Sanhedrin trial of Jesus
 | The neutrality of this article is disputed. |
| Events in the |
| Life of Jesus according to the canonical gospels |
|---|
 |
Portals:  Christianity  Bible |
The Sanhedrin Trial of Jesus is an event reported by all the Canonical Gospels. After the arrest of Jesus, the Canonical Gospels report that Jesus was taken to the Sanhedrin, a legal body composed of the chief Sadduccees, Pharisees, and elders (Kilgallen 255). The precise location and nature of the trial varies between the canonical Gospels, and particularly between the Synoptic Gospels and the Gospel of John.
In the Synoptics, Jesus is taken to the Sanhedrin, with Matthew adding that the Sanhedrin had assembled where Caiaphas was located, possibly implying that the gathering occurred at the home of Caiaphas. At the time in which the narrative is set, this body was an ad hoc gathering, rather than a fixed court (Brown 146), and its gathering in Caiaphas' home is historically plausible. Daniel J. Harrington argues that being located in a home makes it more likely that this was a small first preliminary hearing and not a full trial.
In the Gospel of John, however, Jesus is first taken to Annas, the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was the high priest. The Gospel of John states that Caiaphas was the high priest that year, implying that the appointment was an annual one. However, the appointment of high priests was significantly more permanent than that, and this is consequently one of several areas that most scholars regard the Gospel of John as demonstrating a severe lack of Jewish knowledge, and hence demonstrating that the authorship of John is unlikely to have been by a Jewish disciple. According to John, when Annas questions Jesus about his teachings and followers, Jesus refuses to be co-operative and instead says that he taught nothing in secret, always teaching in public places, and so Annas should just ask the many witnesses to what he said. This somewhat contradicts the Synoptic Gospels, and particularly that of Mark, which emphasise the presence of secret teachings, and teachings that were only taught to the disciples not the crowds, again casting doubt on the motives and accuracy of the authorship of John. John adds that a nearby official struck Jesus for this lack of co-operation, though Jesus subsequently challenges him to point out what it was that Jesus had said which was wrong. John states that having this lack of co-operation, Annas sends Jesus to Caiaphas, though John does not mention at all what happens when Jesus meets Caiaphas.
According to the Gospels of Mark and of Matthew, the sanhedrin wish to condemn Jesus to death, but since they respect the rule of law they find the lack of evidence against him to be unhelpful. Matthew and Mark state that many false witnesses made statements to the Sanhedrin, including a claim that Jesus had said he would destroy the man-made temple, and replace it with a non man-made one three days later; according to Matthew and Mark the statements did not agree with each other, and hence since multiple witnesses are required by the Deuteronomic Code, the Sanhedrin are unable to condemn him by this.
All the Synoptic Gospels state that Jesus was asked by the Sanhedrin if Jesus was Christ, Son of God, and Jesus responding with confirmation. Due to the nature of the Greek language, this could be translated simply as an anointed, a Son of God, or as the Christ, the Son of God, with quite different implications. The former of these simply requires that Jesus had been anointed, and that Jesus was a religious leader (a son of God was a common Jewish term simply referring to any person who was particularly religious); since Jesus had been anointed at Bethany, when a woman poured expensive perfumed oils over him, an anointed, a son of God is simply a very naturalistic and fairly worldly statement for Jesus to confirm. On the other hand, the Christ, the Son of God has heavy supernatural and Christological implications, and consequently is the translation choice usually favoured by Christians, and hence by Christian versions of the Bible.
The Synoptics also state that Jesus added that [a/the] Son of Man would be seen sitting at the right hand of the mighty one, and coming on the clouds of heaven. Many Christians interpret this as a reference to a future second coming of Jesus, though in ancient times the gnostics read it quite differently as referring to enlightenment reaching each individual - that each individual human (son of man) would spiritually escape the earthly realm and rejoin the world of the monad (mighty one). The Synoptics state that these responses were sufficient for the Sanhedrin to be able to legally argue that Jesus was guilty, with Matthew and Mark adding that the high priest rent his clothes and said that Jesus' responses were blasphemy. In Matthew and Mark, the Sanhedrin then angrily beat Jesus, and then blindfold him and challenge him to prophesy who it is that hits him. In Luke this blindfolding, and challenge to prophesy, also occurs, but it is the guards who do this, and it occurs before the question is posed to Jesus by the Sanhedrin, making it instead appear that the cruel treatment is completely unjust and entirely down to the wickedness of Jesus' persecutors.
Both the Synoptics and the Gospel of John state that early in the morning the Sanhedrin reach their conclusion, and bind Jesus, taking him to Pontius Pilate. The Gospel of John downplays Pilate's responsibility and somewhat anti-semitically treats all the Jews as being responsible for Jesus' death, arguing that the Jews brought Jesus to Pilate, that Pilate initially wanted the Jews to judge Jesus by their own laws, but that the Jews object since they want to execute Jesus but don't have the legal authority, according to John 18:31 yet Acts 6:12 records them ordering the stoning of Saint Stephen and also James the Just according to Antiquities of the Jews 20.9.1.
What laws of God did the Sanhedrin violate by the way they handled the trial of Jesus Christ?
The following are some of the laws of God (Mosaic Law) that were flagrantly violated by the Sanhedrin in the trial of Christ: bribery (De 16:19; 27:25); conspiracy and the perversion of judgment and justice (Ex 23:1, 2, 6, 7; Le 19:15, 35); bearing false witness, in which matter the judges connived (Ex 20:16); letting a murderer (Barabbas) go, thereby bringing bloodguilt upon themselves and upon the land (Nu 35:31-34; De 19:11-13); mob action, or 'following a crowd to do evil' (Ex 23:2, 3); in crying out for Jesus to be impaled, they were violating the law that prohibited following the statutes of other nations and that also prescribed no torture but that provided that a criminal be stoned or put to death before being hung on a stake (Le 18:3-5; De 21:22); they accepted as king one not of their own nation, but a pagan (Caesar), and rejected the King whom God had chosen (De 17:14, 15); and finally, they were guilty of murder (Ex 20:13).
Holding all Jews, past and present, accountable for these violations, is characteristic of Christian antisemitism.
See also
References
- Brown, Raymond E. An Introduction to the New Testament Doubleday 1997 ISBN 0385247672
- Brown, Raymond E. et al. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary Prentice Hall 1990 ISBN 0136149340
- Crossan, Dominic Who Killed Jesus? Exposing the Roots of Anti-Semitism in the Gospel Story of the Death of Jesus, 1995, ISBN 0060614803
- Kilgallen, John J. A Brief Commentary on the Gospel of Mark Paulist Press 1989 ISBN 0809130599
- Miller, Robert J. Editor The Complete Gospels Polebridge Press 1994 ISBN 0060655879