“But they said, Not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar among the people.”
But they said: not during the feast, lest there be an uproar among the people. The conspiracy's constraint: not during the feast, because of the risk of popular uproar. The Passover pilgrims who filled Jerusalem were potentially sympathetic to Jesus; the riot risk made a public Passover arrest too dangerous. Judas' offer (verses 14–16) will solve the timing problem by enabling a private nighttime arrest.
Church Fathers on Matthew 26:5
Then the Evangelist lays before us the hidden springs and machinery by which the Lord’s Passion was brought to pass.
This, 'then,' is to be referred to the preceding words, and means before the Feast of the Passover.
Not true Priests and elders, but Priests and elders of what seemed the people of God, but was indeed the people of Gomorrah; these, not knowing God’s High Priest, laid a plot against Him, not recognizing 'the firstborn of the whole creation, [Col 1:15] yea, even against Him that was elder than them all, did they take counsel.
Read all 10 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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