Mark 14:17

Commencement of the Supper. Revelation of the Traitor

17. in the evening "It was probably while the sun was beginning to decline in the horizon that Jesus and the disciples descended once more over the Mount of Olives into the Holy City. Before them lay Jerusalem in her festive attire. White tents dotted the sward, gay with the bright flowers of early spring, or peered out from the gardens and the darker foliage of the olive-plantations. From the gorgeous Temple buildings, dazzling in their snow-white marble and gold, on which the slanting rays of the sun were reflected, rose the smoke of the altar of burnt offering.… The streets must have been thronged with strangers, and the flat roofs covered with eager gazers, who either feasted their eyes with a first sight of the Sacred City for which they had so often longed, or else once more rejoiced in view of the well-remembered localities. It was the last day-view which the Lord had of the Holy City till His resurrection!" Edersheim's The Temple and its Services, pp. 194, 195.

he cometh with the twelve Judas must have stolen back to Bethany before daylight, and another day of hypocrisy had been spent under the penetrating glance of Him Who could read the hearts of men.