The Urantia Book
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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