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Not at the feast - DISRAELI - 03-24-2024
According to many modern translations, the chief priests and scribes were anxious to arrest Jesus, but not “during the feast, lest there be a tumult of the people” (Mark ch14 v2, Matthew ch26 v5). The AV modifies it by adding a supplementary word; “on the feast day. These translations give the impression that they wanted to avoid action during a period of time. This in turn gives rise to the idea that they changed their minds when Judas showed them how the arrest could be made in the middle of this period.
However, I think this idea is a misunderstanding, based on a mistranslation.
The Greek expression translated as “during the feast” is EN TE HEORTE. But EN is the equivalent of the English “In” and has a wider range of meanings than “during”. That is why the AV translates “on” and is obliged to add “day” to make it more idiomatic in English speech. I’m going to suggest, though, that HEORTE is not a period of time but a location.
Let’s take a similar expression in modern English; “At the carnival”. The best-known carnival in the world is surely the Brazilian “Carnavale” (their spelling wanders further away from the Latin CARNI VALE, “farewell to flesh). The most recent Carnavale was held on February 9th-14th 2024. But can we say that something is happening “at the carnival” just because it is happening during that time period? Surely a man can’t truly say that he is “in the carnival” or “at the carnival” unless he’s out there on the streets. If he’s hiding out in a back street hotel room, then he’s evading the carnival, not being part of it. “At the carnival” is as much about location as it is about time.
So “not at the feast” could be understood as “not in the streets, in the middle of the crowds which have gathered for the feast”. And that’s exactly how Luke seems to take it. His paraphrase is that Judas offered them a chance to capture Jesus “in the absence of the multitude” (Luke ch22 v6). While in John, the chief priests and Pharisees are giving orders that “if anyone knew where [Jesus} was, he should let them know, so that they might arrest him” (John ch11v57). This too is about “away from the crowds”.
So Judas was, in fact, offering the authorities what they had wanted from the beginning, namely a way to arrest Jesus without interference, because it would be “not in the middle of the feast-crowds”.