Bible chapter guide

Matthew 26

The chief priests plot against Jesus; a woman anoints him at Bethany and Judas agrees to betray him for thirty pieces of silver. At the Passover Jesus gives the bread and cup, prays in Gethsemane, is arrested, tried before Caiaphas, and Peter denies him three times before the rooster crows.

Summary written for the Labs; read the chapter itself for the full text.

What happens in this chapter

Two days before the Passover the chief priests and elders meet in the court of Caiaphas and agree to take Jesus by stealth. At Bethany a woman pours costly ointment on his head, and Judas goes to the chief priests, who weigh out thirty pieces of silver for him. At the supper Jesus says one of them will betray him, and only Matthew has Judas ask whether it is he and hear 'Thou hast said', and adds to the words over the cup that the blood is poured out for the remission of sins. In Gethsemane Jesus prays three times and is arrested; he stops a disciple's sword, saying he could call on more than twelve legions of angels. At Caiaphas's house he is condemned, while Peter, given away by his Galilean accent, denies him three times.

What the lab shows, and where to look

The Holy Week lab tells this chapter across four stops. 'The anointing at Bethany' is set on Wednesday evening because Mark and Matthew tell it two days before the Passover, though the notes record that John dates the meal earlier; open 'The alabaster jar'. 'The Last Supper' opens on John's foot washing, so step on to 'The bread and the cup' for the moment Matthew tells. In Gethsemane, 'The arrest' shows torches coming down from the city across the Kidron. At the high priest's house you can switch between two proposed sites, the Upper City and St Peter in Gallicantu, each with its evidence for and against.

Questions people ask

Was the Last Supper a Passover meal?

Matthew, Mark and Luke present it as the Passover meal (26:17–19). John has the leaders avoiding defilement on Friday morning so that they could still eat the Passover (John 18:28), and places the crucifixion on the day of Preparation. Proposed answers: John's 'Passover' can mean the whole week-long feast; Jesus held the meal a day early, knowing he would die; or the accounts follow different calendars, such as the one used at Qumran. Each has supporters.

Plausible

Where was the upper room?

The Gospels say only that it was a large, furnished upper room in a house in the city (Mark 14:15). Tradition places it on Mount Zion, where a church linked with the upper room is mentioned from the 4th century; the room shown there today, the Cenacle, is a Gothic hall built between the 12th and 14th centuries, by the Crusaders or later; its exact date is debated. The site cannot be confirmed.

Speculative

Where was the house of Caiaphas?

The high-priestly families were wealthy and lived in the Upper City on the western hill, where large houses of the period, with courtyards and ritual baths, have been excavated; Byzantine and Armenian tradition places Caiaphas's house near the Cenacle on Mount Zion. The other candidate, St Peter in Gallicantu on the eastern slope, has rock-cut chambers and a pit shown as Jesus' prison, but these are more likely cisterns or storerooms. No find names Caiaphas at either place.

Plausible

See it in the Labs

Follow Holy Week in 3D Jerusalem, day by day

Also in this chapter

The anointing at Bethany The Last Supper Gethsemane The high priest's house

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
Peter was below in the courtyard while Jesus was questioned: the hearing was held in the house above or beside it.
Plausible
Mark's anointing and John's: one event or two?: John tells a supper at Bethany where Martha served and Lazarus was at table, and Mary anointed Jesus' feet with a pound of nard and wiped them with her hair; Judas objected. Mark has an unnamed woman pouring the ointment on his head in Simon's house, and "some" object. The village, the costly nard, the three hundred denarii, the complaint about the poor and Jesus' answer about his burial are shared, so many readers take them as one event remembered in two ways (plausible); others see two anointings. The scene follows Mark and shows the head; John's details are a parallel tradition, given here and not drawn. Luke 7:36-50 tells a different anointing, in Galilee, earlier in Jesus' ministry.
Plausible
When was Jesus anointed at Bethany?: Mark and Matthew tell the anointing after saying the Passover was two days away, but they do not say it happened that day; John sets the dinner at Bethany six days before the Passover, before the entry into Jerusalem. Many readers take John's date as the time of the meal and Mark as placing the story beside Judas's betrayal on purpose. The lab puts the stop on Wednesday because that is where Mark tells it, not because the day is known.
Plausible
Who objected?: Mark says "some" were indignant, Matthew "the disciples", and John names Judas, adding that he kept the money box and stole from it. The scene shows a few of the disciples objecting, which fits all three.
Plausible
Once or twice?: In Mark, Jesus says Peter will deny him three times before the rooster crows twice, and the rooster crows a second time at the end; Matthew, Luke and John speak of the rooster crowing once. Mark gives the fuller detail; the others keep the main point.

Explore this chapter in the Knowledge Graph

Read the chapter

King James Version (KJV) Chinese Union Version, 1919 (Wikisource)