This Material Has Not Been Edited For s6

THIS MATERIAL HAS NOT BEEN EDITED FOR

SCRIPTURAL ACCURACY, SPELLING, OR GRAMMAR

LUKE

CHAPTER 23

Lk 23:1-6

23:1 And the whole multitude of them arose, and led him unto Pilate. 2 And they began to accuse him, saying, we found this fellow perverting the nation, and forbidding giving tribute to Caesar, saying that he himself is Christ a King. 3 And Pilate asked him, saying, Art thou the King of the Jews? And he answered him and said, Thou say it. 4 Then said Pilate to the chief priests and to the people, I find no fault in this man. 5 And they were the fiercer, saying; He stirred up the people, teaching throughout all Jewry, beginning from Galilee to this place. 6 When Pilate heard of Galilee, he asked whether the man were a Galilaean. KJV

Review:

Each of the three trials might, from a different point of view, have been regarded as the most fatal and important of the three:

1. That of Annas was the authoritative [prejudicium], this trial was as mere conspiracy;

2. That of Caiaphas was the real determination, this trial as a sort of preliminary questioning;

3. That of the entire Sanhedrin at daybreak was the final ratification. This trial is the real and legal trial.

Midnight was now already passed as this band hurried Jesus, from the moonlit shadows of green Gethsemane, through hushed streets of the sleeping city, to the palace of the High Priest. The prime movers, Annas and his son-in-law, Joseph Caiaphas. They led Jesus first to Annas. It is true that this Hanan, son of Seth, the Ananus of Josephus the Historian, and the Annas of the Gospels, had only been the actual High Priest for seven years (A.D. 7-14), and that, more than twenty years before this period here, he had been deposed by the Roman Procurator Valerius Gratus. So Annas had been succeeded first by Ismael Ben Phabi [remember the word Ben means son of], then by his son Eleazar, then by his son-in-law, Joseph Caiaphas. So Annas was regarded as Sagan haccohanim, “deputy” or “chief” of the priests, so as the President of the Sanhedrin he would be the proper person to conduct the preliminary investigation.

And there was a good reason why John should have preserved for us this phase of the trial, and preserved it apparently for the express reason that it had been omitted by the other Gospel writers. If there was one man who was guiltier than any other of the death of Yeshua [Jesus], that man was Hanan [Annas]. His advanced age, his preponderant dignity, his worldly position and influence, as one who stood on the best terms with the Herods and the Procurators, gave an exceptional weight to his prerogative decision. [They were remarkable for boldness and cunning (Josephus Antt. 20.9 &1), and also for lover of money and meanness (Talmud Sifr Deuteron 105). Paul the Learner

23:1 The whole Sanhedrin, literally, “the multitude of them.” The context (22:66-71) shows that it is the Sanhedrin.

Pilate. See Mt 27:2 Notes

23:3 King of the Jews. Or: “king of the Judeans.” In favor of the latter is the fact that Pilate was governor of Judea only, so that for him “our nation” could very well have meant only “the Judeans.” This could explain why in v. 5 the elders tailor their accusation to his frame of reference: “He started in the Galilee,” which you, Pilate, do not rule, and which, for you, is not relevant, “and now he's here,” that is, “throughout all Judea,” which makes him very relevant indeed.

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

Verses 6-7 then support “king of the Judeans,” inasmuch as there Pilate, on learning that Yeshua Jesus is from the Galilee, sends him to Herod in the hope that Herod can find some reason for dealing with him. But Herod finds no cause of action, since Yeshua is accused of being king not of the Galileans but of the Judeans, so he is sent back to Pilate.

On the other hand, and to my mind the more weighty argument, is the context, which favors “king of the Jews.” The mention of “our nation” in v. 2 and of the Galilee in v. 5 suggests a broader geographical reference than Judea—along with the points made in Mt 2:2 N. The words are yours. The Greek is the same as five verses above (see 22:70&N). Here Yeshua means that Pilate has hit upon the truth.

Jesus and Pilate (Luke 23:1-25)

Pontius Pilate served as governor of Judea from A.D. 26 to A.D. 36, at which time he was recalled to Rome and then passed out of official Roman history. He was hated by the orthodox Jews and never really understood them. Once he aroused their fury by putting up pagan Roman banners in the Jewish temple, and he was not beneath sending armed spies into the temple to silence Jewish protesters (Lk 13:1-3).

In his handling of the trial of Jesus, the governor proved to be indecisive. The Gospel of John records seven different moves that Pilate made as he went out to meet the people and then went in to question Jesus (Jn 18:29,33,38; 19:1,4,9,13). He kept looking for a loophole, but he found none. Pilate has gone down in history as the man who tried Jesus Christ, three times declared Him not guilty, and yet crucified Him just the same.

Pilate affirming (vv. 1-5). Roman officials were usually up early and at their duties, but Pilate was probably surprised that morning to learn that he had a capital case on his hands, and on Passover at that. The Jewish leaders knew that their religious laws meant nothing to a Roman official, so they emphasized the political aspects of their indictment against Jesus. There were three charges:

1. He perverted the nation,

2. Opposed paying the poll tax to Caesar,

3. And claimed to be a king.

Pilate privately interrogated Jesus about His kingship because that was the crucial issue, and he concluded that He was guilty of no crime. Three times during the trial, Pilate clearly affirmed the innocence of Jesus (Lk 23:4, 14, 22). Dr. Luke reported three other witnesses besides Pilate who also said, "Not guilty!"

1. King Herod (Lk 23:15),

2. One of the malefactors (Lk 23:40-43),

3. And a Roman centurion (Lk 23:47).

22:66-23:23 LED AWAY TO TRIALS.

G-1 22:66 Led before the Sanhedrin.

H-1 22:67-71 Examination.

G-2 23:1 Led before Pilate.

H-2 23:2-6 Examination.

G-3 23:7 Sent to Herod.

H-3 23:8-11- Examination.

G-4 23:-11, 12 Sent back to Pilate.

H-4 23:13-23 Compromise proposed.

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

The Talmud seems to insinuate that the custom, which these Jews pretended was the general one, had been followed in the case of Jesus, and that two witnesses had been placed in concealment while a treacherous disciple – ostensibly Judas Iscariot – had obtained from his own lips an avowal of His claims. This statement, is no less a false one as the utterly absurd and un-chronological assertion by Joshua Ben Perachiah, and that though for forty days a herald had proclaimed that Jesus had brought magic from Egypt and that He seduced the people, no single witness ever came forward in the favor of Jesus. [Reference Sanhedr. 43a. (Gratz. Gesch. Jud. 3. page 242). – See Excursus 2. “Allusions to Christ and Christians in the Talmud.”].

Setting aside these absurd inventions, we learn from the Gospels that though the agents of these priests were eager to lie about Jesus, yet their testimony was so false, so shadowy, so self-contradictory, that it all melted to nothing, and even those unjust and bitter judges could not with any decency accept it. But at last two came forward, whose false witness looked even more promising. [From the brevity of the Gospels prevents us from knowing whether the ordinary Jewish rules of evidence were even observed.]. These witnesses had heard from His own mouth say something about destroying the Temple, and rebuilding it in only three days. According to one version His expression had been, “I can destroy this Temple;” and according to the other witness, Jesus had said neither, but “Destroy this Temple;” speaking of His body, not the building, destroyed in 70 A.D.

The disunited enemies of Yeshua canceled out each other’s testimony because guilt often breaks into excuses where perfect innocence is dumb. Jesus simply suffered His false accusers and their false listeners to entangle themselves in this hideous coil of their own malignant lies, and the silence of the innocent second Adam, Jesus atoned for the excuses of the guilty first Adam. They felt, before that silence of Jesus, as if they were the culprits, and He was the judge. And so every poisoned arrow of their carefully-provided perjuries fell harmless at the feet of Jesus of Nazareth. Then Caiaphas was overcome with fear and anger. Arising from his set of judgment, and striding into the very middle of them. [The Sanhedrin sat on opposite divans of a circular hall; the Nasi (President), who was usually the High Priest, sat in the middle at the farther end, with the Ab Beth Din, (Father of the House of Judgment), on his right, and the Chakam (Wise Man), on his left. The accused was then placed opposite to him. (Reference Josephus Bell. Jud. 4.5 & 4; Keim 3.2 page 328).

Caiaphas with a voice that has an attitude of ‘we may well imagine! – “Answer you nothing?” He said. “What is it that these witnesses have said against you?” Had Yeshua of Nazareth been aware that these His judges were willfully feeding on ashes and seeking lies, He might have answered them; but now His awful silence remained unbroken. Now Caiaphas in a threatening attitude over his prisoner, exclaimed, “I adjure you by the living God to tell us” – what?

1. Whether You are a malefactor?

2. Whether You have secretly taught sedition?

3. Whether You have openly uttered blasphemy?

4. Whether You are the Messiah, the Son of God?

On such a question, Jesus could not remain silent; on such a point He could not leave Himself open to any misinterpretation. In the days of His happier ministry, when they would have taken Him by force to make Him a King – in the days when to claim the Messiah ship in their sense would have been to meet all their passionate prejudices half way, and to have placed Himself upon the topmost pinnacle of their adoring homage – in those days He had kept His title of Messiah utterly in the background: but now, at this awful decisive moment, when death was near – when, humanly speaking, nothing could be gained, everything must be lost – Jesus gives the answer to the last question given, “I AM;” (Matthew 26:64); and you shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.”

‘I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought him near before him.” Daniel 7:13 Hence the hybrid term, “Son of a cloud,” applied to the Messiah in (Talmud Sanhedr. 96, 6). Farrar’s Life of Christ –Paul the Learner

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

What is your decision? The cry goes out He is ish maveth “A man of death,” “Guilty of death, the dark conclave was now broken up, and the second stage of the trial of Yeshua of Nazareth was to begin. ‘I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair; I had not my face from shame and spitting.” Isaiah 1:6 And this was how the Jews at lat received their promised Messiah – which was longed for with passionate hopes during two thousand years; since then regretted in bitter agony for well-nigh two thousand more years! So Jesus was legally condemned. He was haled through the court-yard to the guard-room with blows and curses, in which it may be that not only the attendant soldiers, but even the cold but now infuriated Sadducees [the priests and elders], took their share of anger out on Jesus.

On the way, Jesus heard His boldest Apostle denying Him with oaths. For during these two sad hours of His commencing tragedy, as He stood in the Halls of Annas and of Caiaphas, another tragedy was taking place, one which He had prophesied about in the outer court. As Jesus was led past the group at the fireside through the open court, with rude pushing and jeers, and even blows and spitting – the Lord – the Lord in the agony of His humiliation, in the majesty of His silence – “the Lord turned and looked upon Peter” it was enough. Like an arrow through his inmost soul, shot the mute eloquent anguish of that reproachful glance of Jesus. The soldiers spat in His face; they struck Him with their rods and even with their closed fists and open palms. (Matthew 26:67).

In the fertility of their furious and hateful insolence, they even invented against Jesus a sort of game. Blindfolding His eyes, they hit Him again and again, with the repeated question, “Prophesy to us, O Messiah, who it is that struck you.” All of this took place before the formal and legal trial took place (see above). Because they had not the power of inflicting death (John 18:31) they had to go to the Roman leader. So now we go to our next subject Jesus before Pilate. But before I proceed to our subject, let me bring in some material from the letters written by Pilate to Caesar Augustus of Rome about Jesus of Nazareth.