On Line Bible Study - For the Week August 19 - 25, 2013

Lesson 572
Jesus Before the Jewish Authorities

First, we have to acknowledge that the passion of Jesus has been used to create and perpetuate anti-Jewish antagonism.
Second, we have to exercise caution with regard to any comparison between contemporary legal systems and the ancient legal traditions of both the Jewish religion authorities and the Roman provincial governments.
There is a line in Deuteronomy 17:7 that reads: The hands of the witnesses must be the first in putting that person to death, and then the hands of all the people.  In the revealed tradition of the Jews, accusation, trial, and the execution of the sentence were all part of a public process.
Father Raymond Brown offers a series of questions based on how scholars have dealt with this scene:

1. Was Jesus justly and legally condemned to death by men acting in good faith, believing that Jesus was a blasphemer who had intentionally misled the people?
2. Was the Jewish trial of Jesus illegal because witnesses had been forced to perjure themselves?
3. Were Jewish religious authorities acting ignobly for political and self-protective purposes?
4. Were they men who felt forced to act improperly, convinced of Jesus guilt but unable to prove it by legal means?

Legal systems are complicated.  We could easily get lost in the nuts and bolts surrounding questions of identity and authority.  What exactly happened after Jesus was seized?  Exactly who comprised the Sanhedrin?  How were they convened?  What was their authority?  What was the relationship between the Sanhedrin and Roman authorities?
St. Luke tells us Jesus was first taken to the home of the high priest where he was questioned, mocked and beaten.  Only later was he taken to the "council".
St. John reports that Jesus was first taken to the home of Annas, who was the father-in-law of the high priest.  He was questioned there, and then sent - bound - to Caiaphas for further interrogation.  There is no mention of a "council" or the Sanhedrin.
  One thing seems certain, and is consistent in the Biblical record: the time between accusation, verdict, sentencing, and the execution of the sentence regarding Jesus was brief.  Whether the Sanhedrin was a "preliminary hearing", or functioning as a legal arm of the Jews under the umbrella of Roman legal authority, it didn't take those gathered much time to arrive at their conclusion.
Regardless of whether the motives were pure on behalf of the people, or self-protective to save their own skins, the charge is stated consistently throughout by way of the question:  Are you the Christ?  Are you a king?
The gospels have an agenda.  The question boomerangs back on those asking it.  Who do you say I am?  Everything Jesus has said and done now enters the narrow point in the hourglass of his life.  Not only does Jesus have to be crystal clear about his identity; we do, too.