1. It was two days before the Passover and the feast of Unleavened Bread, and the chief priests and the scribes were looking for a way to arrest Jesus by some trick and have him put to death.

2. For they said, 'It must not be during the festivities, or there will be a disturbance among the people.'

3. He was at Bethany in the house of Simon, a man who had suffered from a virulent skin-disease; he was at table when a woman came in with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment, pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the ointment on his head.

4. Some who were there said to one another indignantly, 'Why this waste of ointment?

5. Ointment like this could have been sold for over three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor'; and they were angry with her.

6. But Jesus said, 'Leave her alone. Why are you upsetting her? What she has done for me is a good work.

7. You have the poor with you always, and you can be kind to them whenever you wish, but you will not always have me.

8. She has done what she could: she has anointed my body beforehand for its burial.

9. In truth I tell you, wherever throughout all the world the gospel is proclaimed, what she has done will be told as well, in remembrance of her.'

10. Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, approached the chief priests with an offer to hand Jesus over to them.

11. They were delighted to hear it, and promised to give him money; and he began to look for a way of betraying him when the opportunity should occur.

12. On the first day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb was sacrificed, his disciples said to him, 'Where do you want us to go and make the preparations for you to eat the Passover?'

13. So he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, 'Go into the city and you will meet a man carrying a pitcher of water. Follow him,

14. and say to the owner of the house which he enters, "The Master says: Where is the room for me to eat the Passover with my disciples?"

15. He will show you a large upper room furnished with couches, all prepared. Make the preparations for us there.'

16. The disciples set out and went to the city and found everything as he had told them, and prepared the Passover.

17. When evening came he arrived with the Twelve.

18. And while they were at table eating, Jesus said, 'In truth I tell you, one of you is about to betray me, one of you eating with me.'

19. They were distressed and said to him, one after another, 'Not me, surely?'

20. He said to them, 'It is one of the Twelve, one who is dipping into the same dish with me.