born" (Mark xiv. 21).

188. With this the curtain falls on the public ministry of Jesus. The
gospels suggest a day of quiet retirement following these controversies
and warnings, with their fresh demonstration of the irreconcilable
hostility of people of all classes to him and his work. After the
seclusion of that day, he returned to give final proof of complete
obedience to his Father's will.

VII

The Last Supper

189. On Thursday Jesus and his disciples returned to Jerusalem for the
last time. Knowing the temper of the leaders, and the danger of arrest at
any time, Jesus was particularly eager to eat the Passover with his
disciples (Luke xxii. 15), and he sent two of them--Luke names them as
Peter and John--to prepare for the supper. In a way which would give no
information to such a one as Judas, he directed them carefully how to find
the house where a friend would provide them the upper room that was needed
for an undisturbed meeting of the little band, and the two went on in
advance to make ready. When the hour was come Jesus with the others went
to the appointed place and sat down for the supper (Mark xiv. 17; Luke
xxii. 14; Matt. xxvi. 20).

190. The gospels all report the last evening which the little company
spent together. There is a perplexing divergence, however, between John
and the others concerning the relation of this supper to the feast of the
Passover. In their introduction of the story, Mark and his companion
gospels indicate that the supper which Jesus ate was the Passover meal
itself. John, on the other hand, declares that it was "before the feast of
the Passover" (xiii. 1) that Jesus took this meal with his disciples.
John's account is consistent throughout, for he states that on the next
day the desire of the Jews to "eat the Passover" forbade them to enter the
house of the governor lest they should incur defilement (xviii. 28). The
other gospels, moreover, hint in several ways that the day of Jesus' death
could not have been the day after the Passover; that is, the first day of
the feast of unleavened bread. Dr. Sanday has recently enumerated these
afresh, remarking that "the Synoptists make the Sanhedrin say beforehand
that they will not arrest Jesus 'on the feast day,' and then actually
arrest him on that day; that not only the guards, but one of the disciples
(Mark xiv. 47), carries arms, which on the feast day was not allowed; that
the trial was also held on the feast day, wh