The triumphal entry into Jerusalem is a narrative in the four canonical Gospels describing the arrival of Jesus in Jerusalem a few days before his crucifixion. This event is celebrated each year by Christians on Palm Sunday.
According to the Gospels, Jesus arrived in Jerusalem to celebrate Passover, entering the city riding a donkey. He was greeted by a crowd acclaiming him by waving palm branches and laying cloaks on the ground to honor him. This episode introduces the events of the Passion of Jesus, leading to his crucifixion and resurrection. The event is described in Matthew 21:1–11, Mark 11:1–11, Luke 19:28–44 and John 12:12–19.
The triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem is narrated in Matthew 21:1–11, Mark 11:1–11, Luke 19:28–44 and John 12:12–19. The following comparison is primarily based on the New International Version (NIV):[1]
All Jewish males are obliged to ascend to Jerusalem for the three pilgrimage festivals. The sabbath prior to Passover is called the Great Sabbath in Judaism, and it is when each household or community sets apart a Passover lamb.
Passover celebrates God's deliverance of Israel from bondage in Egypt. By the early post-exilic period, according to Robin Routledge, celebration of Passover had become a "pilgrim feast, centered on the Jerusalem temple."[2]
There is a general agreement among scholars that Jesus did enter Jerusalem and was acclaimed by his supporters.[3][4][5][6][7][8][9] However, according to Agnostic scholar Bart D. Ehrman, there are several reasons why it is improbable that the entry happened in such a triumphal and glorious way as transmitted by the canonical gospels, and some elements may have been invented for theological purposes.[10]: 10:17
All four canonical Gospels contain an account of the triumphal entry, which according to Ehrman, passes the criterion of multiple attestation in order to (re)construct the historical Jesus. There are, however, contradictions between the Gospels, with each account telling a different story of how the triumphal entry occurred.[10]: 10:17
According to the preceding narratives in the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew 20:29; Mark 10:46, and Luke 18:35–36), an ever-growing large crowd of people had been following Jesus and his Twelve Disciples around by the time they departed from Jericho,[11] where Jesus healed one or two blind men who also joined the crowd,[12] and set out on their way to Jerusalem via Bethphage and Bethany on the Mount of Olives.[13] Osborne 2010, p. 747 stated that Jericho was traditionally a place for pilgrims to cross the Jordan River on the way to the Passover festival in Jerusalem, so the presence of many people travelling in the same direction would have been 'natural', but the texts (e.g., Matthew 20:29) specifically say that a large crowd was following Jesus, "undoubtedly as a result of his fame in Galilee". After Jesus mounted (a) donkey(s), these people accompanying Jesus started shouting 'Hosanna!' and prophecy-related statements (according to Luke 19:37 upon passing the Mount of Olives).
The Gospel of John, on the other hand, never mentions Jericho, but has Jesus and the Twelve flee to Ephraim in the wilderness to keep out of sight of the priests after the upheaval caused by the Raising of Lazarus (John 11:46–57). Six days before Passover, Jesus and the Twelve depart from Ephraim to visit Lazarus, Mary and Martha in Bethany (John 12:1–3), where a large crowd gathered when they found out Jesus and Lazarus were there (12:9). However, verses 12:12–13 seem to indicate they went home again the same day after this brief encounter in Bethany. 'The great crowd', apparently the same people, is said to come out of Jerusalem again the next day to meet and greet Jesus and the Twelve, and these Jerusalemian crowds are the ones shouting 'Hosanna!' and that a prophecy has been fulfilled (instead of the people accompanying Jesus from Jericho according to the Synoptics) according to John 12:12–15. John 12:16 states that the disciples don't understand why the Jerusalemians are shouting these things, while in Matthew, Mark and especially Luke they appear to be participating in this shouting themselves, presumably aware of the words' meaning. Verse 18 repeats the claim that 'the crowd went out to meet Him' (rather than a crowd already following Jesus), and connects it to the Raising of Lazarus, which is not narrated by the other Gospels.[citation needed]
The number of people who attended the event is a source of debate among historians: Marcus Borg, Tan Kim Huat, Brent Kinman and Paula Fredriksen argue that Jesus's entry was cheered by a crowd of followers and sympathizers, while according to E. P. Sanders Jesus was greeted with shouts of hosannas only from a small group of disciples.[14][7][15][16][17]
Osborne 2010, pp. 755–756, argued that the crowd accompanying Jesus to Jerusalem (e.g., in Matthew 21:8–9) was a mixture of pilgrims who had been following Jesus around from Galilee, and 'pilgrims (many coming out of Jerusalem after hearing Jesus was coming, John 12:12).'
In the synoptic gospels, Jesus sends two disciples ahead to the nearby village of Bethphage in order to retrieve a donkey and if questioned, to say that it was needed by the Lord.[18] New Testament scholars Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan characterize this as a pre-planned "counterprocession" in contrast to that of the Roman prefect who would have traveled with his troops from Caesarea Maritima to maintain order during the festival.[19] Professor John Bergsma says that this is widely seen as a "recapitulation" of the enthronement of Solomon, (described in 1 Kings:1) where, at David's direction, he is anointed at the Gihon Spring and rides his father's donkey into the city to the acclaim of the people.[20]
Jesus then rode the donkey into Jerusalem, with the three synoptic gospels stating that the disciples had first put their cloaks on it. Matthew 21:7 maintains that the disciples laid their cloaks on both the donkey and its colt. Protestant theologian Heinrich Meyer suggests that "they spread their outer garments upon both animals, being uncertain which of them Jesus intended to mount".[21] Matthew is the only one of the Synoptics to mention two animals. According to the New American Bible, this reflects Matthew's understanding of that section in the Old Testament Book of Zechariah 9:9 which he cites, and does not take into account "…the common Hebrew literary device of poetic parallelism", mentioning the same animal twice in different ways.[22] Bart D. Ehrman agreed that the Gospel of Matthew misunderstood Zechariah 9:9, which states '[Your king comes] riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.' This repetition is a Hebrew poetic figure of speech which says the same thing twice in different words, but Matthew accidentally turned this into two separate animals which Jesus rode simultaneously instead of one donkey which is described twice.[10]: 12:01 John 12:14–15 refers to the same passage in Zechariah 9:9, but in his case there is only talk of one donkey.[