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Mat 26:5. Ἐν τῇ ἑορτῇ, in the feast[1111]) Even then! They wished to delay the matter until the people, who were then collected in great numbers on account of the Passover, should have departed, after the conclusion of the festival. But as the traitor offered his services, they cast delay aside. Thus the Divine counsel was fulfilled.-τῷ λαῷ, the people) who acknowledged Jesus as a Prophet, and were then assembled in great numbers.
[1111] Mat 26:6. ἐν Βηθανίᾳ, in Bethany) No doubt the banquet or supper, with its attendant circumstances, and the anointing, were one and the same, which are specified by John in the regular order of time, ch. Mat 12:1, etc., but by Matthew and Mark merely incidentally in passing. The anointing excited the indignation of Judas; and, after he had cherished it in his bosom for several days, Satan suggested to him the act of betrayal, and in person took possession of the wretched man. It cannot readily be supposed, 1) that it was some other woman rather than Mary, the one so pre-eminently beloved by the Saviour, who obtained the promise of her deed, nay, even her own self, being had in remembrance [Mat 26:13]: for, in fact, of no other woman whatsoever, save Mary, is the name recorded in connection with this event. Also, it is rather hard to credit, 2) that the pious disciples would have employed afresh [Mat 26:8], within a few days after, the pretext [Joh 12:5-6] concerning the 300 pence which might have been given to the poor by the sale of the ointment,-a pretext which, when employed by Judas, our Lord had confuted with such force. Finally, 3) Jesus declared the very day of the anointing, as marked by John, to be the one and only day of His being made ready thereby for His burial: there cannot, therefore, be any second day, in Matthew and Mark, of His being in that same condition [viz. of being made ready for burial]. Nor, besides, is there anything to forbid the supposition, that all things which John records happened in the house of Simon the leper, and that Mary anointed with the precious ointment, first the head, then also the feet of the Saviour; which facts John states in an abbreviated form, as intending to record the wiping of His feet with the hairs of her head.-Harm., p. 493, etc.