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.

But despite the uncertainty of the evidence, the suspicion that Jesus might have spoken out against the temple was troubling among the Sadducean temple aristocracy. After all, they remembered Jesus' statements not against the temple as such, but against the existing cult practice in the temple. Let us recall how "Jesus, having entered the temple, began to cast out those who sold and bought in the temple; and he overturned the tables of the moneychangers and the benches of the pigeons sellers; and he did not allow anyone to carry any thing through the temple. And he taught them, saying, Is it not written, My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations? but you have made it a den of thieves" (Mark 11:15-17). For the Sadducees, from the 2nd century BC onwards, were constantly confronted with the opinion that the temple in Jerusalem had been so desecrated by the actions of an unworthy priesthood that its consecration could only take place by replacing it with a new temple from heaven. We read about this popular belief in the Qumran manuscripts and other Jewish writings (1 Enoch 90:28-29; Jubilees 1:27).

Jesus expressed no desire to answer the accusation made against Him. "He was silent and did not answer anything." This silence seems to reflect what is said in Psalm 37:

"But those who seek my soul set snares;

and those who wish me evil speak of my destruction

and they plot every day.

And I, like a deaf man, do not hear,

and like a dumb man who does not open his mouth;