After two days it was the Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread. The chief priests and the scribes were looking for a treacherous way to arrest and kill Him.

but they objected, it could not be during the festival, for fear of a popular insurrection.

Now on the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread [i.e., the beginning of the Passover Festival week], when they sacrificed the Passover [lamb], Jesus' disciples said to Him, "Where do you want us to go to make preparations for you to eat the Passover meal?"

At the festival it was Pilate’s custom to release for the people a prisoner they requested.

The crowd [then] went to Pilate and asked him to do what he was accustomed to doing for them [i.e., release a prisoner of their choosing during the Passover Festival].

When evening had come, and since it was the day of Preparation [for the Passover Festival], being the day before the [special] Sabbath Day,