Matthew 26:2 - Exposition

Ye know. He speaks of a fact well known to his hearers—the day of the Passover Feast. And they had been forewarned of his death (see Matthew 20:17-19 ). After two days; μετα Ì δυ ì ο ἡμε ì ρας : post biduum. These words are ambiguous, as it is not certain how the time is reckoned—whether the current day is included or not. If, as is most probable, they were spoken on Wednesday, the phrase means the next day but one, which commenced on the afternoon of Friday. Jesus appears to have passed this day in peaceful seclusion, either in Bethany or its neighbourhood. Is the Feast of the Passover ; το Ì Πα ì σχα γι ì νεται : the Passover cometh ; Pascha fiet. The lambs were slain during the first evening of the 14th of Nisan, and were eaten within twelve hours. The word Pascha is the Greek form of the Hebrew Pasach, denoting "the passing over" of the destroying angel, when he destroyed the Egyptians, but left untouched the houses of the Israelites, on whose door posts was sprinkled the blood of the lamb ( Exodus 12:1-51 .). Etymologically, it has nothing to do with πο ì σχω , and the Latin patior, passio, etc, though pious writers have seen a providential arrangement in the apparent similarity of the words (see the possible paronomasia in Luke 22:15 ). Pascha ( Pasach ) is used in three senses:

It is in this last signification that it is here employed And (equivalent to when ) the Son of man is betrayed ( delivered up, Revised Version) to be crucified. Christ connects his own death with the Passover, not only as indicating the day and hour, but to mark the typical meaning and importance of this solemnity, when he, our Passover, should be sacrificed for us. The present tense, "is betrayed," denotes the imminence and certainty of the event. He sees the event as actually present.