John Chrysostom

Yet for all this, boiling with anger, they changed their purpose again. For though they had said, "Not at the feast time;" when they found the traitor, they waited not for the time, but slew Him at the feast. But why did they take Him then? They were boiling with rage, as I said; and they expected then to find Him, and all things they did as blinded. …

Homily on the Gospel of Matthew 79 ↗

Theophylact of Ohrid

Intending to commit this unholy murder, they were fearful, not of God, but of the multitude. For the high priests were afraid that if they murdered Jesus on the feast, the multitude would rise up in His defense, or that the people would refrain from offering the prescribed sacrifices on account of the murder, and so the high priests would lose the profit they gained from the sacrifices. …

Commentary on Matthew ↗

Leo the Great

This precaution of the Chief Priests arose not from reverence for the festival, but from care for the success of their plot; they feared an insurrection at that season, not because of the guilt the populace might thereby incur, but because they might rescue Christ.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas ↗

Thomas Aquinas

But they said: not on the festival day. Here is treated the delay: and the counsel and its reason are set forth. But they said: not on the festival day. Someone might say that they said this out of devotion; therefore he removes this by saying, lest perhaps there should be a tumult among the people; for they knew that many held him to be a prophet, and some even as Christ: therefore there was dissension among the people, as is found in John 7:30ff. and 9:8ff. Therefore they feared that the people would snatch him from their hands. …

Commentary on Matthew ↗