The Fallible Study Bible

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Matthew26:17–19

Preparing the Passover

✦ Public-domain source — quoted & attributed⚙ AI synthesis — generated, verify

Matthew 26:17–19 — 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.

17

On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Where do You want us to prepare for You to eat the Passover?”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de Tē prōtē tōn azymōn hoi mathētai prosēlthon tō Iēsou legontes Pou theleis hetoimasōmen soi phagein to pascha

Word by word18 · parsed
δὲdeG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ΤῇTēOn theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Feminine Singular
πρώτῃprōtēfirst [day]G4413
√ πρῶτος — foremost (in time, place, order or importance)AdjectiveDative Feminine Singular
prōtos: foremost in time, place, order or importance Dative feminine singular, agreeing with an unwritten “day.” The whole chronological difficulty of the Passion week sits on this one adjective: reckoned by the Jewish day (sunset to sunset) the unleavened week began on the fifteenth, but Geneva, Poole and Pulpit all explain that the fourteenth was popularly called “the first of the unleavened” because the leaven was already gone and the lamb was killed that afternoon. The evangelist gives the popular reckoning, not a rabbinic calendar entry.
τῶνtōnof theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Neuter Plural
ἀζύμωνazymōnFeast of Unleavened [Bread]G106
√ ἄζυμος — unleavened, iAdjectiveGenitive Neuter Plural
azymos: unleavened A rare word (9 verses) and, in the Verifier's candidate list, the lexical hinge that binds this verse to Mark 14:1, Mark 14:12, Luke 22:1, Luke 22:7 and 1 Corinthians 5:7. Barnes notes the eight days on which no leaven could be eaten, tied to Exodus 12:15; Gill records the search by candlelight for leaven “in all private places and corners.” The word carries a whole week of prescribed purging into a single genitive plural.
οἱhoitheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
μαθηταὶmathētaidisciplesG3101
√ μαθητής — a learner, iNounNominative Masculine Plural
mathētēs: a learner Nominative plural, the acting subject. Matthew says only “the disciples”; Ellicott and Gill both note that Luke 22:8 narrows the two sent to Peter and John. This is the common lexeme (247 verses) that links the verse to Matthew 21:6, where disciples are likewise sent ahead and do as directed.
προσῆλθονprosēlthoncameG4334
√ προσέρχομαι — to approach, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
proserchomai: to approach Aorist indicative active, third plural: the settled, single act of coming to Him for a ruling.
τῷtōG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Singular
ἸησοῦIēsouto JesusG2424
√ Ἰησοῦς — Jesus (iNounDative Masculine Singular
λέγοντεςlegontes[and] askedG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
ΠοῦPouWhereG4226
√ ποῦ — as adverb of placeAdverb
Interrogative adverb of place, “where.” The question is not whether but where: they assume the Passover will be kept.
θέλειςtheleisdo You wantG2309
√ θέλω — to determine (as an active option from subjective impulseVerbPresent Indicative Active2nd Person Singular
thelō: to determine, to will Present indicative active, second singular. The disciples put the siting of the meal wholly inside His will, and the narrative will show that His will already had a house, a man and an hour in it. Pulpit: “They did not know the mind of Jesus on the subject, and desired his directions as in former years.”
ἑτοιμάσωμένhetoimasōmenus to prepareG2090
√ ἑτοιμάζω — to prepareVerbAorist Subjunctive Active1st Person Plural
hetoimazō: to prepare Aorist subjunctive active, first plural. The verb frames the whole unit: asked here, commanded in the parallels, performed in v. 19 (ἡτοίμασαν). Everything human in this pericope is preparation; the thing prepared for is not yet named.
σοιsoifor YouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounDative 2nd Person Singular
φαγεῖνphageinto eatG5315
√ φάγω — to eat (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Infinitive Active
phagō: to eat Aorist infinitive active, expressing purpose: the preparing exists for the eating. Barnes observes that the word here rendered “Passover” ordinarily means the lamb that was killed, so the infinitive has a victim as its object.
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 (meal, day, festival, or the sacrifices) Accusative neuter singular, 27 verses. Barnes states the lexical range plainly: the word “commonly means, not the ‘feast’ itself, but the ‘lamb’ that was killed on the occasion,” citing Exodus 12:43, Numbers 9:11 and John 18:28, and then 1 Corinthians 5:7 where Christ our Passover is slain for us. The ambiguity is not a flaw in the Greek; it is the reason the term can pass from a lamb to a Person without changing words.
18

He answered, “Go into the city to a certain man and tell him that the Teacher says, ‘My time is near. I will keep the Passover with My disciples at your house.’”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de Ho eipen Hypagete eis tēn polin pros ton deina kai eipate autō HO Didaskalos legei mou Ho kairos estin engys poiō to pascha meta mou tōn mathētōn pros se

Word by word30 · parsed
δὲdeG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ὉHoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
εἶπενeipenHe answeredG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ὙπάγετεHypageteGoG5217
√ ὑπάγω — to lead (oneself) under, iVerbPresent Imperative Active2nd Person Plural
hypagō: to lead oneself under, to withdraw, go away Present imperative active, second plural. A plain order, and the only thing the disciples are told to do before they are told what to say.
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
πρὸςprostoG4314
√ πρός — a preposition of directionPreposition
τὸνtonaG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
δεῖναdeinacertain manG1170
√ δεῖνα — so and so (when the person is not specified)NounAccusative Masculine Singular
deina: so and so, the unnamed party A New Testament singularity: this is its only occurrence. Ellicott and Cambridge agree the householder was a follower, Cambridge adding that he was “one who is known, but not named,” with whom arrangements had been made; Ellicott suggests a secret disciple “for fear of the Jews” (John 12:42). Barnes sees concealment from Judas. The text itself refuses the name, and the honest result is that the most privileged house in Jerusalem that night has no owner on record.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
εἴπατεeipatetellG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Plural
epō: to speak, to say Aorist imperative active, second plural. The disciples carry a message, not a request: what follows is dictated speech.
αὐτῷautōhim [that]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 Singular
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 Nominative with the article, a title rather than a description. Barnes presses the point: it means “literally, ‘the teacher,’ as opposed to the ‘disciple,’ or learner; not the ‘master,’ as opposed to the ‘servant or slave,’” and the fact that the householder needed no further identification shows he already belonged to this circle (compare Matthew 23:8, 23:10).
λέγειlegeisaysG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
Present indicative active: the Teacher is speaking now, through their mouths.
μουmouMyG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 1st Person Singular
ὉHoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
καιρόςkairostimeG2540
√ καιρός — an occasion, iNounNominative Masculine Singular
kairos: an occasion, an appointed season Nominative singular. Not chronological extent but the fixed moment. Ellicott notes that the disciples could have heard it as the long expected season of the Kingdom's manifestation, remembering “My time is not yet full come” (John 7:8), while the narrative means the passion (John 12:23, John 13:32). Pulpit likewise: “The time of my suffering and death.” The same noun therefore holds both what they hoped and what was coming.
ἐστινestinisG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ἐγγύςengysnearG1451
√ ἐγγύς — akin to the base of G43 (ἀγκάλη))Adverb
engys: near Adverb (30 verses). In the Verifier's candidates it is the word that ties this verse to John 2:13, John 6:4 and John 11:55, where it is the Passover that is near. Here it is not the feast but His own appointed hour that has drawn near, and the feast is its occasion.
ποιῶpoiōI will keepG4160
√ ποιέω — to make or do (in a very wide application, more or less direct)VerbPresent Indicative Active1st Person Singular
poieō: to make or do, and with pascha, to keep the feast Present indicative active, first singular. He does not ask for a room; He announces an act. Gill notes that the guests are His disciples rather than the household: “not with him and his family, but with his disciples, who were a family, and a society of themselves.”
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 second of three occurrences of the noun in this unit (v. 17, v. 18, v. 19), and the only one with Him as its subject: the disciples prepare it, He does it. Strong's range (the meal, the day, the festival, or the sacrifices connected with it) means the sentence can be heard as “I am keeping the feast” and as “I am doing the sacrifice” without altering a letter, which is why Pulpit can call the meal one “in which he himself was the Lamb.” Each time in this unit the noun is the object of a verb of preparing or doing, never yet of a verb of explaining.
μετὰmetawithG3326
√ μετά — properly, denoting accompanimentPreposition
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
πρὸςprosatG4314
√ πρός — a preposition of directionPreposition
σὲseyour [house]G4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative 2nd Person Singular
Accusative second person singular after πρὸς: “toward you.” The house is described by its owner, and the owner by his willingness.
19

So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them and prepared the Passover.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai hoi mathētai epoiēsan hōs ho Iēsous synetaxen autois kai hētoimasan to pascha

Word by word13 · parsed
καὶkaiSoG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
οἱhoitheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
μαθηταὶmathētaidisciplesG3101
√ μαθητής — a learner, iNounNominative Masculine Plural
mathētēs: a learner The subject that opened v. 17 closes the unit. They asked where; they are now simply those who did.
ἐποίησανepoiēsandidG4160
√ ποιέω — to make or do (in a very wide application, more or less direct)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
poieō: to make or do Aorist indicative active, third plural. Matthew's habitual formula for obedience carried out (compare Matthew 21:6, where the disciples likewise go and do as directed). Henry draws the pastoral edge: those who want Christ's presence at the gospel passover must do what He says.
ὡςhōsasG5613
√ ὡς — which how, iAdverb
Comparative adverb: the measure of the obedience is His arrangement, nothing added and nothing withheld.
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἸησοῦςIēsousJesusG2424
√ Ἰησοῦς — Jesus (iNounNominative Masculine Singular
συνέταξενsynetaxenhad directedG4929
√ συντάσσω — to arrange jointly, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
syntassō: to arrange jointly, to order Aorist indicative active, third singular, and a rare verb: the Verifier counts it in 3 verses in all. The one occurrence it pairs with this verse is Matthew 27:10, where the field of blood is bought “as the Lord had directed me,” so the same uncommon word of ordered arrangement stands over the last table and over the purchased burial ground. Matthew does not comment on the pairing, and neither should we beyond noting it.
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
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἡτοίμασανhētoimasanpreparedG2090
√ ἑτοιμάζω — to prepareVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
hetoimazō: to prepare Aorist indicative active, third plural. Ellicott, Barnes and Gill fill in what the single verb contains: the room seen to, the lamb bought and slain in the temple court by an officiating priest, the blood poured at the altar, the fat burnt, the lamb roasted, the unleavened bread, wine and bitter herbs set out. One verb, an afternoon of blood and labour.
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, and still only the lamb and the meal. The reader is left at a prepared table with nothing yet said about what it will mean; the explanation comes only when He takes bread later in the chapter.

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 that will not sit still — 26:17

The unit opens on a date that the commentators cannot agree how to write. The Greek says only “on the first of the unleavened,” with ἀζύμων (azymōn, G106) a plural adjective and no noun for either feast or bread. Benson dates it flatly: “Being Thursday, the fourteenth day of the first month, Exodus 12:6; Exodus 12:15.” Barnes counts the eight days on which no leaven could be eaten and notes that the word rendered Passover commonly means the lamb, citing Exodus 12:43 and Numbers 9:11. Geneva offers the calendrical repair, that the fourteenth is called the first of unleavened bread because the Jewish evening belonged to the day following, and Poole gives the same repair at length from the Roman versus the Jewish reckoning of a day. Against them Cambridge insists that the Supper “was not the paschal meal,” and Pulpit agrees, dating the scene to Nisan 13. Ellicott takes the opposite view and says the precision of all three Synoptists leaves no room for doubt that they saw the actual Paschal Feast. ⚙ Our own judgement: the Greek of v. 17 does not settle it. It gives a popular festival label, not a rabbinic date, and the disagreement among these witnesses is a real one that we record rather than resolve.

ii. The unnamed man and the appointed hour — 26:18

Two rare things stand in the answer. The first is δεῖνα (deina, G1170), the only occurrence in the New Testament, which Ellicott defines as the word used “when the writer knows, but does not care to mention, the name of the man referred to.” Cambridge calls him one who is known but not named, with whom arrangements had been previously made; Ellicott suspects a secret disciple “for fear of the Jews” (John 12:42); Barnes argues the silence is tactical, to keep the place from Judas until the hour appointed by the Father; Pulpit reports Edersheim's guess that he was the father of Mark. ⚙ These are four different explanations of one silence, and the text supports none of them decisively. The second rare thing is καιρός (kairos, G2540) with ἐγγύς (engys, G1451): not a span of time but an appointed occasion, now near. Gill reads it strictly of the death, “not of eating the passover ... but he means the time of his death.” Ellicott hears what the disciples may have heard instead, the long expected season of the Kingdom, and then reads between the lines to the suffering that was the condition of His glory. Pulpit reads it the same way and notes the Greek present ποιῶ, “I keep.” The householder is asked for a room by a man who announces, in the present tense, that He is already keeping the feast.

iii. Obedience with no comment attached — 26:19

Verse 19 records the whole afternoon in two aorists and a rare verb. συνέταξεν (synetaxen, G4929) appears in only 3 verses in the Verifier's count, and Matthew's only other use of it is at 27:10. What the verb covered is filled in by the commentators from the parallels: Barnes lists the lamb procured from the multitudes kept for sale, killed and flayed by the priests, the blood poured by the altar, the roasting, the bitter herbs, the sauce, the unleavened bread; Gill adds the fat burnt on the altar and the Charoseth; Ellicott adds the triclinium, the cushions, the conserve of sweet fruits, and the Paschal victim slain in the Temple courts by an officiating priest; Pulpit and Gill both note the large upper room, which Pulpit says the householder gave as his best and most honourable chamber rather than the common hall. Henry draws the one moral the text will bear: those who would have Christ's presence in the gospel passover must do what He says. ⚙ Matthew himself says nothing. He does not call the foreknowledge a miracle, as Gill and Barnes do; he does not name the host; he does not say what the meal will become. The unit ends at a set table, in silence.

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

⚙ Read only against the rest of Scripture, this is a scene about who is the host. The disciples come with the one question a servant asks (where would you have it prepared), and the answer they receive is not a location but an announcement: the Teacher says my appointed hour is near, and I am keeping the Passover at your house. Every human act in the pericope is preparation, twice the same lexeme ἑτοιμάζω (hetoimazō, G2090), asked in v. 17 and performed in v. 19, and in between stands a man with no name who gives up his best room on one sentence of notice. The feast being prepared is the memorial of a lamb whose blood turned away death in Egypt (Exodus 12:6 to 12:20), kept at the place the LORD chooses (Deuteronomy 16:1 to 16:8), and Paul will later say without hedging that Christ our Passover has been sacrificed (1 Corinthians 5:7). We do not claim Matthew says that here; he does not. He lets the disciples buy a lamb for a man whose hour is near, and leaves the reader to notice that only one of the two lambs in the room had to be told where to go. Where the sources divide (whether this was the legal paschal meal or an anticipation of it), we have left the division standing: nothing in the Greek of these three verses decides it, and a stated gap is worth more than a harmonised guess. The single line printed beside this reading is our own sentence, not Scripture, and may be tested and discarded without loss.

Every hand in the room is busy preparing, and the one being prepared for is the only one who already knows the way.

⚙

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 same errand in three Gospels verbal / quotation: confirmed

Matthew's pericope runs word for word alongside Mark 14:12 to 14:16 and Luke 22:7 to 22:13, and the Verifier records the overlap lexically: the rare ἄζυμος (azymos, G106) with ποῦ (pou, G4226) and μαθητής (mathētēs, G3101) at Mark 14:12, and πάσχα (pascha, G3957) with ἑτοιμάζω (hetoimazō, G2090) at Mark 14:16, Luke 22:8, Luke 22:11 and Luke 22:13. Poole quotes Mark and Luke in full and concludes that the variations “are of no moment, none contradicts the other, only one hath some circumstances omitted by the other.” Barnes, Ellicott and Gill all use the parallels to supply what Matthew omits: the two disciples named as Peter and John (Luke 22:8), and the man bearing a pitcher of water (Mark 14:13).

Mark 14:12 · Mark 14:16 · Luke 22:7 · Luke 22:8 · Luke 22:13

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G106 ἄζυμος (in 9 vv, rare), plus G3957 πάσχα (in 27 vv), G2090 ἑτοιμάζω (in 40 vv), G4226 ποῦ (in 41 vv) and G3101 μαθητής (in 247 vv), across Mark 14:12, Mark 14:14, Mark 14:16, Luke 22:7, Luke 22:8, Luke 22:11 and Luke 22:13. Greek to Greek, all within the New Testament; the rare lexeme plus the shared narrative sequence makes this a verbal link between synoptic accounts of one event, not a citation of one Gospel by another.

“As the Lord directed”: a rare verb over two arrangements verbal / quotation: confirmed

συνέταξεν (synetaxen, G4929, “to arrange jointly”) is the rarest verb in the unit: the Verifier counts it in 3 verses in all, and the occurrence it pairs with this one is Matthew 27:10, where the field bought with the betrayal money is bought “as the Lord had directed me.” The Verifier confirms the shared lexeme and its rarity; the brief does not tell us where the third occurrence falls, so we claim nothing about it. ⚙ We note the pairing without pressing it: Matthew draws no link himself, and the second occurrence stands inside his own citation formula rather than in narrative. The most that can honestly be said is that the same uncommon word of ordered arrangement frames both the table and the burial ground bought with the price of the man at it.

Matthew 27:10

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G4929 συντάσσω (in 3 vv), a genuinely rare verb; both refs are in Matthew, so the link is Greek to Greek within one author and one book. Confirmed as a verbal link only, not as a quotation: Matthew 26:19 quotes nothing, and no commentator in the brief connects the two verses.

The lamb and the seven days behind the whole scene structural / thematic: confirmed

Nothing in these verses is explained, because the institution behind them is assumed. Exodus 12:6 fixes the killing of the lamb on the fourteenth day of the first month between the evenings, and Exodus 12:15 to 12:20 fixes the seven days on which no leaven may be found. Benson cites Exodus 12:6 and 12:15 directly on v. 17; Barnes cites Exodus 12:15 for the days and Exodus 12:43 for the word Passover meaning the victim; Poole reconstructs the whole “between the two evenings” calculation from Exodus 12:6; Gill grounds the removal of leaven in the haste of the exodus, when there was no time for the dough to rise. ⚙ The Greek text of Matthew 26:17 to 26:19 therefore functions as a set of stage directions for a rite whose script is Exodus 12.

Exodus 12:6 · Exodus 12:15

basis: Cross Testament (Greek to Hebrew), so no shared Strong's number is possible and no verbal tier may be claimed. The link is the shared institution: the Greek terms G3957 πάσχα and G106 ἄζυμος name what Exodus 12 prescribes, and Benson, Barnes, Poole and Gill all cite Exodus 12:6 and 12:15 as the source of the day, the victim and the removal of leaven. Confirmed as structural, not verbal, on that basis; no quotation is claimed.

Kept at the place He chooses typological

Deuteronomy 16:1 to 16:8 requires that the Passover not be sacrificed anywhere a man pleases, but at the place the LORD chooses to put His name, and that the unleavened bread be eaten there for the appointed days. That requirement is why the question of v. 17 exists at all: Ellicott explains that our Lord had passed each night at Bethany or in Gethsemane, “but the Paschal lamb was to be slain and eaten in Jerusalem, and therefore special preparations were needed.” Pulpit notes the disciples' assumption that Bethany counted as Jerusalem for the purposes of the meal, and that the answer sent them into the city instead. ⚙ The one who names the house is the one whose hour is near; the choosing of the place has moved, in this scene, into His mouth.

Deuteronomy 16:2 · Deuteronomy 16:6

basis: Cross Testament (Greek to Hebrew): no shared Strong's lexeme is available, so no verbal tier is possible. Recorded as typological because the figural step (the chosen place is now designated by Jesus rather than located by the worshipper) is ours, not stated by any source in the brief. The underlying requirement of a single chosen place, and the need for preparation inside Jerusalem, is attested by Ellicott and Pulpit.

Unleavened and Passover in Paul's hands structural / thematic: confirmed

The two festival words of this unit reappear together in 1 Corinthians 5:7, where Paul tells the Corinthians to purge the old leaven because Christ our Passover has been sacrificed. The Verifier records the overlap: ἄζυμος (G106, in 9 verses) and πάσχα (G3957, in 27 verses). Barnes makes the connection explicitly on Matthew 26:17, citing 1 Corinthians 5:7 “where Christ, ‘our Passover,’ is said to be slain for us; that is, our paschal lamb.” Henry makes it pastorally: “as Christ our Passover is now sacrificed for us, we may keep this feast.” ⚙ Paul is not quoting Matthew and Matthew is not anticipating Paul; both are drawing on the same festival vocabulary, which is why we tier this below verbal.

1 Corinthians 5:7

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G106 ἄζυμος (in 9 vv) and G3957 πάσχα (in 27 vv), Greek to Greek. Downgraded from verbal to structural on purpose: the shared words are the standard vocabulary of one festival, and there is no citation in either direction. Barnes and Henry both make the theological connection independently.

The disputed Passover of John 18:28 flagged: verify source

John 18:28 says the chief priests would not enter the Praetorium so that they might eat the Passover, on the day Jesus was already condemned. The Verifier records the lexical overlap with our unit (πάσχα, G3957, and φάγω, G5315). What the overlap proves is contested. Cambridge treats John 18:28 as making it “quite certain” that Jesus was crucified on the preparation and concludes the Last Supper was not the paschal meal; Barnes reports the same argument as the foundation of the view that Jesus anticipated the usual date by a day; Pulpit goes further and says no lamb could lawfully have been killed, noting that Matthew never mentions a lamb here; Ellicott and Gill resist, Ellicott holding the Synoptists leave no doubt it was the actual feast and Gill insisting He ate it “when the Jews ate theirs.” ⚙ We flag the inference, not the words.

John 18:28

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G3957 πάσχα (in 27 vv) and G5315 φάγω (in 86 vv); the lexical link is real and Greek to Greek. Flagged because the chronological conclusion drawn from it is disputed inside this brief: Cambridge and Pulpit read John 18:28 as excluding a paschal Last Supper, while Ellicott and Gill read the Synoptic date as secure. Any use of this pair must state which harmonisation it assumes.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The lamb bought by those who did not know what they were buying ancient/widely-held

⚙ The unit's centre of gravity is a purchase. Barnes describes it plainly on v. 19: “they procured a lamb, multitudes of which were kept for sale in the temple; they had it killed and flayed by the priests, and the blood poured by the altar.” Ellicott adds that the Paschal victim had to be slain in the Temple courts by an officiating priest. And Barnes, on v. 17, has already stated the lexical fact that makes the scene readable in two registers: the word rendered Passover “commonly means, not the ‘feast’ itself, but the ‘lamb’ that was killed on the occasion,” and he moves at once to 1 Corinthians 5:7, “where Christ, ‘our Passover,’ is said to be slain for us; that is, our paschal lamb, so called on account of his innocence, and his being offered as a victim or ‘sacrifice’ for our sins.” Henry says the same in the imperative: “as Christ our Passover is now sacrificed for us, we may keep this feast.” Pulpit names Him “the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world.” This is the apostolic reading, recorded in the brief by Barnes, Henry and Pulpit alike, and it does not require Matthew to say a word: two disciples spend an afternoon providing a victim for a man who has just told them His hour is near.

1 Corinthians 5:7 · Exodus 12:6 · John 1:29

“My time is near”: the hour He sets, not the hour set on Him ancient/widely-held

⚙ ὁ καιρός μου ἐγγύς ἐστιν (v. 18) is the hinge of the unit. Ellicott reads the “time” as that “of the suffering and death which were the conditions of His true glory,” pointing to John 12:23 and John 13:32, and notes that the disciples may instead have heard the promised season of the Kingdom, remembering John 7:8, “My time is not yet full come.” Gill is blunt: “he means the time of his death, that he had but a little while to live.” Pulpit: “The time of my suffering and death.” Benson draws the further inference from the whole arrangement, that “these predictions were uttered to show them how completely he foreknew every thing that should befall him, and to convince them that his sufferings were all predetermined of God; and that, on his part, they were all submitted to voluntarily.” Geneva presses the same point structurally, that Christ “truly fulfils the law” and shows that all things come to pass by the ministry of men as governed by the secret plan of God. Barnes adds the safeguard against fatalism: though it was certain He would not be delivered before the time appointed by the Father, it was still proper to use the means. Taken together the sources agree on this much: the man asking for a borrowed room is the only person in Jerusalem that day who knows what week it is.

John 7:8 · John 12:23 · John 13:1

Thousands of lambs and one High Priest ancient/widely-held

⚙ Cambridge presses the typology to its sharpest point in the brief: on his reckoning of the days, “during the very hours when our Great High Priest was offering Himself as a sacrifice for our sins upon the cross, the Jewish people were engaged in slaying thousands of lambs in view of the paschal feast about to commence.” Pulpit reaches the same figure by a different route, calling the meal “a commemorative anticipatory feast in which he himself was the Lamb.” We record the reading and its cost honestly: it depends on the disputed chronology flagged above, and Ellicott and Gill would reject the premise while holding the same conclusion about the Lamb by other means. The typology does not stand or fall with the calendar. What stands in either reckoning is that the Passover prepared in v. 19 was the last one anyone would need to prepare twice.

Exodus 12:6 · John 18:28 · 1 Corinthians 5:7

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)
  • 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: BSB (CC0) with the Berean interlinear and Strong's numbering as given in the brief; three Greek verses, 18, 30 and 13 words respectively, no text only verses and no variant readings supplied in the brief, so nothing is said here about the manuscript tradition.

What is genuinely uncertain in this unit is its date. The brief's own witnesses split: Benson, Barnes, Poole, Geneva and Gill read v. 17 as the fourteenth of Nisan with the lamb killed that afternoon in the ordinary way, while Cambridge and Pulpit read the scene on the thirteenth and deny that the Supper was the paschal meal at all; Ellicott states the opposite, that the Synoptists leave no room for doubt that it was. We have not harmonised them. Every thread and note above either states which view it assumes or avoids depending on one, and the John 18:28 pair is tiered “flagged: verify source” for exactly this reason.

Provenance limits worth naming: JFB supplies no exposition here (the entry refers the reader to Luke 22:7 to 22:23), and Poole's Matthew 26:17 and 26:18 entries are cross references to his note on 26:19, so no voice is drawn from either place. The Gill entry on v. 17, the Barnes entry on v. 18, the Pulpit entry on v. 18 and the Poole entry on v. 19 are capped in the brief; the anchored excerpts used above all fall inside the supplied text, and no capped remainder was consulted. The details of the afternoon's work (the triclinium and cushions from Ellicott, the Charoseth and the burning of the fat from Gill, the pitcher of water and the two disciples named as Peter and John from Mark 14:13 and Luke 22:8 via Barnes, Ellicott and Gill) come from the parallel Gospels and from Jewish sources those commentators cite, not from the Greek of Matthew 26:17 to 26:19, which says only that they prepared it.

⚙ Our own additions that should be tested: the reading of πρὸς σὲ as keeping a person rather than a property in view; the observation that Matthew's only other use of the rare συντάσσω is at 27:10; and the Deuteronomy 16 thread, whose figural step (that the choosing of the place has passed into His mouth) is ours and is tiered typological for that reason. Edersheim's identification of the householder as the father of Mark is reported by Pulpit as a supposition and is treated here as no more than that.

✦ = 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)