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Bible chapter guide
Mark 14
A woman pours costly ointment on Jesus at Bethany. At the Passover meal he foretells his betrayal and gives the bread and the cup. In Gethsemane he prays, 'Abba, Father… not what I will,' is arrested, condemned by the council, and denied three times by Peter.
Summary written for the Labs; read the chapter itself for the full text.
What happens in this chapter
Mark sets the anointing at Bethany between the leaders' plot and Judas's visit to them, and like John he puts the price of the nard at more than three hundred denarii. Two disciples follow a man carrying a pitcher of water to a furnished upper room, where Jesus eats the Passover with the Twelve and gives the bread and the cup. In Gethsemane he prays 'Abba, Father', Mark keeping the Aramaic word, and when the crowd from the chief priests seizes him everyone flees, including a young man who leaves his linen cloth behind and runs off naked, a detail only Mark records. Before the council the false witnesses do not agree, Jesus answers the high priest openly, and Peter's denials end with the rooster crowing a second time, as Jesus had said.
What the lab shows, and where to look
The Holy Week lab draws most of its Wednesday and Thursday from this chapter. At Bethany, go to 'In memory of her', Jesus' answer to the grumbling at the table. In Gethsemane, 'The prayer' shows an olive grove by moonlight, with Jesus praying a little way off while Peter, James and John sleep; the soft light on him is marked as a way of showing the scene, not a halo. At the high priest's house, start 'By the fire' in the courtyard and step to 'The rooster crows' before dawn; the notes there take up Mark's two crowings. The Places of Jesus map marks Gethsemane at the foot of the Mount of Olives.
- The anointing at Bethany: In memory of her · Holy Week in Jerusalem
- Gethsemane · Holy Week in Jerusalem
- The high priest's house · Holy Week in Jerusalem
- The high priest's house: The rooster crows · Holy Week in Jerusalem
- Gethsemane · Places of Jesus
Questions people ask
Where was Gethsemane?
Across the Kidron valley from the city, at the foot of the Mount of Olives: John calls it a garden across the Kidron, Mark and Matthew name it Gethsemane, and Luke says the Mount of Olives. The name means 'oil press' in Aramaic, which fits an olive grove with a press. A church stood at the traditional spot by the late 4th century, where the Church of All Nations stands today; the exact spot cannot be known, and the old olive trees there are not from Jesus' day.
Who was the young man who ran away naked?
Mark does not say, and no other Gospel mentions him (14:51–52). An old suggestion is that he was Mark himself, leaving a quiet signature in his own book; others link him with the house of the upper room, or read him as a picture of the disciples' flight. None of this can be shown from the text, which says only that he followed, was seized and fled.
Did the rooster crow once or twice?
In Mark, Jesus says Peter will deny him three times before the rooster crows twice (14:30), and the rooster crows a second time at the end (14:72). Matthew, Luke and John speak of the rooster crowing once. Mark gives the fuller detail, and the others keep the main point: three denials before dawn.
See it in the Labs
- Holy Week in JerusalemThe anointing at Bethany · Holy Week in JerusalemOpen
- Holy Week in JerusalemThe anointing at Bethany: The alabaster jar · Holy Week in JerusalemOpen
- Holy Week in JerusalemThe anointing at Bethany: In memory of her · Holy Week in JerusalemOpen
- Holy Week in JerusalemThe Last Supper: The bread and the cup · Holy Week in JerusalemOpen
- Holy Week in JerusalemGethsemane · Holy Week in JerusalemOpen
- Holy Week in JerusalemGethsemane: The arrest · Holy Week in JerusalemOpen
- Holy Week in JerusalemThe high priest's house · Holy Week in JerusalemOpen
- Holy Week in JerusalemThe high priest's house: The rooster crows · Holy Week in JerusalemOpen
- Holy Week in JerusalemHoly Week in JerusalemOpen
Also in this chapter
How sure can we be?
- Textually stated
Mark and Matthew set the meal at Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, with Jesus reclining at table. Nothing more is told of Simon; he may have been healed, since a man with leprosy could not have hosted guests.
That Simon had been healed is an inference (Leviticus 13:45-46 kept a person with leprosy outside the camp), not a statement of the text.
- Textually stated
The jar was alabaster and she broke it; the ointment was pure nard, an oil from a plant of the Himalayas, worth more than three hundred denarii, about a year's wages for a labourer.
A denarius was a day's wage for a labourer in Jesus' parable of the vineyard. Nard's origin in the Himalayas is from ancient writers on spices (Pliny, Natural History 12.26), not from the Gospels.
- Textually stated
The meal was in a large upper room, furnished and ready, in a house in the city.
- Textually stated
Peter was below in the courtyard while Jesus was questioned: the hearing was held in the house above or beside it.
- Strongly supported
Gethsemane was a garden across the Kidron valley at the foot of the Mount of Olives.
John places the garden across the Kidron; Mark and Matthew call the place Gethsemane and Luke the Mount of Olives. A church stood at the traditional spot by the late 4th century.
- Strongly supported
Gethsemane means "oil press" in Aramaic (gat shemanim). An olive grove with a press fits the name; John calls the place a garden.