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The militiamen took Jesus to the house of a chief priest.
A group of religious leaders, which included a number of priests and scribes, gathered in the room where Jesus was being held.
A chief priest, Annas, tried to quiz Jesus about his disciples and his teaching.
"I spoke openly in public," said Jesus. "I taught continually in the synagogues and in the Temple. I concealed nothing. Why are you asking me. Ask the people who heard me. Obviously they know what I said."
At that, one of the militia officers standing nearby reached out and struck Jesus.
"You dare answer the high priest like that?"
"If I have spoken evil, bear witness about the evil," Jesus replied. "But if I have spoken accurately, why do you hit me?"
Peter, who had followed Jesus and his captors from a distance, joined a group of militiamen in the courtyard, where they were warming themselves by a fire.
The religious leaders were seeking to obtain testimony that would be grounds for a death sentence, but they were having a difficult time of it. That is because the testimony of the many false witnesses did not match up.
One of the accusations: "He was heard saying, 'I will destroy this Temple that is made with hands and in three days I will build another one made without hands'."
But even that claim could not be verified by a second witness.
Finally the high priest stood up and spoke to Jesus. "You answer nothing to all these things said against you?"
Jesus did not reply.
So then the high priest demanded to know: "Are you the Messiah, the son of the Blessed?"
"I am," came the answer. "And you will see the son of man sitting at the right hand of Power and coming with the clouds of heaven."
The interrogator then tore his garment and exclaimed, "Why do we need any more witnesses?! You have heard the blasphemy! What do you think?!"
The crowd of leading men all agreed that Jesus deserved to die. Some spat on him and roughed him up. And as the militiamen took hold of Jesus, who had been blindfolded, they landed punches on him.
"Haha! Who hit you?! Prophesy!" they jeered as they showered him with insults.
As Peter stood outside in the courtyard, one of the servant girls noticed him.
"You were one of the men with the Nazarene," she said.
"I don't know what you're talking about," said Peter, easing away from her and into the forecourt.
Just then, a cock crowed.
But the woman spoke to the others, insisting, "He's one of them."
Peter again denied it.
A short time later, some people at the fire agreed with the girl. "You must be one of them. You're a Galilean."
Peter swore up and down: "I never heard of this man!"
Just then, the cock crowed a second time.
Suddenly Peter remembered what Jesus had said, that Peter would deny him three times before the cock crowed twice.[T2]
He wept.
As morning arrived, Annas had Jesus sent to the high priest, Joseph son of Caiaphas, who remanded Jesus to the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate. The Jewish accusers, concerned not to ritually defile themselves during Passover, did not enter the Praetorium, which Pilate normally used in his role as judge while he was in Jerusalem. (People generally called the high priest simply Caiaphas.)
The priests and scribes hurled a number of charges against Jesus.
"He has been perverting the Jewish people."
"He has been telling people not to pay their taxes to Caesar."
"He calls himself the Anointed One, a king."
A chief priest, Annas, tried to quiz Jesus about his disciples and his teaching.
"I spoke openly in public," said Jesus. "I taught continually in the synagogues and in the Temple. I concealed nothing. Why are you asking me. Ask the people who heard me. Obviously they know what I said."
At that, one of the militia officers standing nearby reached out and struck Jesus.
"You dare answer the high priest like that?"
"If I have spoken evil, bear witness about the evil," Jesus replied. "But if I have spoken accurately, why do you hit me?"
Annas then had Jesus, still bound, to the high priest, Caiaphas, who remanded Jesus to the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate. The Jewish accusers, concerned not to ritually defile themselves during Passover, did not enter the Praetorium, which Pilate normally used in his role as judge when he was in Jerusalem.
So Pilate came outside and asked, "What accusation do you bring against this man?"
The Jewish leaders bombarded Pilate with claims that Jesus was a criminal.
"If he weren't an evildoer, we would not have brought him to you," was the substance of the reply.
Pilate realized something was amiss. Why were these Temple politicians being so evasive? Obviously some religious matter was at issue. In general, Rome paid little heed to religious disputes among its subjects.
So Pilate said, "You deal with him. Judge him according to your law."
But the Temple officials replied, "We are not permitted to put anyone to death."
"Are you the king of the Jews?" the governor asked.
"Did that question come from deep inside, or are you just repeating what others say?" Jesus said.
"Am I a Jew?" said Pilate. "The chief priests of your own people have handed you over to me. What have you done?"
Jesus replied, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, then my servants would have fought to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But my kingdom is not from the here and now."
"So you are a king?" Pilate said.
"Those are your words," Jesus answered. "I came into this world for this reason: To bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice."
"What is truth?" Pilate shrugged.
Then the governor said, "Haven't you heard all those accusations! Have you nothing to say in your defense?"
But much to Pilate's amazement, Jesus declined to respond.
After some consideration, Pilate told the Jewish leaders, "I find no fault in this man."
The accusers became more vociferous. "He's been stirring up the people, teaching his poison all through Judaea, after starting out in Galilee."
On hearing the word Galilee, Pilate asked whether Jesus were a Galilean. Learning that he was, Pilate sent Jesus over to Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee and Peraea. (The Romans had appointed Antipas [Ty1] as tetrarch, which meant, from the point of view of his subjects, that he was their de facto king.)
During major holidays, Pilate left his usual residence in Caesarea on the Mediterranean coast and took command in Jerusalem to help assure order. Being a Jew, Herod Antipas would also come to Jerusalem from one of his residences, usually his palace in Tiberias on Lake Galilee, to celebrate the feast.
Antipas was very happy to see Jesus. He had long been eager to see the performance of a miracle.
The tetrarch peppered Jesus with questions, but Jesus said not a word, though the leading priests and scribes inundated Antipas with vehement accusations.
In the end, Antipas and his soldiers jokingly dressed Jesus in a robe of royal purple and sent him back to Pilate.
That day, Antipas and Pilate became friendly with each other. Previously the two rulers of Jews had been rivals who disliked each other.
Pilate warned Jesus, "You won't speak to me? Don't you understand that I have the power to crucify you and that I have the power to release you?"
"You would have no power at all against me had not you been given it from above," said Jesus. "He who handed me over to you has the greater sin."
From that point on, Pilate tried to come up with a way to let Jesus go free.
Pilate again told the Jewish leaders and their hangers-on, "See here, I have examined this man on your charge that he perverts the people. But I have found nothing that proves your allegations. In fact, neither could Antipas find anything worthy of having him executed.
"So, my decision is: I will chastise him and release him."
But the Jewish leaders were adamant: Jesus must die!
"If you let him go, you're no friend of Caesar!" they ranted. "Whoever makes himself a king speaks against Caesar!"
The crowd, incited by the Temple officials, roared the louder: "Death to him! Death!"
Then Pilate, trying to placate the leaders, hit on a compromise. He would make a show of accepting their verdict, but then exercise the customary practice of pardoning one prisoner favored by the people.
But the Romans were also holding another man who had actually been convicted of capital crimes, including murder and insurrection. His name was Jesus bar Abba. The crowd, instigated by the Temple authorities, shouted out, "Let Barabba go!"
Pilate asked the crowd, "Whom shall I release to you? Jesus the Anointed One or Jesus Barabba?"
Pilate did not like what the Jewish authorities were doing, as he realized they were acting out of jealousy.
During this time, Pilate's wife sent a message to him: "Have nothing to do with that righteous man. I have had terrible nightmares about him."
But the Jewish leaders kept up the pressure, with the crowd screaming, "Barabba! Barabba!"
"So what should I do with this king of the Jews?" asked Pilate.
"Crucify him! Crucify him!" the crowd shouted.
Pilate responded, "Why? What is his crime?"
The mob was now even more insistent: "Crucify! Crucify!"
When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere and that a riot was about to break out, he had a bowl of water brought and washed his hands in front of the crowd.
"I am innocent of this blood," he said. "You are responsible."
The crowd roared that they would accept responsibility.
Pilate brought Jesus out and said, "Look, it's your king. Should I crucify your king?"
"There is no king but Caesar!" was the answer from the priestly authorities, who were largely Sadduceans who had no belief in an afterlife.
So Pilate released Barabba to them and had Jesus scourged and taken away for crucifixion.
Then Pilate's soldiers took Jesus to a Praetorium courtyard, where they stripped him and put the scarlet robe back on him. They also placed a crown made of thorn vines on his head and mocked him, "Hail to the Jewish king!"
The men kept batting him on the head with a stick they were using as a mock royal sceptre, all the while spitting on him. Some of them bowed low, as if to a king.
After they had had their fun, they took off the purple robe and led him away to crucify him.
Once Judah saw the result, he was horrified.
He rushed back to the Temple and found those who had bribed him.
"I have sinned! I have betrayed innocent blood!"
"What's that to us?" came the reply. "That's your problem."
Judah took the bag of thirty silver coins, threw it down inside the sanctuary and left.
He then went and hanged himself.
The priests said, "It is unlawful to put this into the Temple treasury, since it is blood money."
So after talking it over, they decided to use the money to purchase Potter's Field, to be used as a cemetery for foreigners.
That plot of land was known as the Field of Blood for years afterward.
That event fulfilled the prophecy of Zechariah:
NEXT PAGE:
Crucifixion
https://secretpath191.blogspot.com/2020/11/crucifixion_12.html
A group of religious leaders, which included a number of priests and scribes, gathered in the room where Jesus was being held.
A chief priest, Annas, tried to quiz Jesus about his disciples and his teaching.
"I spoke openly in public," said Jesus. "I taught continually in the synagogues and in the Temple. I concealed nothing. Why are you asking me. Ask the people who heard me. Obviously they know what I said."
At that, one of the militia officers standing nearby reached out and struck Jesus.
"You dare answer the high priest like that?"
"If I have spoken evil, bear witness about the evil," Jesus replied. "But if I have spoken accurately, why do you hit me?"
Peter, who had followed Jesus and his captors from a distance, joined a group of militiamen in the courtyard, where they were warming themselves by a fire.
The religious leaders were seeking to obtain testimony that would be grounds for a death sentence, but they were having a difficult time of it. That is because the testimony of the many false witnesses did not match up.
One of the accusations: "He was heard saying, 'I will destroy this Temple that is made with hands and in three days I will build another one made without hands'."
But even that claim could not be verified by a second witness.
Finally the high priest stood up and spoke to Jesus. "You answer nothing to all these things said against you?"
Jesus did not reply.
The questioner probably was frustrated that the council had been unable to use Jesus' own words to trip him up.
So then the high priest demanded to know: "Are you the Messiah, the son of the Blessed?"
"I am," came the answer. "And you will see the son of man sitting at the right hand of Power and coming with the clouds of heaven."
The interchange here follows Mark. The priest here avoids the phrase son of God, though that is what he means. In those days, observant Jews often refrained from mentioning the generic or specific names for God, which we would translate as God and Jehovah.
God's Messiah, or anointed one, would be considered his son, whereby son could mean devoted human servant.
So if Jesus believed he was the Messiah, then answering yes was not blasphemy, especially since he made no claim to be God. Both Matthew and Luke were troubled by Jesus apparently directly affirming his status as messiah, because of the idea that a witness should not testify on his own behalf, and used what I see as literary circumlocutions.
But, I have capitalized I AM to indicate that Jesus may have been answering in the affirmative, or he may have been letting the Great I AM speak through him. Thus, in this interpretation, God the Father was testifying on behalf of Jesus. The next statement, which evokes Daniel 7:13 [T1], is in the third person. Thus, strictly speaking, Jesus made no claim that was provably about himself.
The term right hand of Power again reflects Jewish scruples about directly uttering a name of God. Though Jesus would not have feared to say God publicly, it seems reasonable to suppose that he would have observed Jewish custom. But it is this concept that seems to bulge the envelope on blasphemy because God's right-hand man would be someone who exercised all God's power on his behalf, just as Joseph, as Pharaoh's grand vizier, exercised all Pharaoh's power on behalf of Pharaoh.
So implying that you are God's right-hand man is equivalent to saying that you are, as far as the human race is concerned, God.
We see that God, speaking through Jesus, provoked the Temple leaders into the rash assumptions that they were so eager to make. But, there was no blasphemy or any crime against God or man. It was necessary that a completely innocent man be murdered on behalf of the rest of us.
God's Messiah, or anointed one, would be considered his son, whereby son could mean devoted human servant.
So if Jesus believed he was the Messiah, then answering yes was not blasphemy, especially since he made no claim to be God. Both Matthew and Luke were troubled by Jesus apparently directly affirming his status as messiah, because of the idea that a witness should not testify on his own behalf, and used what I see as literary circumlocutions.
But, I have capitalized I AM to indicate that Jesus may have been answering in the affirmative, or he may have been letting the Great I AM speak through him. Thus, in this interpretation, God the Father was testifying on behalf of Jesus. The next statement, which evokes Daniel 7:13 [T1], is in the third person. Thus, strictly speaking, Jesus made no claim that was provably about himself.
The term right hand of Power again reflects Jewish scruples about directly uttering a name of God. Though Jesus would not have feared to say God publicly, it seems reasonable to suppose that he would have observed Jewish custom. But it is this concept that seems to bulge the envelope on blasphemy because God's right-hand man would be someone who exercised all God's power on his behalf, just as Joseph, as Pharaoh's grand vizier, exercised all Pharaoh's power on behalf of Pharaoh.
So implying that you are God's right-hand man is equivalent to saying that you are, as far as the human race is concerned, God.
We see that God, speaking through Jesus, provoked the Temple leaders into the rash assumptions that they were so eager to make. But, there was no blasphemy or any crime against God or man. It was necessary that a completely innocent man be murdered on behalf of the rest of us.
The interrogator then tore his garment and exclaimed, "Why do we need any more witnesses?! You have heard the blasphemy! What do you think?!"
The crowd of leading men all agreed that Jesus deserved to die. Some spat on him and roughed him up. And as the militiamen took hold of Jesus, who had been blindfolded, they landed punches on him.
"Haha! Who hit you?! Prophesy!" they jeered as they showered him with insults.
As Peter stood outside in the courtyard, one of the servant girls noticed him.
"You were one of the men with the Nazarene," she said.
"I don't know what you're talking about," said Peter, easing away from her and into the forecourt.
Just then, a cock crowed.
But the woman spoke to the others, insisting, "He's one of them."
Peter again denied it.
A short time later, some people at the fire agreed with the girl. "You must be one of them. You're a Galilean."
Peter swore up and down: "I never heard of this man!"
Just then, the cock crowed a second time.
Suddenly Peter remembered what Jesus had said, that Peter would deny him three times before the cock crowed twice.[T2]
He wept.
As morning arrived, Annas had Jesus sent to the high priest, Joseph son of Caiaphas, who remanded Jesus to the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate. The Jewish accusers, concerned not to ritually defile themselves during Passover, did not enter the Praetorium, which Pilate normally used in his role as judge while he was in Jerusalem. (People generally called the high priest simply Caiaphas.)
The priests and scribes hurled a number of charges against Jesus.
"He has been perverting the Jewish people."
"He has been telling people not to pay their taxes to Caesar."
"He calls himself the Anointed One, a king."
A chief priest, Annas, tried to quiz Jesus about his disciples and his teaching.
"I spoke openly in public," said Jesus. "I taught continually in the synagogues and in the Temple. I concealed nothing. Why are you asking me. Ask the people who heard me. Obviously they know what I said."
At that, one of the militia officers standing nearby reached out and struck Jesus.
"You dare answer the high priest like that?"
"If I have spoken evil, bear witness about the evil," Jesus replied. "But if I have spoken accurately, why do you hit me?"
Annas then had Jesus, still bound, to the high priest, Caiaphas, who remanded Jesus to the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate. The Jewish accusers, concerned not to ritually defile themselves during Passover, did not enter the Praetorium, which Pilate normally used in his role as judge when he was in Jerusalem.
So Pilate came outside and asked, "What accusation do you bring against this man?"
The Jewish leaders bombarded Pilate with claims that Jesus was a criminal.
"If he weren't an evildoer, we would not have brought him to you," was the substance of the reply.
Pilate realized something was amiss. Why were these Temple politicians being so evasive? Obviously some religious matter was at issue. In general, Rome paid little heed to religious disputes among its subjects.
So Pilate said, "You deal with him. Judge him according to your law."
But the Temple officials replied, "We are not permitted to put anyone to death."
Rome reserved the perogative of capital punishment in the provinces to its governors. By this, Rome held in check forces which might execute people who were friends of Rome or otherwise useful to Roman interests.
Pilate went back inside the Praetorium and summoned Jesus.
"Are you the king of the Jews?" the governor asked.
The Temple authorities had leveled this charge when they were speaking with Pilate because they knew that, in Jewish Scriptures, God's Anointed One -- the Messiah -- is pictured as a great human king who will subjugate the Gentiles.
"Did that question come from deep inside, or are you just repeating what others say?" Jesus said.
"Am I a Jew?" said Pilate. "The chief priests of your own people have handed you over to me. What have you done?"
Jesus replied, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, then my servants would have fought to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But my kingdom is not from the here and now."
"So you are a king?" Pilate said.
"Those are your words," Jesus answered. "I came into this world for this reason: To bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice."
"What is truth?" Pilate shrugged.
Then the governor said, "Haven't you heard all those accusations! Have you nothing to say in your defense?"
But much to Pilate's amazement, Jesus declined to respond.
After some consideration, Pilate told the Jewish leaders, "I find no fault in this man."
The accusers became more vociferous. "He's been stirring up the people, teaching his poison all through Judaea, after starting out in Galilee."
On hearing the word Galilee, Pilate asked whether Jesus were a Galilean. Learning that he was, Pilate sent Jesus over to Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee and Peraea. (The Romans had appointed Antipas [Ty1] as tetrarch, which meant, from the point of view of his subjects, that he was their de facto king.)
During major holidays, Pilate left his usual residence in Caesarea on the Mediterranean coast and took command in Jerusalem to help assure order. Being a Jew, Herod Antipas would also come to Jerusalem from one of his residences, usually his palace in Tiberias on Lake Galilee, to celebrate the feast.
Antipas was very happy to see Jesus. He had long been eager to see the performance of a miracle.
The tetrarch peppered Jesus with questions, but Jesus said not a word, though the leading priests and scribes inundated Antipas with vehement accusations.
In the end, Antipas and his soldiers jokingly dressed Jesus in a robe of royal purple and sent him back to Pilate.
That day, Antipas and Pilate became friendly with each other. Previously the two rulers of Jews had been rivals who disliked each other.
Pilate warned Jesus, "You won't speak to me? Don't you understand that I have the power to crucify you and that I have the power to release you?"
"You would have no power at all against me had not you been given it from above," said Jesus. "He who handed me over to you has the greater sin."
From that point on, Pilate tried to come up with a way to let Jesus go free.
Pilate again told the Jewish leaders and their hangers-on, "See here, I have examined this man on your charge that he perverts the people. But I have found nothing that proves your allegations. In fact, neither could Antipas find anything worthy of having him executed.
"So, my decision is: I will chastise him and release him."
But the Jewish leaders were adamant: Jesus must die!
"If you let him go, you're no friend of Caesar!" they ranted. "Whoever makes himself a king speaks against Caesar!"
The crowd, incited by the Temple officials, roared the louder: "Death to him! Death!"
Then Pilate, trying to placate the leaders, hit on a compromise. He would make a show of accepting their verdict, but then exercise the customary practice of pardoning one prisoner favored by the people.
Pilate was attempting a typically Roman political maneuver whereby Jesus would be set free without Pilate having to face censure from his superiors. He knew very well that these priestly Roman collaborators were very capable of damaging him politically.
The custom of the Passover pardon fits well with the Roman policy of using gestures of magnanimity in order to help keep down unrest. In addition, Rome granted its governors nearly dictatorial power over their provinces.
The custom of the Passover pardon fits well with the Roman policy of using gestures of magnanimity in order to help keep down unrest. In addition, Rome granted its governors nearly dictatorial power over their provinces.
But the Romans were also holding another man who had actually been convicted of capital crimes, including murder and insurrection. His name was Jesus bar Abba. The crowd, instigated by the Temple authorities, shouted out, "Let Barabba go!"
Pilate asked the crowd, "Whom shall I release to you? Jesus the Anointed One or Jesus Barabba?"
Note the irony here: an actual seditionist is to be freed in place of the man falsely accused of sedition. Yet, Pilate knew the Temple officials would not complain to Rome about a pardon of Barabba.
———————
Very early manuscripts have Jesus Barabba, but some of the non-Jewish early churchmen objected that the name Jesus was too holy to have been applied to a criminal. They did not realize that Jesus is a form of Joshua and is a very common name for Jewish boys.
Some 20th Century scholars questioned the reality of the name Barabba, which means son of the father, but archaeological evidence from the period has surfaced showing that the name was in general use in that region in those days.
Some 20th Century scholars questioned the reality of the name Barabba, which means son of the father, but archaeological evidence from the period has surfaced showing that the name was in general use in that region in those days.
Pilate did not like what the Jewish authorities were doing, as he realized they were acting out of jealousy.
During this time, Pilate's wife sent a message to him: "Have nothing to do with that righteous man. I have had terrible nightmares about him."
But the Jewish leaders kept up the pressure, with the crowd screaming, "Barabba! Barabba!"
"So what should I do with this king of the Jews?" asked Pilate.
"Crucify him! Crucify him!" the crowd shouted.
Pilate responded, "Why? What is his crime?"
The mob was now even more insistent: "Crucify! Crucify!"
When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere and that a riot was about to break out, he had a bowl of water brought and washed his hands in front of the crowd.
"I am innocent of this blood," he said. "You are responsible."
The crowd roared that they would accept responsibility.
Matthew records that the crowd yelled, "His blood be on us, and on our children!" If members of the crowd did use those words, what they meant was that they took responsibility for the decision to have Jesus executed.
Pilate brought Jesus out and said, "Look, it's your king. Should I crucify your king?"
"There is no king but Caesar!" was the answer from the priestly authorities, who were largely Sadduceans who had no belief in an afterlife.
So Pilate released Barabba to them and had Jesus scourged and taken away for crucifixion.
A scourge was a short whip made of two or three leather thongs, which were knotted with a number of small pieces of metal, usually zinc and iron. The scourging would horrendously tear up the flesh and muscle of the victim.
Then Pilate's soldiers took Jesus to a Praetorium courtyard, where they stripped him and put the scarlet robe back on him. They also placed a crown made of thorn vines on his head and mocked him, "Hail to the Jewish king!"
The men kept batting him on the head with a stick they were using as a mock royal sceptre, all the while spitting on him. Some of them bowed low, as if to a king.
After they had had their fun, they took off the purple robe and led him away to crucify him.
Once Judah saw the result, he was horrified.
He rushed back to the Temple and found those who had bribed him.
"I have sinned! I have betrayed innocent blood!"
"What's that to us?" came the reply. "That's your problem."
Judah took the bag of thirty silver coins, threw it down inside the sanctuary and left.
He then went and hanged himself.
The priests said, "It is unlawful to put this into the Temple treasury, since it is blood money."
So after talking it over, they decided to use the money to purchase Potter's Field, to be used as a cemetery for foreigners.
That plot of land was known as the Field of Blood for years afterward.
That event fulfilled the prophecy of Zechariah:
They took the thirty pieces of silver,
the price of him who was priced,
whom certain of the children of Israel did price,
and they gave them for the potter's field,
as the Lord appointed me.[Tz1]
NEXT PAGE:
Crucifixion
https://secretpath191.blogspot.com/2020/11/crucifixion_12.html
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