Matthew 26:3-4

³At that same time the leading priests and elders were meeting at the residence of Caiaphas, the high priest,

⁴plotting how to capture Jesus secretly and kill him.

Matthew 26 marks the pivot from Jesus’ public ministry to his passion. The chapter opens with the religious leaders plotting his death, then moves through a series of intimate and agonizing scenes: the anointing at Bethany, Judas’s betrayal, the Last Supper, Gethsemane, the arrest,