PAPER 184
BEFORE THE SANHEDRIN COURT
184:0.1
REPRESENTATIVES of Annas had secretly instructed the
captain of the Roman soldiers to bring Jesus
immediately to the palace of Annas after he had been
arrested. The former high priest desired to maintain
his prestige as the chief ecclesiastical authority
of the Jews. He also had another purpose in
detaining Jesus at his house for several hours, and
that was to allow time for legally calling together
the court of the Sanhedrin. It was not lawful to
convene the Sanhedrin court before the time of the
offering of the morning sacrifice in the temple, and
this sacrifice was offered about three o'clock in
the morning.
184:0.2
Annas knew that a court of Sanhedrists was in
waiting at the palace of his son-in-law, Caiaphas.
Some thirty members of the Sanhedrin had gathered at
the home of the high priest by midnight so that they
would be ready to sit in judgment on Jesus when he
might be brought before them. Only those members
were assembled who were strongly and openly opposed
to Jesus and his teaching since it required only
twenty-three to constitute a trial court.
184:0.3
Jesus spent about three hours at the palace of Annas
on Mount Olivet, not far from the garden of
Gethsemane, where they arrested him. John Zebedee
was free and safe in the palace of Annas not only
because of the word of the Roman captain, but also
because he and his brother James were well known to
the older servants, having many times been guests at
the palace as the former high priest was a distant
relative of their mother, Salome.
1. EXAMINATION BY ANNAS
184:1.1
Annas, enriched by the temple revenues, his
son-in-law the acting high priest, and with his
relations to the Roman authorities, was indeed the
most powerful single individual in all Jewry. He was
a suave and politic planner and plotter. He desired
to direct the matter of disposing of Jesus; he
feared to trust such an important undertaking wholly
to his brusque and aggressive son-in-law. Annas
wanted to make sure that the Master's trial was kept
in the hands of the Sadducees; he feared the
possible sympathy of some of the Pharisees, seeing
that practically all of those members of the
Sanhedrin who had espoused the cause of Jesus were
Pharisees.
184:1.2
Annas had not seen Jesus for several years, not
since the time when the Master called at his house
and immediately left upon observing his coldness and
reserve in receiving him. Annas had thought to
presume on this early acquaintance and thereby
attempt to persuade Jesus to abandon his claims and
leave Palestine. He was reluctant to participate in
the murder of a good man and had reasoned that Jesus
might choose to leave the country rather than to
suffer death. But when Annas stood before the
stalwart and determined Galilean, he knew at once
that it would be useless to make such proposals.
Jesus was even more majestic and well poised than
Annas remembered him.
184:1.3
When Jesus was young, Annas had taken a great
interest in him, but now his revenues were
threatened by what Jesus had so recently done in
driving the money-changers and other commercial
traders out of the temple. This act had aroused the
enmity of the former high priest far more than had
Jesus' teachings.
184:1.4
Annas entered his spacious audience chamber, seated
himself in a large chair, and commanded that Jesus
be brought before him. After a few moments spent in
silently surveying the Master, he said: "You realize
that something must be done about your teaching
since you are disturbing the peace and order of our
country." As Annas looked inquiringly at Jesus, the
Master looked full into his eyes but made no reply.
Again Annas spoke, "What are the names of your
disciples, besides Simon Zelotes, the agitator?"
Again Jesus looked down upon him, but he did not
answer.
184:1.5
Annas was considerably disturbed by Jesus' refusal
to answer his questions, so much so that he said to
him: "Do you have no care as to whether I am
friendly to you or not? Do you have no regard for
the power I have in determining the issues of your
coming trial?" When Jesus heard this, he said:
"Annas, you know that you could have no power over
me unless it were permitted by my Father. Some would
destroy the Son of Man because they are ignorant;
they know no better, but you, friend, know what you
are doing. How can you, therefore, reject the light
of God?"
184:1.6
The kindly manner in which Jesus spoke to Annas
almost bewildered him. But he had already determined
in his mind that Jesus must either leave Palestine
or die; so he summoned up his courage and asked:
"Just what is it you are trying to teach the people?
What do you claim to be?" Jesus answered: "You know
full well that I have spoken openly to the world. I
have taught in the synagogues and many times in the
temple, where all the Jews and many of the gentiles
have heard me. In secret I have spoken nothing; why,
then, do you ask me about my teaching? Why do you
not summon those who have heard me and inquire of
them? Behold, all Jerusalem has heard that which I
have spoken even if you have not yourself heard
these teachings." But before Annas could make reply,
the chief steward of the palace, who was standing
near, struck Jesus in the face with his hand,
saying, "How dare you answer the high priest with
such words?" Annas spoke no words of rebuke to his
steward, but Jesus addressed him, saying, "My
friend, if I have spoken evil, bear witness against
the evil; but if I have spoken the truth, why, then,
should you smite me?"
184:1.7
Although Annas regretted that his steward had struck
Jesus, he was too proud to take notice of the
matter. In his confusion he went into another room,
leaving Jesus alone with the household attendants
and the temple guards for almost an hour.
184:1.8
When he returned, going up to the Master's side, he
said, "Do you claim to be the Messiah, the deliverer
of Israel?" Said Jesus: "Annas, you have known me
from the times of my youth. You know that I claim to
be nothing except that which my Father has
appointed, and that I have been sent to all men,
gentile as well as Jew." Then said Annas: "I have
been told that you have claimed to be the Messiah;
is that true?" Jesus looked upon Annas but only
replied, "So you have said."
184:1.9
About this time messengers arrived from the palace
of Caiaphas to inquire what time Jesus would be
brought before the court of the Sanhedrin, and since
it was nearing the break of day, Annas thought best
to send Jesus bound and in the custody of the temple
guards to Caiaphas. He himself followed after them
shortly.
2. PETER IN THE COURTYARD
184:2.1
As the band of guards and soldiers approached the
entrance to the palace of Annas, John Zebedee was
marching by the side of the captain of the Roman
soldiers. Judas had dropped some distance behind,
and Simon Peter followed afar off. After John had
entered the palace courtyard with Jesus and the
guards, Judas came up to the gate but, seeing Jesus
and John, went on over to the home of Caiaphas,
where he knew the real trial of the Master would
later take place. Soon after Judas had left, Simon
Peter arrived, and as he stood before the gate, John
saw him just as they were about to take Jesus into
the palace. The portress who kept the gate knew
John, and when he spoke to her, requesting that she
let Peter in, she gladly assented.
184:2.2
Peter, upon entering the courtyard, went over to the
charcoal fire and sought to warm himself, for the
night was chilly. He felt very much out of place
here among the enemies of Jesus, and indeed he was
out of place. The Master had not instructed him to
keep near at hand as he had admonished John. Peter
belonged with the other apostles, who had been
specifically warned not to endanger their lives
during these times of the trial and crucifixion of
their Master.
184:2.3
Peter threw away his sword shortly before he came up
to the palace gate so that he entered the courtyard
of Annas unarmed. His mind was in a whirl of
confusion; he could scarcely realize that Jesus had
been arrested. He could not grasp the reality of the
situation -- that he was here in the courtyard of
Annas, warming himself beside the servants of the
high priest. He wondered what the other apostles
were doing and, in turning over in his mind as to
how John came to be admitted to the palace,
concluded that it was because he was known to the
servants, since he had bidden the gate-keeper admit
him.
184:2.4
Shortly after the portress let Peter in, and while
he was warming himself by the fire, she went over to
him and mischievously said, "Are you not also one of
this man's disciples?" Now Peter should not have
been surprised at this recognition, for it was John
who had requested that the girl let him pass through
the palace gates; but he was in such a tense nervous
state that this identification as a disciple threw
him off his balance, and with only one thought
uppermost in his mind -- the thought of escaping
with his life -- he promptly answered the maid's
question by saying, "I am not."
184:2.5
Very soon another servant came up to Peter and
asked: "Did I not see you in the garden when they
arrested this fellow? Are you not also one of his
followers?" Peter was now thoroughly alarmed; he saw
no way of safely escaping from these accusers; so he
vehemently denied all connection with Jesus, saying,
"I know not this man, neither am I one of his
followers."
184:2.6
About this time the portress of the gate drew Peter
to one side and said: "I am sure you are a disciple
of this Jesus, not only because one of his followers
bade me let you in the courtyard, but my sister here
has seen you in the temple with this man. Why do you
deny this?" When Peter heard the maid accuse him, he
denied all knowledge of Jesus with much cursing and
swearing, again saying, "I am not this man's
follower; I do not even know him; I never heard of
him before."
184:2.7
Peter left the fireside for a time while he walked
about the courtyard. He would have liked to have
escaped, but he feared to attract attention to
himself. Getting cold, he returned to the fireside,
and one of the men standing near him said: "Surely
you are one of this man's disciples. This Jesus is a
Galilean, and your speech betrays you, for you also
speak as a Galilean." And again Peter denied all
connection with his Master.
184:2.8
Peter was so perturbed that he sought to escape
contact with his accusers by going away from the
fire and remaining by himself on the porch. After
more than an hour of this isolation, the gate-keeper
and her sister chanced to meet him, and both of them
again teasingly charged him with being a follower of
Jesus. And again he denied the accusation. Just as
he had once more denied all connection with Jesus,
the cock crowed, and Peter remembered the words of
warning spoken to him by his Master earlier that
same night. As he stood there, heavy of heart and
crushed with the sense of guilt, the palace doors
opened, and the guards led Jesus past on the way to
Caiaphas. As the Master passed Peter, he saw, by the
light of the torches, the look of despair on the
face of his former self-confident and superficially
brave apostle, and he turned and looked upon Peter.
Peter never forgot that look as long as he lived. It
was such a glance of commingled pity and love as
mortal man had never beheld in the face of the
Master.
184:2.9
After Jesus and the guards passed out of the palace
gates, Peter followed them, but only for a short
distance. He could not go farther. He sat down by
the side of the road and wept bitterly. And when he
had shed these tears of agony, he turned his steps
back toward the camp, hoping to find his brother,
Andrew. On arriving at the camp, he found only David
Zebedee, who sent a messenger to direct him to where
his brother had gone to hide in Jerusalem.
184:2.10
Peter's entire experience occurred in the courtyard
of the palace of Annas on Mount Olivet. He did not
follow Jesus to the palace of the high priest,
Caiaphas. That Peter was brought to the realization
that he had repeatedly denied his Master by the
crowing of a cock indicates that this all occurred
outside of Jerusalem since it was against the law to
keep poultry within the city proper.
184:2.11
Until the crowing of the cock brought Peter to his
better senses, he had only thought, as he walked up
and down the porch to keep warm, how cleverly he had
eluded the accusations of the servants, and how he
had frustrated their purpose to identify him with
Jesus. For the time being, he had only considered
that these servants had no moral or legal right thus
to question him, and he really congratulated himself
over the manner in which he thought he had avoided
being identified and possibly subjected to arrest
and imprisonment. Not until the cock crowed did it
occur to Peter that he had denied his Master. Not
until Jesus looked upon him, did he realize that he
had failed to live up to his privileges as an
ambassador of the kingdom.
184:2.12
Having taken the first step along the path of
compromise and least resistance, there was nothing
apparent to Peter but to go on with the course of
conduct decided upon. It requires a great and noble
character, having started out wrong, to turn about
and go right. All too often one's own mind tends to
justify continuance in the path of error when once
it is entered upon.
184:2.13
Peter never fully believed that he could be forgiven
until he met his Master after the resurrection and
saw that he was received just as before the
experiences of this tragic night of the denials.
3. BEFORE THE COURT OF SANHEDRISTS
184:3.1
It was about half past three o'clock this Friday
morning when the chief priest, Caiaphas, called the
Sanhedrist court of inquiry to order and asked that
Jesus be brought before them for his formal trial.
On three previous occasions the Sanhedrin, by a
large majority vote, had decreed the death of Jesus,
had decided that he was worthy of death on informal
charges of law-breaking, blasphemy, and flouting the
traditions of the fathers of Israel.
184:3.2
This was not a regularly called meeting of the
Sanhedrin and was not held in the usual place, the
chamber of hewn stone in the temple. This was a
special trial court of some thirty Sanhedrists and
was convened in the palace of the high priest. John
Zebedee was present with Jesus throughout this
so-called trial.
184:3.3
How these chief priests, scribes, Sadducees, and
some of the Pharisees flattered themselves that
Jesus, the disturber of their position and the
challenger of their authority, was now securely in
their hands! And they were resolved that he should
never live to escape their vengeful clutches.
184:3.4
Ordinarily, the Jews, when trying a man on a capital
charge, proceeded with great caution and provided
every safeguard of fairness in the selection of
witnesses and the entire conduct of the trial. But
on this occasion, Caiaphas was more of a prosecutor
than an unbiased judge.
184:3.5
Jesus appeared before this court clothed in his
usual garments and with his hands bound together
behind his back. The entire court was startled and
somewhat confused by his majestic appearance. Never
had they gazed upon such a prisoner nor witnessed
such composure in a man on trial for his life.
184:3.6
The Jewish law required that at least two witnesses
must agree upon any point before a charge could be
laid against the prisoner. Judas could not be used
as a witness against Jesus because the Jewish law
specifically forbade the testimony of a traitor.
More than a score of false witnesses were on hand to
testify against Jesus, but their testimony was so
contradictory and so evidently trumped up that the
Sanhedrists themselves were very much ashamed of the
performance. Jesus stood there, looking down
benignly upon these perjurers, and his very
countenance disconcerted the lying witnesses.
Throughout all this false testimony the Master never
said a word; he made no reply to their many false
accusations.
184:3.7
The first time any two of their witnesses approached
even the semblance of an agreement was when two men
testified that they had heard Jesus say in the
course of one of his temple discourses that he would
"destroy this temple made with hands and in three
days make another temple without hands." That was
not exactly what Jesus said, regardless of the fact
that he pointed to his own body when he made the
remark referred to.
184:3.8
Although the high priest shouted at Jesus, "Do you
not answer any of these charges?" Jesus opened not
his mouth. He stood there in silence while all of
these false witnesses gave their testimony. Hatred,
fanaticism, and unscrupulous exaggeration so
characterized the words of these perjurers that
their testimony fell in its own entanglements. The
very best refutation of their false accusations was
the Master's calm and majestic silence.
184:3.9
Shortly after the beginning of the testimony of the
false witnesses, Annas arrived and took his seat
beside Caiaphas. Annas now arose and argued that
this threat of Jesus to destroy the temple was
sufficient to warrant three charges against him:
1. That he was a dangerous traducer of the people.
That he taught them impossible things and otherwise
deceived them.
2. That he was a fanatical revolutionist in that he
advocated laying violent hands on the sacred temple,
else how could he destroy it?
3. That he taught magic inasmuch as he promised to
build a new temple, and that without hands.
184:3.10
Already had the full Sanhedrin agreed that Jesus was
guilty of death-deserving transgressions of the
Jewish laws, but they were now more concerned with
developing charges regarding his conduct and
teachings which would justify Pilate in pronouncing
the death sentence upon their prisoner. They knew
that they must secure the consent of the Roman
governor before Jesus could legally be put to death.
And Annas was minded to proceed along the line of
making it appear that Jesus was a dangerous teacher
to be abroad among the people.
184:3.11
But Caiaphas could not longer endure the sight of
the Master standing there in perfect composure and
unbroken silence. He thought he knew at least one
way in which the prisoner might be induced to speak.
Accordingly, he rushed over to the side of Jesus
and, shaking his accusing finger in the Master's
face, said: "I adjure you, in the name of the living
God, that you tell us whether you are the Deliverer,
the Son of God." Jesus answered Caiaphas: "I am.
Soon I go to the Father, and presently shall the Son
of Man be clothed with power and once more reign
over the hosts of heaven."
184:3.12
When the high priest heard Jesus utter these words,
he was exceedingly angry, and rending his outer
garments, he exclaimed: "What further need have we
of witnesses? Behold, now have you all heard this
man's blasphemy. What do you now think should be
done with this law-breaker and blasphemer?" And they
all answered in unison, "He is worthy of death; let
him be crucified."
184:3.13
Jesus manifested no interest in any question asked
him when before Annas or the Sanhedrists except the
one question relative to his bestowal mission. When
asked if he were the Son of God, he instantly and
unequivocally answered in the affirmative.
184:3.14
Annas desired that the trial proceed further, and
that charges of a definite nature regarding Jesus'
relation to the Roman law and Roman institutions be
formulated for subsequent presentation to Pilate.
The councilors were anxious to carry these matters
to a speedy termination, not only because it was the
preparation day for the Passover and no secular work
should be done after noon, but also because they
feared Pilate might any time return to the Roman
capital of Judea, Caesarea, since he was in
Jerusalem only for the Passover celebration.
184:3.15
But Annas did not succeed in keeping control of the
court. After Jesus had so unexpectedly answered
Caiaphas, the high priest stepped forward and smote
him in the face with his hand. Annas was truly
shocked as the other members of the court, in
passing out of the room, spit in Jesus' face, and
many of them mockingly slapped him with the palms of
their hands. And thus in disorder and with such
unheard-of confusion this first session of the
Sanhedrist trial of Jesus ended at half past four
o'clock.
184:3.16
Thirty prejudiced and tradition-blinded false
judges, with their false witnesses, are presuming to
sit in judgment on the righteous Creator of a
universe. And these impassioned accusers are
exasperated by the majestic silence and superb
bearing of this God-man. His silence is terrible to
endure; his speech is fearlessly defiant. He is
unmoved by their threats and undaunted by their
assaults. Man sits in judgment on God, but even then
he loves them and would save them if he could.
4. THE HOUR OF HUMILIATION
184:4.1
The Jewish law required that, in the matter of
passing the death sentence, there should be two
sessions of the court. This second session was to be
held on the day following the first, and the
intervening time was to be spent in fasting and
mourning by the members of the court. But these men
could not await the next day for the confirmation of
their decision that Jesus must die. They waited only
one hour. In the meantime Jesus was left in the
audience chamber in the custody of the temple
guards, who, with the servants of the high priest,
amused themselves by heaping every sort of indignity
upon the Son of Man. They mocked him, spit upon him,
and cruelly buffeted him. They would strike him in
the face with a rod and then say, "Prophesy to us,
you the Deliverer, who it was that struck you." And
thus they went on for one full hour, reviling and
mistreating this unresisting man of Galilee.
184:4.2
During this tragic hour of suffering and mock trials
before the ignorant and unfeeling guards and
servants, John Zebedee waited in lonely terror in an
adjoining room. When these abuses first started,
Jesus indicated to John, by a nod of his head, that
he should retire. The Master well knew that, if he
permitted his apostle to remain in the room to
witness these indignities, John's resentment would
be so aroused as to produce such an outbreak of
protesting indignation as would probably result in
his death.
184:4.3
Throughout this awful hour Jesus uttered no word. To
this gentle and sensitive soul of humankind, joined
in personality relationship with the God of all this
universe, there was no more bitter portion of his
cup of humiliation than this terrible hour at the
mercy of these ignorant and cruel guards and
servants, who had been stimulated to abuse him by
the example of the members of this so-called
Sanhedrist court.
184:4.4
The human heart cannot possibly conceive of the
shudder of indignation that swept out over a vast
universe as the celestial intelligences witnessed
this sight of their beloved Sovereign submitting
himself to the will of his ignorant and misguided
creatures on the sin-darkened sphere of unfortunate
Urantia.
184:4.5
What is this trait of the animal in man which leads
him to want to insult and physically assault that
which he cannot spiritually attain or intellectually
achieve? In the half-civilized man there still lurks
an evil brutality which seeks to vent itself upon
those who are superior in wisdom and spiritual
attainment. Witness the evil coarseness and the
brutal ferocity of these supposedly civilized men as
they derived a certain form of animal pleasure from
this physical attack upon the unresisting Son of
Man. As these insults, taunts, and blows fell upon
Jesus, he was undefending but not defenseless. Jesus
was not vanquished, merely uncontending in the
material sense.
184:4.6
These are the moments of the Master's greatest
victories in all his long and eventful career as
maker, upholder, and savior of a vast and far-flung
universe. Having lived to the full a life of
revealing God to man, Jesus is now engaged in making
a new and unprecedented revelation of man to God.
Jesus is now revealing to the worlds the final
triumph over all fears of creature personality
isolation. The Son of Man has finally achieved the
realization of identity as the Son of God. Jesus
does not hesitate to assert that he and the Father
are one; and on the basis of the fact and truth of
that supreme and supernal experience, he admonishes
every kingdom believer to become one with him even
as he and his Father are one. The living experience
in the religion of Jesus thus becomes the sure and
certain technique whereby the spiritually isolated
and cosmically lonely mortals of earth are enabled
to escape personality isolation, with all its
consequences of fear and associated feelings of
helplessness. In the fraternal realities of the
kingdom of heaven the faith sons of God find final
deliverance from the isolation of the self, both
personal and planetary. The God-knowing believer
increasingly experiences the ecstasy and grandeur of
spiritual socialization on a universe scale --
citizenship on high in association with the eternal
realization of the divine destiny of perfection
attainment.
5. THE SECOND MEETING OF THE COURT
184:5.1
At five-thirty o'clock the court reassembled, and
Jesus was led into the adjoining room, where John
was waiting. Here the Roman soldier and the temple
guards watched over Jesus while the court began the
formulation of the charges which were to be
presented to Pilate. Annas made it clear to his
associates that the charge of blasphemy would carry
no weight with Pilate. Judas was present during this
second meeting of the court, but he gave no
testimony.
184:5.2
This session of the court lasted only a half hour,
and when they adjourned to go before Pilate, they
had drawn up the indictment of Jesus, as being
worthy of death, under three heads:
1. That he was a perverter of the Jewish nation; he
deceived the people and incited them to rebellion.
2. That he taught the people to refuse to pay
tribute to Caesar.
3. That, by claiming to be a king and the founder of
a new sort of kingdom, he incited treason against
the emperor.
184:5.3
This entire procedure was irregular and wholly
contrary to the Jewish laws. No two witnesses had
agreed on any matter except those who testified
regarding Jesus' statement about destroying the
temple and raising it again in three days. And even
concerning that point, no witnesses spoke for the
defense, and neither was Jesus asked to explain his
intended meaning.
184:5.4
The only point the court could have consistently
judged him on was that of blasphemy, and that would
have rested entirely on his own testimony. Even
concerning blasphemy, they failed to cast a formal
ballot for the death sentence.
184:5.5
And now they presumed to formulate three charges,
with which to go before Pilate, on which no
witnesses had been heard, and which were agreed upon
while the accused prisoner was absent. When this was
done, three of the Pharisees took their leave; they
wanted to see Jesus destroyed, but they would not
formulate charges against him without witnesses and
in his absence.
184:5.6
Jesus did not again appear before the Sanhedrist
court. They did not want again to look upon his face
as they sat in judgment upon his innocent life.
Jesus did not know (as a man) of their formal
charges until he heard them recited by Pilate.
184:5.7
While Jesus was in the room with John and the
guards, and while the court was in its second
session, some of the women about the high priest's
palace, together with their friends, came to look
upon the strange prisoner, and one of them asked
him, "Are you the Messiah, the Son of God?" And
Jesus answered: "If I tell you, you will not believe
me; and if I ask you, you will not answer."
184:5.8
At six o'clock that morning Jesus was led forth from
the home of Caiaphas to appear before Pilate for
confirmation of the sentence of death which this
Sanhedrist court had so unjustly and irregularly
decreed.
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