1. 'ETiXtas fl-carac, ended all) He had said all that He had to say. He did not enter on his Passion sooner, or defer it later than this point. A regular systematic plan of our Lord's Dis courses may be produced from the Harmony of the Gospels.
2. Msra d-jo ipspa;, after two days) Our Lord foretold His death by various measures of time.1 xa/, and) sc. and therefore, as this time is suitable for the transaction. — -Trapadidorai, is be trayed) The present tense. Our Lord was preparing Himself entirely2 for suffering, and His enemies were labouring to effect the same object : see Mark xiv. 1.
3. Suvjjp/^o-aii, were gathered together) Thus also in ver. 57, and ch. xxvii. 1, 17, 27, 62; cf. Luke xxii. G6 ; Matt, xxviii. 12; Acts iv. 5, 26, 27. — 0} apyjtpifg, the chief priests) They took the principal part in that matter ; they were supported, however, by the scribes, the lawyers, and the elders of the people, who formed the remainder of the Jewish council. — ro\j l.iyo/Levov, who was called) St Matthew wrote for readers of times and places, in which the names of Caiaphas and Judas (see ver. 14) would not be known from any other source.3
1 Just as there is said to be a space of three days from the evening of Friday to the dawn of light on the Lord's day : so here a space of two days is said to intervene between Wednesday and Thursday, which latter was the day of the Passover and of unleavened bread, Mark viii. 31, xiv. 11, 12. So among the Romans sometimes the expression ante diem Secundum Kalendas means the same as pridie Kal. Matthew narrates, in an abbreviated and condensed form, the delivering up of Jesus to be crucified. His being de livered up was accomplished step by step : through the instrumentality of Judas on the night of Thursday ; through Caiaphas on the following morn ing ; and through Pilate, after about two hours having intervened. Thus we come from the betrayal to the crucifixion. — Harm., p. 487- The day (Thursday) which intervened between this speech of our Lord and the cruci fixion is mentioned in ver. 17. — V. g.
2 In the original, " Totum se comparabat Jesus ad patiendum. — (I. B.)
3 This remark holds good rather of the present Greek translation, subse quently written for more general circulation, than of the original Hebrew