Mark 11:19

‘And whenever it was evening He went out of the city.’ This was necessarily so because their camp was on the Mount of Olives near Bethany. But in Mark’s eyes it probably also symbolises His unwillingness to be fully identified with Jerusalem. He would not accept the hospitality of those whom He had sentenced.

‘Whenever.’ Each night He returned with His disciples to where He was staying in or just outside Bethany (Mark 11:12; Matthew 21:17), on the lower slopes of the Mount of Olives (Luke 21:37). In view of their number they may well have set up camp there. Each day they again entered the city and passed the fig tree. During the day He was preaching in the Temple (see Luke 19:47; John 12:17-50). One can imagine the feelings of the authorities every time He arrived as they waited on tenterhooks for what He would do next.