1 The passover and the festival of unleavened bread fell two days later; so the high priests and scribes were trying how to get hold of him by craft and have him put to death.
2 "Only," they said, "it must not be during the festival; that would mean a popular riot."
3 Now when he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, lying at table, a woman came up with an alabaster flask of pure nard perfume, which had cost a great sum; the flask she broke and poured the perfume over his head.
4 This angered some of those present. "What was the use of wasting perfume like this?
5 This perfume might have been sold for over three hundred shillings, and the poor might have got that." So they upbraided her.
6 But Jesus said, "Let her alone. Why are you annoying her? She has done a beautiful thing to me.
7 The poor you always have beside you, and you can be kind to them whenever you want; but you will not always have me.
8 She has done all she could ??she has anticipated the perfuming of my body for burial.
9 I tell you truly, wherever the gospel is preached all over the world, men will speak of what she has done in memory of her."
10 Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went to the high priests to betray him to them.
11 They were delighted to hear it, and promised to pay him for it. Meantime he sought a good opportunity for betraying him.
12 On the first day of unleavened bread (the day when the paschal lamb was sacrificed) his disciples said to him, "Where do you want us to go and prepare for you to eat the passover?"
13 So he despatched two of his disciples, telling them, "Go into the city and you will meet a man carrying a water-jar; follow him,
14 and whatever house he goes into, tell the owner that the Teacher says, 'Where is my room, that I may eat the passover there with my disciples?'
15 He will show you a large room upstairs, with couches spread, all ready; prepare the passover for us there."
16 The disciples went away into the city and found it was as he had told them. So they prepared the passover,
17 and when evening fell he arrived along with the twelve.
18 As they were at table eating, Jesus said, "Truly I tell you, one of you is going to betray me, one who is eating with me."
19 They got distressed at this, and said to him one after another, "Surely it is not me?" "Surely it is not me?"
20 "One of the twelve," he told them, "one who is dipping into the same dish as I am.
21 The Son of man goes the road that the scripture has described for him, but woe to the man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! Better that man had never been born!"
22 And as they were eating he took a loaf, and after the blessing he broke and gave it to them, saying, "Take this, it means my body."
23 He also took a cup and after thanking God he gave it to them, and they all drank of it;
24 he said to them, "This means my covenant-blood which is shed for many;
25 truly I tell you, I will never drink the produce of the vine again till the day I drink it new within the Realm of God."
26 After the hymn of praise they went out to the Hill of Olives.
27 Jesus said to them, "You will all be disconcerted, for it is written: I will strike at the shepherd, and, the sheep will be scattered.
30 Jesus said to him, "I tell you truly, to-day you will disown me three times, this very night, before the cock crows twice."
31 But he persisted, "Though I have to die with you, I will never disown you." And they all said the same.
32 Then they came to a place called Gethsemane, and he told his disciples, "Sit here till I pray."
33 But he took Peter and James and John along with him; and as he began to feel appalled and agitated,
34 he said to them, "My heart is sad, sad even to death; stay here and watch."
35 Then he went forward a little and fell to the earth, praying that the hour might pass away from him, if possible.
36 "Abba, Father," he said, "thou canst do anything. Take this cup away from me. Yet, not what I will but what thou wilt."
37 Then he came and found them asleep; so he said to Peter, "Are you sleeping, Simon? Could you not watch for a single hour?
38 Watch and pray, all of you, so that you may not slip into temptation. The spirit is eager but the flesh is weak."
39 Again he went away and prayed in the same words as before;
40 then he returned and found them once more asleep, for their eyes were heavy. They did not know what to say to him.
41 Then he came for the third time and said to them, "Still asleep? still resting? No more of that! The hour has come, here is the Son of man betrayed into the hands of sinners.
42 Come, get up, here is my betrayer close at hand."
43 At that very moment, while he was still speaking, Judas [Iscariot] one of the twelve came up accompanied by a mob with swords and cudgels who had come from the high priests and scribes and elders.
44 Now his betrayer had given them a signal; he said, "Whoever I kiss, that is the man. Seize him and get him safely away."
45 So when he arrived he at once went up to him and said, "Rabbi [rabbi]," and kissed him.
46 Then they laid hands on him and seized him,
47 but one of the bystanders drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear.
48 Jesus turned on them, saying, "Have you sallied out to arrest me like a robber, with swords and cudgels?
49 Day after day I was beside you in the temple teaching, and you never seized me. However, it is to let the scriptures be fulfilled."
50 Then they left him and fled, all of them;
51 one young man did follow him, with only a linen sheet thrown round his body, but when the [young] men seized him
52 he fled away naked, leaving the sheet behind him.
53 They took Jesus away to the high priest, and all the high priests and scribes and elders met there with him.
54 Peter followed him at a distance till he got inside the courtyard of the high priest, where he sat down with the attendants to warm himself at the fire.
55 Now the high priests and the whole of the Sanhedrin tried to secure evidence against Jesus, in order to have him put to death; but they could find none,
56 for while many bore false witness against him their evidence did not agree.
57 Some got up and bore false witness against him, saying,
58 "We heard him say, 'I will destroy this temple made by hands, and in three days I will build another temple not made by hands.'"
59 But even so the evidence did not agree.
60 So the high priest rose in their midst and asked Jesus, "Have you no reply to make? What about this evidence against you?"
61 He said nothing and made no answer. Again the high priest put a question to him. "Are you the Christ?" he said, "the Son of the Blessed?"
62 Jesus said, "I am. And, what is more, you will all see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of the Power and coming with the clouds of heaven."
63 Then the high priest tore his clothes and cried, "What more evidence do we want?
64 You have heard his blasphemy for yourselves. What is your mind?" They condemned him, all of them, to the doom of death;
65 and some of them started to spit on him and to blindfold him and buffet him, asking him, "Prophesy." The attendants treated him to cuffs and slaps.
66 Now as Peter was downstairs in the courtyard, a maidservant of the high priest came along,
67 and when she noticed Peter warming himself she looked at him and said, "You were with Jesus of Nazaret too."
68 But he denied it. "I do not know," he said, "I have no idea what you mean." Then he went outside into the passage. The cock crowed.
69 Again the maidservant who had noticed him began to tell the bystanders, "That fellow is one of them."
70 But he denied it again. After a little the bystanders once more said to Peter, "To be sure, you are one of them. Why, you are a Galilean!"