Mark 14:1

Bible in Basic English (1941)

It was now two days before the feast of the Passover and the unleavened bread: and the chief priests and the scribes made designs how they might take him by deceit and put him to death:

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

¶Ἦν δὲ τὸ πάσχα, καὶ τὰ ἄζυμα μετὰ δύο ἡμέρας: καὶ ἐζήτουν οἱ ἀρχιερεῖς καὶ οἱ γραμματεῖς πῶς αὐτὸν ἐν δόλῳ, κρατήσαντες ἀποκτείνωσιν.

Transliteration

¶Was de the pascha, and the azyma after two hēmeras: and ezētoun the archiereis and the grammateis how him in dolō, having kratēsantes they might apokteinōsin.

Grammar Details

• *Ēn*: imperfect, 3rd person singular - was [continuous action]
• *de*: postpositive conjunction - but/and/now
• *pascha*: nominative, neuter, singular - Passover
• *azyma*: nominative, neuter, plural - Unleavened Bread [festival]
• *hēmeras*: accusative, feminine, plural - days
• *ezētoun*: imperfect, 3rd person plural - were seeking [continuous action]
• *archiereis*: nominative, masculine, plural - chief priests
• *grammateis*: nominative, masculine, plural - scribes
• *dolō*: dative, masculine, singular - deceit/cunning [instrumental]
• *kratēsantes*: aorist active participle, nominative, masculine, plural - having seized/arrested
• *apokteinōsin*: aorist active subjunctive, 3rd person plural - they might kill

Word Meanings

• *pascha*: Passover [feast/lamb]
• *azyma*: Unleavened Bread [festival/bread]
• *dolō*: deceit/cunning/trickery/craft
• *kratēsantes*: having seized/arrested/captured/taken hold of
• *apokteinōsin*: kill/put to death

Referenced Verses

• Exod 12:6-9 : 6 Keep it till the fourteenth day of the same month, when everyone who is of the children of Israel is to put it to death between sundown and dark. 7 Then take some of the blood and put it on the two sides of the door and over the door of the house where the meal is to be taken. 8 And let your food that night be the flesh of the lamb, cooked with fire in the oven, together with unleavened bread and bitter-tasting plants. 9 Do not take it uncooked or cooked with boiling water, but let it be cooked in the oven; its head with its legs and its inside parts. 10 Do not keep any of it till the morning; anything which is not used is to be burned with fire. 11 And take your meal dressed as if for a journey, with your shoes on your feet and your sticks in your hands: take it quickly: it is the Lord's Passover. 12 For on that night I will go through the land of Egypt, sending death on every first male child, of man and of beast, and judging all the gods of Egypt: I am the Lord. 13 And the blood will be a sign on the houses where you are: when I see the blood I will go over you, and no evil will come on you for your destruction, when my hand is on the land of Egypt. 14 And this day is to be kept in your memories: you are to keep it as a feast to the Lord through all your generations, as an order for ever. 15 For seven days let your food be unleavened bread; from the first day no leaven is to be seen in your houses: whoever takes bread with leaven in it, from the first till the seventh day, will be cut off from Israel. 16 And on the first day there is to be a holy meeting and on the seventh day a holy meeting; no sort of work may be done on those days but only to make ready what is necessary for everyone's food. 17 So keep the feast of unleavened bread; for on this very day I have taken your armies out of the land of Egypt: this day, then, is to be kept through all your generations by an order for ever. 18 In the first month, from the evening of the fourteenth day, let your food be unleavened bread till the evening of the twenty-first day of the month. 19 For seven days no leaven is to be seen in your houses: for whoever takes bread which is leavened will be cut off from the people of Israel, if he is from another country or if he is an Israelite by birth. 20 Take nothing which has leaven in it; wherever you are living let your food be unleavened cakes.
• Luke 22:1-2 : 1 Now the feast of unleavened bread was near, which is called the Passover. 2 And the chief priests and the scribes were looking for a chance to put him to death, but they went in fear of the people.
• John 13:1 : 1 Now before the feast of the Passover, it was clear to Jesus that the time had come for him to go away from this world to the Father. Having once had love for those in the world who were his, his love for them went on to the end.
• Lev 23:5-7 : 5 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at nightfall, is the Lord's Passover; 6 And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread; for seven days let your food be unleavened bread. 7 On the first day you will have a holy meeting; you may do no sort of field-work.
• Deut 16:1-8 : 1 Take note of the month of Abib and keep the Passover to the Lord your God: for in the month of Abib the Lord your God took you out of Egypt by night. 2 The Passover offering, from your flock or your herd, is to be given to the Lord your God in the place marked out by him as the resting-place of his name. 3 Take no leavened bread with it; for seven days let your food be unleavened bread, that is, the bread of sorrow; for you came out of the land of Egypt quickly: so the memory of that day, when you came out of the land of Egypt, will be with you all your life. 4 For seven days let no leaven be used through all your land; and nothing of the flesh which is put to death in the evening of the first day is to be kept through the night till morning. 5 The Passover offering is not to be put to death in any of the towns which the Lord your God gives you: 6 But in the place marked out by the Lord your God as the resting-place of his name, there you are to put the Passover to death in the evening, at sundown, at that time of the year when you came out of Egypt. 7 It is to be cooked and taken as food in the place marked out by the Lord: and in the morning you are to go back to your tents. 8 For six days let your food be unleavened bread; and on the seventh day there is to be a holy meeting to the Lord your God; no work is to be done.
• Ps 2:1-5 : 1 Why are the nations so violently moved, and why are the thoughts of the people so foolish? 2 The kings of the earth have taken their place, and the rulers are fixed in their purpose, against the Lord, and against the king of his selection, saying, 3 Let their chains be broken, and their cords taken from off us. 4 Then he whose seat is in the heavens will be laughing: the Lord will make sport of them. 5 Then will his angry words come to their ears, and by his wrath they will be troubled:
• Ps 52:3 : 3 You have more love for evil than for good, for deceit than for works of righteousness. (Selah.)
• Ps 62:4 : 4 Their only thought is to put him down from his place of honour; their delight is in deceit: blessing is in their mouths but cursing in their hearts. (Selah.)
• Ps 62:9 : 9 Truly men of low birth are nothing, and men of high position are not what they seem; if they are put in the scales together they are less than a breath.
• Ps 64:2-6 : 2 Keep me safe from the secret purpose of wrongdoers; from the band of the workers of evil; 3 Who make their tongues sharp like a sword, and whose arrows are pointed, even bitter words; 4 So that in secret they may let loose their arrows at the upright, suddenly and unseen. 5 They make themselves strong in an evil purpose; they make holes for secret nets; they say, Who will see it, 6 Or make discovery of our secret purpose? The design is framed with care; and the inner thought of a man, and his heart, is deep.
• Matt 6:2 : 2 When then you give money to the poor, do not make a noise about it, as the false-hearted men do in the Synagogues and in the streets, so that they may have glory from men. Truly, I say to you, They have their reward.
• Matt 12:14 : 14 But the Pharisees went out and made designs against him, how they might put him to death.
• Matt 26:2-5 : 2 After two days is the Passover, and the Son of man will be given up to the death of the cross. 3 Then the chief priests and the rulers of the people came together in the house of the high priest, who was named Caiaphas. 4 And they made designs together to take Jesus by some trick, and put him to death. 5 But they said, Not while the feast is going on, for fear of trouble among the people.
• Num 28:16-25 : 16 And in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, is the Lord's Passover. 17 On the fifteenth day of this month there is to be a feast; for seven days let your food be unleavened cakes. 18 On the first day there is to be a holy meeting: you may do no sort of field-work: 19 And you are to give an offering made by fire, a burned offering to the Lord; two oxen, one male sheep, and seven he-lambs of the first year, without any mark: 20 And their meal offering, the best meal mixed with oil: let three tenth parts of an ephah be offered for an ox and two tenth parts for a male sheep; 21 And a separate tenth part for every one of the seven lambs; 22 And one he-goat for a sin-offering to take away your sin. 23 These are to be offered in addition to the morning burned offering, which is a regular burned offering at all times. 24 In this way, every day for seven days, give the food of the offering made by fire, a sweet smell to the Lord: it is to be offered in addition to the regular burned offering, and its drink offering. 25 Then on the seventh day there will be a holy meeting; you may do no field-work.
• John 11:47 : 47 Then the high priests and the Pharisees had a meeting and said, What are we doing? This man is doing a number of signs.
• John 11:53-57 : 53 And from that day they took thought together how to put him to death. 54 So Jesus no longer went about publicly among the Jews, but went from there into the country near to the waste land, to a town named Ephraim, where he was for some time with the disciples. 55 Now the Passover of the Jews was near, and numbers of people went up from the country to Jerusalem to make themselves clean before the Passover. 56 They were looking for Jesus and saying to one another while they were in the Temple, What is your opinion? Will he not come to the feast? 57 Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone had knowledge where he was, he was to give them word, so that they might take him.
• Acts 4:25-28 : 25 Who has said, by the Holy Spirit, through the mouth of our father David your servant, Why are the nations so violently moved, and why are the thoughts of the people so foolish? 26 The kings of the earth were lifted up, the rulers came together, against the Lord, and against his Christ: 27 For, truly, in this town, against your holy servant, Jesus, who was marked out by you as Christ, Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, came together, 28 To do that which had been fixed before by your hand and your purpose.