1
After two days it was the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take Him by trickery and put Him to death.
2
But they said, "Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar of the people."
3
And being in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, as He sat at the table, a woman came having an alabaster flask of very costly oil of spikenard. Then she broke the flask and poured it on His head.
4
But there were some who were indignant among themselves, and said, "Why was this fragrant oil wasted?
5
For it might have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor." And they criticized her sharply.
6
But Jesus said, "Let her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a good work for Me.
7
For you have the poor with you always, and whenever you wish you may do them good; but Me you do not have always.
8
She has done what she could. She has come beforehand to anoint My body for burial.
9
Assuredly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her."
10
Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Him to them.
11
And when they heard it, they were glad, and promised to give him money. So he sought how he might conveniently betray Him.
12
Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they killed the Passover lamb, His disciples said to Him, "Where do You want us to go and prepare, that You may eat the Passover?"
13
And He sent out two of His disciples and said to them, "Go into the city, and a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water; follow him.
14
Wherever he goes in, say to the master of the house, 'The Teacher says, "Where is the guest room in which I may eat the Passover with My disciples?" '
15
Then he will show you a large upper room, furnished and prepared; there make ready for us."
16
So His disciples went out, and came into the city, and found it just as He had said to them; and they prepared the Passover.
17
In the evening He came with the twelve.
18
Now as they sat and ate, Jesus said, "Assuredly, I say to you, one of you who eats with Me will betray Me."
19
And they began to be sorrowful, and to say to Him one by one, "Is it I?" And another said, "Is it I?"
20
He answered and said to them, "It is one of the twelve, who dips with Me in the dish.
21
The Son of Man indeed goes just as it is written of Him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had never been born."