The backstory to Palm Sunday most evangelicals miss

29 March is Palm Sunday, or the sixth Sunday in Lent, which kicks off Holy Week. The events of this present day echo a historical episode from Jewish history which most evangelicals miss. This is the story …

Palm Sunday Events

Falling on March 29 in 2026, Palm Sunday marks the sixth Sunday of Lent, and it starts the Holy Week which leads as much as Easter. On Palm Sunday, named after the palm branches within the story, churches recount Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. This is a crucial story and is recorded in all 4 Gospel accounts (Matthew 21:1-11, Mark 11:1-11, Luke 19:28-44, and John 12:12-19). Jesus approached Jerusalem from Jericho, arriving at Bethphage and Bethany. He then instructed two disciples to fetch a donkey which he then rode into the town for Passover. Local people and pilgrims spread their cloaks and palm branches onto the road, and shouted hosannas, echoing Psalm 118:26, seeing him as a messianic liberator. This perhaps also recalled David’s entry after defeating Absalom (2 Samuel 19) and Solomon riding on a King David’s mule (1 Kings 1:38). Some also saw Jesus fulfil Zechariah’s prophecy: “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion… thy King cometh unto thee … lowly, and riding upon an ass” (Zechariah 9:9).

John records that Jesus was greeted by crowds waving palm branches (John 12:12-13). This then set the stage for the cleansing of the Temple (Matthew 21:12-13; Mark 11:15-19; Luke 19:45-46), which is traditionally recalled on Holy Monday, when Jesus overturned the money-changers’ tables, echoed within the English phrase “turn the tables”.

The backstory

The backstory to those momentous events, which many individuals miss, lies within the events which happened in Jewish history slightly below 200 years previously. The Greek Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes, ruled Judea as a part of his empire. From 167 BC the Seleucids tried to crush Jewish religious practices and impose Greek culture and customs on the people. Circumcision and the Sabbath were banned, and Jewish law was forbidden. This led to “Hellenization and increase within the adoption of foreign ways” (2 Maccabees 4:13), they usually tried “to compel the Jews to forsake the laws of their ancestors and not to live by the laws of God” (2 Maccabees 6:1). Some went together with it but others were angered (1 Maccabees 1:41-48). The breaking point got here when the Temple in Jerusalem was desecrated with a pagan altar and was dedicated to Zeus (2 Maccabees 6:1-2). 

Protest led to persecution and a few fled to caves (2 Maccabees 6:11). As oppression increased, a family rose up who became referred to as the Maccabees. An area priest called Mattathias (1 Maccabees 2:1-14) refused to perform sacrilegious acts. Mattathias and his five sons John, Judah (sometimes called Judas), Simon, Eleazar and Jonathan launched a guerilla war against the Seleucid forces and have become referred to as the Maccabees, likely from the Aramaic word for hammer. Their bravery inspired others to hitch the cause and a riot gained momentum and freed parts of Judea. In 165 BC, Simon, one among the Maccabee brothers, entered Jerusalem “with a chorus of praise and the waving of palm branches” (1 Maccabees 13:51).

Cleaning the Temple

Afterwards, with the town of Jerusalem under their control, the Judah Maccabaeus set about cleansing the Temple of its pagan altars (1 Maccabees 4:41-51) and restoring it to Jewish worship.​ After some months of restoration the Temple was rededicated within the winter. “Then Judas and his brothers and all of the assembly of Israel determined that each 12 months at that season the times of dedication of the altar needs to be observed with joy and gladness for eight days, starting with the twenty-fifth day of the month of Chislev” (1 Maccabees 4:59, NRSV). This Feast of Dedication continues to be observed by Jews today and is referred to as Hanukkah.

Symbolism of Palm Branches

These events led to palm branches becoming symbols of Jewish national independence, and date palm is found on some ancient Jewish coins.

Messianic Anticipation

The Maccabees ruled Judea until it became a Roman client state in 63 BC, after which Herod later became “King of the Jews” in 37 BC. Under Herod, Judea was not under Greek control but under Roman control. As Jesus entered into Jerusalem, crowds likely saw him as a saviour, within the shadow of the Maccabees, hoping he’d expel the Roman occupiers just because the Maccabees expelled the Seleucids. As Jesus got here, they held palm branches and shouted hosannas. They were wanting a recent revolt within the type of the Maccabees. Echoing previous events Jesus then went onto cleanse the Temple, but this time from the exploitation by the religious leaders.

John’s Gospel

These intertestamental events appear within the Greek Septuagint and are alluded to within the New Testament. The story was well-known to the Jews of Jesus’s time. It is St John who uniquely precedes the story of the triumphal entry into Jerusalem with Jesus attending the “Feast of Dedication” (John 10:22-23), higher referred to as Hanukkah. Historic Reformation-era New Testaments used to cross-reference this to 1 Maccabees 4:59, and it was thus cross-referenced in William Tyndale’s 1534 edition of the New Testament, and within the 1611 edition of the King James Version of the Bible.

It can also be St John who uniquely records that Jesus was greeted by crowds waving palm branches (John 12:12-13). Later St John sees palm branches in his revelation of heaven, “After this I looked, and there was a fantastic multitude that nobody could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches of their hands” (Rev 7:9). All of those gently point back to the events under the Maccabees. 

Summary

Evangelical Christians often miss this backstory. This is since the events are recorded within the books of Maccabees which appear within the Apocrypha, which is just not printed in all modern editions of Bibles. Additionally, Protestant New Testaments are sometimes quite squeamish about cross-referencing relevant verses within the Apocrypha. However, no matter what you consider the Apocrypha, if you might have not read the story of the Maccabees, you’re missing the historical context to the story of Palm Sunday, which makes rather more sense once you realize it.