[Footnote 7:  Matt. xxvi. 6, and following; Mark xiv. 3, and following; John xi. 2, xii. 2, and following.  Compare Luke vii. 36, and following.]

The next day (Sunday, 9th of Nisan), Jesus descended from Bethany to Jerusalem.[1] When, at a bend of the road, upon the summit of the Mount of Olives, he saw the city spread before him, it is said he wept over it, and addressed to it a last appeal.[2] At the base of the mountain, at some steps from the gate, on entering the neighboring portion of the eastern wall of the city, which was called Bethphage, no doubt on account of the fig-trees with which it was planted,[3] he had experienced a momentary pleasure.[4] His arrival was noised abroad.  The Galileans who had come to the feast were highly elated, and prepared a little triumph for him.  An ass was brought to him, followed, according to custom, by its colt.  The Galileans spread their finest garments upon the back of this humble animal as saddle-cloths, and seated him thereon.  Others, however, spread their garments upon the road, and strewed it with green branches.  The multitude which preceded and followed him, carrying palms, cried:  “Hosanna to the son of David!  Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord!” Some persons even gave him the title of king of Israel.[5] “Master, rebuke thy disciples,” said the Pharisees to him.  “If these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out,” replied Jesus, and he entered into the city.  The Hierosolymites, who scarcely knew him, asked who he was.  “It is Jesus, the prophet of Nazareth, in Galilee,” was the reply.  Jerusalem was a city of about 50,000 souls.[6] A trifling event, such as the entrance of a stranger, however little celebrated, or the arrival of a band of provincials, or a movement of people to the avenues of the city, could not fail, under ordinary circumstances, to be quickly noised about.  But at the time of the feast, the confusion was extreme.[7] Jerusalem at these times was taken possession of by strangers.  It was amongst the latter that the excitement appears to have been most lively.  Some proselytes, speaking Greek, who had come to the feast, had their curiosity piqued, and wished to see Jesus.  They addressed themselves to his disciples;[8] but we do not know the result of the interview.  Jesus, according to his custom, went to pass the night at his beloved village of Bethany.[9] The three following days (Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday) he descended regularly to Jerusalem; and, after the setting of the sun, he returned either to Bethany, or to the farms on the western side of the Mount of Olives, where he had many friends.[10]

[Footnote 1:  John xii. 12.]

[Footnote 2:  Luke xix. 41, and following.]

[Footnote 3:  Mishnah, Menachoth, xi. 2; Talm. of Bab., Sanhedrim, 14 b; Pesachim, 63 b, 91 a; Sota, 45 a; Baba metsia, 85 a.  It follows from these passages that Bethphage was a kind of pomaerium, which extended to the foot of the eastern basement of the temple, and which had itself its wall of inclosure.  The passages Matt. xxi. 1, Mark xi. 1, Luke xix. 29, do not plainly imply that Bethphage was a village, as Eusebius and St. Jerome have supposed.]