Section 12:12–19

Jesus entered Jerusalem as a king

This section tells about Jesus entering Jerusalem while riding a donkey. The people honored him by shouting praises and waving palm branches. This fulfilled the prophecy about the Messiah in Zechariah 9:9 and showed that he came as a peaceful king. Jesus’ disciples did not understand what was happening at that time. The people went out to welcome him because they heard that he raised Lazarus from the dead.

Here are some other possible titles for this section:

A crowd welcomed Jesus to Jerusalem
-or-
Jesus arrived in Jerusalem with honor
-or-
Palm Sunday

Paragraph 12:12–19

12:12a–b

The next day: This phrase introduces a new event in the story, Jesus’ entering Jerusalem. The phrase refers back to 12:1, and so this is the day after Mary anointed Jesus. Thus it was probably Sunday, five days before the Passover.

the great crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem: The people who had come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover feast found out that Jesus was also coming. The text does not say how they learned that, so it is good not to say how in your translation. Here are other ways to translate this clause:

a great crowd that had come to Jerusalem for the Passover Feast heard that Jesus was coming there (New Century Version)
-or-
the many people ⌊in Jerusalem⌋ for the festival learned that Jesus was coming
-or-
Crowds of people had come for the Passover festival. The news spread among them that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem.

the great crowd that had come to the feast: This noun phrase refers to the people that had come to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover. It may be natural to make this information explicit. For example:

a large crowd was in Jerusalem for Passover (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
the large crowd that had come to the Passover Festival (Good News Translation)

the feast: This phrase here refers to the festival known as Passover. This was the time when the Jewish people celebrated how God saved them from being slaves in Egypt. The people were there in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover Festival. See the note and how you translated this in 12:1a. Here are other ways to translate this phrase:

the festival (New Revised Standard Version)
-or-
the Passover Feast (New Century Version)

heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem: The crowd of people in Jerusalem learned that Jesus was coming. Someone, or some people, told them that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. This was true information. Here are other ways to translate this phrase:

found out that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem
-or-
was told/informed that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem
-or-
heard the news that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem

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