Entry into Jerusalem. In the accounts of the four canonical Gospels, Jesus' triumphal entry takes place in the days before the Last Supper, marking the beginning of his Passion. Crowds gather around Jesus and believe in him in John 12:9-11 after he raised Lazarus from the dead, and the next day the multitudes that had gathered for the feast in Jerusalem welcome Jesus as he enters Jerusalem. In Matthew 21:1-11, Mark 11:1-11, Luke 19:28-44, and John 12:12-19, Jesus descends from the Mount of Olives towards Jerusalem, and the crowds lay their clothes on the ground to welcome him as he triumphantly enters Jerusalem. Christians celebrate Jesus' entry into Jerusalem as Palm Sunday, a week before Easter Sunday. According to the Gospels, Jesus was staying at Bethany and before entering Jerusalem. John 12:1 states that he was in Bethany six days before the passover. 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 the donkey was needed by the Lord. 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 animals. Heinrich Meyer suggests that they spread their outer garments upon both animals, being uncertain which of them Jesus intended to mount. It is suggested that Jesus used both, one after another: the donkey representing the Jews under the burden of the law, and the colt, the untamed gentiles. In Luke 19:41 as Jesus approaches Jerusalem, he looks at the city and weeps over it, foretelling the suffering that awaits the city. The Gospels go on to recount how Jesus rode into Jerusalem, and how the people there laid down their cloaks in front of him and also laid down small branches of trees. The people sang part of Psalm 118: 25-26: Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. We bless you from the house of the Lord. On his entry into the city, Matthew's account suggests that Jesus evoked great excitement-all the city was moved. The people of the city asked Who is this? and the multitudes answered, This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee. The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges suggests the word in the original is forcible, convulsed or stirred as by an earthquake, or by a violent wind. Matthew uses the same word in 27:15 when he suggests that the earth quaked at the time of Jesus' death. In the Synoptic Gospels, this episode is followed by the Cleansing of the Temple episode and, in all four Gospels, Jesus performs various healings and teaches by way of parables while in Jerusalem until the Last Supper. The Synoptics refers to Jesus visiting the home of an unknown woman of Bethany, where she anoints him with a precious oil, in forecast of his burial. The event was placed in the house of Simon the Leper, and dated after the entry in Jerusalem, before sunset and preceding Passover.