Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Matthew 26:17

"Now on the first [day] of unleavened bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying, Where wilt thou that we make ready for thee to eat the passover?" — Matthew 26:17 (ASV)

Toward midafternoon of Thursday, 14 Nisan (see comment on Mk 14:1–2), the lambs (one per “household”—a convenient group of perhaps ten or twelve people) would be brought to the temple court where the priests sacrificed them. The priests took the blood and passed it in basins along a line till it was poured out at the foot of the altar. They also burned the lambs’ fat on the altar of burnt offerings. The singing of the Hallel (Pss 113–18) accompanied these steps.

After sunset (i.e., now 15 Nisan), the “household” would gather in a home to eat the Passover lamb, which by this time would have been roasted with bitter herbs. The head of the household began the meal with the thanksgiving for that feast day and for the wine, praying over the first of four cups. A preliminary course of greens and bitter herbs was followed by the Passover haggadah—in which a boy would ask the meaning of all this, and the head of the household would explain the symbols in terms of the Exodus—and by the singing of the first part of the Hallel (Psalms 113 or Pss 113–114). Though the precise order is disputed, apparently a second cup of wine introduced the main course, which was followed by a third cup, known as the “cup of blessing,” accompanied by another prayer of thanksgiving. The participants then sang the rest of the Hallel (Pss 114–18 or 115–18) and probably drank a fourth cup of wine. Thus the preparations about which the disciples were asking were extensive.