Then came the day of unleavened bread, when the passover must be killed.
Then came the day of unleavened bread, when the Passover must be killed. The day here, alluded to - "the first day of unleavened bread" (Matthew 26:17) - was the 14th Nisan, when, about mid-day, labour was intermitted, and all leaven removed from the houses (Exodus 12:15-17). Then, "between the two evenings" (Exodus 12:6, margin) - or between three and six o'clock-the paschal lamb was killed, and in the evening, when the 15th Nisan began, was eaten. And though "the days of unleavened bread" properly began with the 15th, the preparations for the festival being made on the 14th, it was popularly called, as here, the "first" day of unleavened bread-as we learn from Josephus, whose way of speaking agrees with that here employed. The two disciples being sent from Bethany to make the necessary preparations on the Thursday, our Lord and the other disciples followed them to the city later in the day, and probably as evening drew near.