Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus — the conspiracy against Jesus' life is mentioned explicitly for the first time in Mark, and it follows immediately after the synagogue healing. The alliance of Pharisees and Herodians is politically strange: the Pharisees were Torah-observant separatists; the Herodians were supporters of the Herodian dynasty and its Roman patronage. They had virtually nothing in common except a shared interest in eliminating Jesus. The plot to kill is the logical conclusion of the watching-for-accusation posture of verse 2 — surveillance has escalated to conspiracy, and the Gospel's passion narrative has been set in motion from chapter 3.

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