised text on which Gill, Geneva and Pulpit comment. Gill records that the clause “is left out in the Vulgate Latin, and in Munster's Hebrew Gospel, and in the Arabic and Ethiopic versions, and in the Alexandrian copy, and some others, but is retained in, the Syriac version,” and judges the scribes were certainly present in the body; Pulpit says the words “are omitted on very good authority by many modern editors,” though they occur in the parallels in Mark and Luke. Readers comparing older commentary with the text printed here should expect this difference. Nothing in our synthesis depends on the disputed clause.

Glosses and numbering. Two mechanical points. First, several Strong's entries reach us truncated in the lexicon block of the brief (for example G1096 γίνομαι and G2902 κρατέω break off mid-sentence), so we have used the root senses only where they were complete and have not built any argument on a cut-off gloss. Second, the interlinear assigns G2036 (ἔπω) both to εἶπεν at 26:1 and to ἔλεγον at 26:5, following the usual practice of filing the forms of λέγω, εἶπον and ἔπω together; the parses (aorist at 26:1, imperfect at 26:5) are what we have relied on, not the shared number. At 26:1 the gloss field for Καὶ and ἐγένετο is a placeholder in the source, so the English we give for those two words is derived from the parse, not copied from a gloss.

Chronology. The sources disagree about the day. Ellicott and Pulpit judge the saying was spoken on Wednesday (Pulpit: “the next day but one, which commenced on the afternoon of Friday”), Cambridge heads the section “Wednesday, Nisan 12,” while Gill and Poole place it on Tuesday, with Poole conceding that whether the two days include the day of speaking “is uncertain, and not material for us to know.” We have not harmonised them. Cambridge's further datum, that this Passover was “probably April 3 (old style), a. d. 33” on the authority of Mr J. W. Bosanquet, is nineteenth century chronology and should be treated as dated, not as established.

Harmony. Ellicott warns at the head of this unit that the Passion narrative brings “some peculiar difficulties,” chiefly the relation of John 13:1 and John 18:28 to the synoptic dating of the Last Supper, and he expressly declines to settle them here. We follow him: nothing in this unit requires that question to be answered, and we have not answered it.

What is ours. Every parse, Strong's number, frequency count and commentary quotation above is sourced. The reading of γίνομαι across vv1, 2 and 5, the observation that the elders of the people fear the people, the pairing of Matthew 26:5 with Matthew 27:24 as two decisions governed by fear of a tumult, and the sola reading and pullquote, are machine synthesis (⚙) and fallible. Where a badge could have been tiered higher we have tiered it lower and said why.

✦ = 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)