Mark 14:1–15

THE PLOT TO KILL JESUS

14It^bo was two days before the Passover^bp and the Festival^bq of Unleavened Bread.^br The chief priests and the scribes^bs were looking for a cunning^bt way to arrest Jesus and kill him.^{bu 2}“Not during the festival,” they said, “so that there won’t be a riot among the people.”

THE ANOINTING AT BETHANY

³While^a he was in Bethany^b at the house of Simon the leper,^c as he was reclining at the table,^d a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured it on his head.^{e 4}But some were expressing indignation to one another: “Why has this perfume been wasted? ⁵For this perfume might have been sold for more than three hundred denarii^Bf and given to the poor.”^g And they began to scold her.

⁶Jesus replied, “Leave her alone. Why are you bothering her? She has done a noble thing^h for me. ⁷You always have the poorⁱ with you, and you can do what is good for them whenever you want, but you do not always have me.^{j 8}She has done what she could; she has anointed my body^k in advance for burial.^{l 9}Truly I tell you,^m wherever the gospelⁿ is proclaimed in the whole world,^o what she has done will also be told in memory of her.”

¹⁰Then^p Judas Iscariot,^q one of the Twelve,^r went to the chief priests^s to betray Jesus^t to them. ¹¹And when they heard this, they were glad and promised to give him money.^u So he started looking for a good opportunity to betray^v him.

PREPARATION FOR PASSOVER

¹²On^w the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrifice the Passover lamb,^x his disciples^y asked him, “Where do you want us to go and prepare the Passover so that you may eat it?”

¹³So he sent two of his disciples and told them, “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him. ¹⁴Wherever he enters, tell the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher^z says, “Where is my guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?” ’ ¹⁵He will show you a large room upstairs, furnished and ready. Make the preparations for us there.”