ORIGEN . (t. xxviii.) Wherefore the Evangelist does not call it the Lord’s passover, but the Jews’ passover. For then it was that they plotted our Lord’s death.
ALCUIN . They sought Jesus with bad intent. We seek Him, standing in God’s temple, mutually encouraging one another, and praying Him to come to our feast, and sanctify us by His presence.
THEOPHYLACT . If the common people only had done these things, the Passion would have seemed owing to men’s ignorance; but the Pharisees it is, who order Him to be taken: Now both the chief priests and the Pharisees had given a commandment, that, if any man knew where He were, he should shew it, that they might take Him.
ORIGEN . (tom. xxviii.) Observe, they did not know where He was; they knew that He had gone away. Mystically, they did not know where He was, because, in the place of the divine commandments, they taught the doctrines and commandments of men.
AUGUSTINE . (Tr. l. 4) Let us at least shew the Jews where He is; O that they would hear, that they would come to the Church, and take hold of Him for themselves!