Luke 22:1-6

First Cycle: The Preparation for the Passion, Luke 22:1-46.

This cycle comprehends the three following events:

Judas preparing for the Passion by selling Jesus; Jesus preparing His disciples for it at His last supper; His preparing Himself for it by prayer in Gethsemane.

I. The Treachery of Judas: 22:1-6.

Vers. 1-6. The resolution of the Sanhedrim was taken. The only question for it henceforth was that of the how (τὸ πῶς, Luke 22:2). Its perplexity arose from the extraordinary favour which Jesus enjoyed with the people, particularly with the crowds who had come from Galilee and from abroad; the rulers feared a popular rising on the part of those numerous friends who had come from a distance with Him, and of whom they did not feel themselves the masters, as they did of the population of Jerusalem. So, according to Matthew and Mark, they said in their conclaves, “ Not during the feast,” which may signify either before, ere the multitudes are fully assembled, or after, when they shall have departed, and they shall be again masters of the field. But it was in exact keeping with the divine plan that Jesus should die during the feast (ἐν τῇ ἑορτῇ); and the perfidy of Judas, the means which the rulers thought they could use to attain their end, was that of which God made use to attain His.

It appears from Matthew 26:2 and Mark 14:1 that it was Wednesday when the negotiation between Judas and the Sanhedrim took place. Luke and Mark omit the words of Jesus (Matthew), “ In two days is the Passover...” But those two days appear in Mark in the form of the narrative.

The word Passover, τὸ πάσχα, from ֶפּסַח, H7175, in Aramaic פִּסְחָא, signifies a passing, and commemorates the manner in which the Israelites were spared in Egypt when the Almighty passed over their houses, sprinkled with the blood of the lamb, without slaying their first-born. This name, which originally denoted the lamb, was applied later to the Supper itself, then to the entire feast. The Passover was celebrated in the first month, called Nisan, from the 15th of the month, the day of full moon, to the 21st. This season corresponds to the end of March and beginning of April. The feast opened on the evening which closed the 14th and began the 15th, with the Paschal Supper. Originally every father, in virtue of the priesthood belonging to every Israelite, sacrificed his lamb himself at his own house. But since the Passover celebrated by Josiah, the lambs were sacrificed in the temple, and with the help of the priests. This act took place on the afternoon of the 14th, from three to six o'clock. Some hours after the Supper began, which was prolonged far into the night. This Supper opened the feast of unleavened bread (ἑορτὴ τῶν ἀζύμων, Luke 22:1), which, according to the law, lasted the seven following days. The first and last (15th and 21st) were sabbatic. The intermediate days were not hallowed by acts of worship and sacrifices; work was lawful. As Josephus expressly says that the feast of unleavened bread lasted eight days, agreeing with our Syn., who make it begin on the 14th (Luke 22:7; Matthew 26:17; Mark 14:12), and not on the 15th, we must conclude that in practice the use of unleavened bread had been gradually extended to the 14th. To the present day, it is on the night between the 13th and 14th that all leaven is removed from Israelitish houses.

Luke, Luke 22:3, ascribes the conduct of Judas to a Satanic influence. He goes the length of saying that Satan entered into him. He means to remark here, in a general way, the intervention of that superior agent in this extraordinary crime; while John, seeking to characterize its various degrees, more exactly distinguishes the time when Satan put into the heart of Judas the first thought of it (comp. Luke 13:2), and the moment when he entered into him so as to take entire possession of his will (Luke 13:27). According to the biblical view, this intervention of Satan did not at all exclude the liberty of Judas. This disciple, in joining the service of Jesus, had not taken care to deny his own life, as Jesus so often urged His own to do. Jesus, instead of becoming the end to his heart, had remained the means. And now, when he saw things terminating in a result entirely opposed to that with which he had ambitiously flattered himself, he wished at least to try to benefit by the false position into which he had put himself with his nation, and to use his advantages as a disciple in order to regain the favour of the rulers with whom he had broken. The thirty pieces of silver certainly played only a secondary part in his treachery, although this part was real notwithstanding; for the epithet thief (John 12:6) is given to him with the view of putting his habitual conduct in connection with this final act.

Matthew and Mark insert here the narrative of the feast at Bethany, though it must have taken place some days before (John). The reason for this insertion is an association of ideas arising from the moral relation between these two particulars in which the avarice of Judas showed itself.

The στρατηγοί, captains (Luke 22:4), are the heads of the soldiery charged with keeping guard over the temple (Acts 4:1). There was a positive contract (they covenanted, he promised). ῎Ατερ, not at a distance from the multitude, but without a multitude; that is to say, without any flocking together produced by the occasion. This wholly unexpected offer determined the Sanhedrim to act before rather than after the feast. But in order to that, it was necessary to make haste; the last moment had come.