14.53-64 — "And they brought Jesus to the high priest; And all the chief priests, and the elders, and the scribes gathered together to him. Peter followed Him from afar, even inside the court of the high priest; and sat with the attendants, and warmed himself by the fire. The chief priests and the entire Sanhedrin sought testimony against Jesus, in order to put Him to death; And they did not find it. For many have borne false witness against Him, but these testimonies have not been sufficient. And some stood up, bearing false witness against him, and said, We have heard him say, I will destroy this temple made with hands, and in three days I will raise up another one not made with hands. But even such a testimony was not enough. Then the high priest stood in the midst and asked Jesus, "Why do you not answer?" why do they bear witness against Thee? But He was silent and did not answer anything. Again the high priest asked Him and said to Him, "Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed? Jesus said, "I; and you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power, coming on the clouds of heaven. Then the high priest tore his garments, and said, "What more witnesses have we to do? You have heard blasphemy; What do you think? And they all found Him guilty of death."

After Jesus' arrest, he was brought before the high priest, to whom "all the chief priests, and the elders, and the scribes were gathered together unto him." They formed the Sanhedrin, the Supreme Council, the political representation of the Jewish people. The Sanhedrin consisted of 70 members and a chairman, who was the high priest. Its composition depended on the political situation. The Sanhedrin consisted of priests, mostly Sadducees, scribes, mostly Pharisees, and elders as respected members of the Jewish nobility. At that time, the power of the Sanhedrin was limited because the real rulers were the Romans. But in religious matters he had full power. He was responsible for caring for the temple and resolving issues of religious practice. In part, he even had some police and judicial power. As the Supreme Court, the Sanhedrin was responsible for trials of national importance. However, he was not competent to pronounce a death sentence. His function was not to convict the accused, but to prepare the accusation, on the basis of which the accused would be tried in a Roman court. The ideal procedural rules of the Sanhedrin are set forth in the Talmud. Of course, everyday practice was far from these ideal norms. In any case, the trial of Jesus, as it is presented very briefly in the Gospels, was accompanied by a number of violations of the law.

Thus, for example, the Court could not sit at night, as well as on the day of the great feast. Witness testimony was given on an individual basis, and only those testimonies that coincided in the smallest details were recognized as true. Each member of the Sanhedrin had to express his decision individually, from the youngest to the senior. And so on. We see that in their desire to remove Jesus, the Jewish authorities did not hesitate to violate their own laws.

But we will talk about the most important points of the process in the next conversation.

Discourse 40.

4. Trial and sentence.

Jesus before Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin. Continuation.

14.53-64 — "And they brought Jesus to the high priest; And all the chief priests, and the elders, and the scribes gathered together to him. Peter followed Him from afar, even inside the court of the high priest; and sat with the attendants, and warmed himself by the fire. The chief priests and the entire Sanhedrin sought testimony against Jesus, in order to put Him to death; And they did not find it. For many have borne false witness against Him, but these testimonies have not been sufficient. And some stood up, bearing false witness against him, and said, We have heard him say, I will destroy this temple made with hands, and in three days I will raise up another one not made with hands. But even such a testimony was not enough. Then the high priest stood in the midst and asked Jesus, "Why do you not answer?" why do they bear witness against Thee? But He was silent and did not answer anything. Again the high priest asked Him and said to Him, "Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed? Jesus said, "I; and you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power, coming on the clouds of heaven. Then the high priest tore his garments, and said, "What more witnesses have we to do? You have heard blasphemy; What do you think? And they all found Him guilty of death."

And so, after Jesus' arrest, he was brought before the high priest, to whom "all the chief priests, and elders, and scribes were assembled," forming the Sanhedrin, or High Council of the Jewish people. Jesus Christ was interrogated. In the depiction of the Evangelist Mark, two questions were at the center of the investigation.

1. Jesus' speech against the temple: "We heard him say, 'I will destroy this temple made with hands, and in three days I will raise up another temple not made with hands,'" was the accusation. We learn nothing about the circumstances in which Jesus could have made this statement about the fate of the temple. Obviously, even the witnesses themselves could not accurately reproduce such statements of Christ. The text tells us that "such a testimony was not enough." Here are other Gospel legends on the same topic: "Those who passed by cursed Him, nodding their heads and saying, Eh! Who destroys the temple, and builds in three days!" (Mk_15.29); "Two false witnesses came, and said, He said, I can destroy the temple of God, and build it in three days" (Matthew 26:60-61); "Jesus answered and said to them, 'Destroy this temple, and I will raise it up in three days'" (John 2:19).

We have already discussed Jesus' words in response to His disciple's exclamation of admiration: "Master! Look at the stones and the buildings! Jesus answered and said to him, "Do you see these great buildings? all these things will be destroyed, so that not one stone will be left upon another" (Mark 13:1-2). As we know, this is what happened. But it did not occur to Jesus to say that He would be the destroyer of the temple.

So, "many" fake witnesses seem to have given different testimonies, accusing Jesus of allegedly saying that He would destroy the temple. It is possible that someone overheard, or overheard, Jesus answer His disciple about the magnificent stones and buildings. He heard, understood nothing, and distorted it, turning what he said into a threat to destroy the temple.