The St. Matthew Pa**ion is a work very different in character from its extant predecessor, the St. John Pa**ion: the former is deeply devotional, introspective, and meditative in character, while the latter is more intensely dramatic, with more action in its narrative. The St. Matthew Pa**ion is often compared with Bach's monumental Ma** in B minor in terms of both scope and piety. Performed at St. Thomas' Church in Leipzig, the work sets a text by Christian Picander (who may have been the author of a hypothetical, now-lost 1725 Bach Pa**ion). Another significant difference between the St. John and St. Matthew works lies in their respective texts: the St. John text is very short, beginning with Judas' betrayal of Christ, and focusing on Christ's trial before Pilate; the St. Matthew text, on the other hand, is very long, containing almost twice as many verses as the St. John text