The chief priests, and all the Sanhedrin, looked for evidence for a capital charge against Jesus, but they didn’t find any. Several people invented fictitious charges against him, but their evidence didn’t agree. Then some stood up with this fabricated charge: “We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this Temple, which human hands have made, and in three days I’ll build another, made without human hands.’” But even so their evidence didn’t agree. [Mark 14:55-59 (NTE)]
The Great Sanhedrin was the Supreme council (high court) of the Jews. Formed around 200 BC and modeled after the 70 elders who helped Moses in governing the Israelites, its 71 members consisted of scribes, priests, and elders with the high priest acting as its presiding officer. Along with religious and ritualistic Temple matters, the Sanhedrin addressed secular criminal matters, proceedings in connection with the discovery of a corpse, trials of adulterous wives, tithes, the preparation of Torah Scrolls, and drew up the calendar. As long as the Sanhedrin maintained public order and the Jews kept paying their taxes to Rome, the Romans were content to leave most of the nation’s judicial matters to them. While the Sanhedrin were supposed to administer justice, in the case of Jesus, they were anything but just; in fact, they sought perjured testimony.
The Sanhedrin’s members had to be of pure Israelite descent. The leading Jews of Jerusalem, they probably were appointed to the position. In the New Testament, the Sanhedrin is also referred to as the “council,” the “chief priests and elders,” the “chief priests, elders, and scribes,” or simply as the “chief priests.” When Judas went to the “chief priests” and offered to betray Jesus, he went to the Sanhedrin. During Jesus’ first trial, the Sanhedrin charged Him with blasphemy but changed the charge to treason when they brought Him to Pilate. It was the Sanhedrin who encouraged the crowd to call for Barabbas to be freed rather than Jesus and they were the ones who bribed the soldiers to say that the body of Jesus had been stolen from the tomb.
While the majority of the Sanhedrin were Sadducees, its scribes were Pharisees and usually the most educated men in the community. Scribes wrote up legal documents, recorded deeds, acted as ancient notary publics and court recorders, and carefully made copies of the Torah. Men of influence, they were well respected and, as professional scholars, were expert teachers and interpreters of Mosaic law.
“Elders” was a general term describing the older leaders of the community. Aristocrats with Sadducee learnings, they probably were priests or lay readers. The priests of the Sanhedrin were high-ranking, wealthy, influential Sadducees. Descending from the tribe of Levi, they served in the Temple and ensured that Temple service was carried out correctly. Originally, the Sanhedrin had the right to appoint or confirm the high priest (who was supposed to be a descendant of Aaron) and the office was a life-long position. By the time of the Herods, however, civil authorities appointed the high priests based on their political and religious sentiments and the position was not permanent. Herod the Great, for example appointed six different high priests during his reign. Because this position should have been life-long, even though Annas was ousted by the Romans in 15 AD, many Jews still considered him the high priest, which is why Jesus was first taken to Annas following His arrest. After this pre-trial hearing, Jesus was then taken to Caiaphas (Annas’ son-in-law), a Sadducee who was the high priest.
For the Sanhedrin, Lazarus’ resurrection was the last straw—a miracle that could not be denied. Thinking that Jesus’ many miraculous deeds would cause everyone to believe He was the Messiah and lead to their wanting to make Him king, they were fearful that an insurrection would follow. They reasoned that, if Jesus were allowed to continue His preaching, the Romans would destroy the Temple, nation, and their secure positions and aristocratic lifestyle (which they eventually did in the Great Revolt of 66-70 AD). In spite of their religious differences, the members of the Sanhedrin agreed that Jesus had to be stopped.
It was the high priest Caiaphas who suggested that, by eliminating Jesus, they would save the nation from Rome’s reprisal. Little did the priest know that his words were prophetic and he was playing right into God’s hand. Yes, one man, Jesus, had to die for the people but he was mistaken in thinking Jesus had to die to save the Jews from the Romans. That one man, Jesus, had to die to save all mankind from sin and death.
Rather than a religious sect, the Herodians were a political group who favored Herodian rule over direct Roman rule. Unlike previous kings of Israel, the Herodian kings were appointed by the Roman emperors. It’s been said that “You can’t tell the players without a scorecard,” and it seems that way with the various Herods we meet in the New Testament. It was Herod the Great, ruler of Judea from 37 to 4 BC, who enlarged the Temple Mount and began rebuilding the second Temple around 20 BC. This Herod was the “king of the Jews” who questioned the Magi and sought to kill the Messiah by slaughtering boys under the age of two. [Jesus was born between 6 and 4 BC.] After Herod’s death, his kingdom was divided among his sons and Herod Antipas became tetrarch of Galilee and Perea. This is the Herod who ruled Galilee throughout Jesus’ ministry—the one who married the wife of his brother (Herod Philip II), beheaded John the Baptist, and sent Jesus back to Pilate.
Along with the Pharisees and Sadducees, the two other major sects or philosophies mentioned by the historian Flavius Josephus were the Zealots and Essenes. Religion and politics were one and the same in ancient Palestine and the Zealots movement originated with Judah/Judas of Galilee and Zadok the Pharisee. Their most basic belief was that any and all means were justified if it led to political and religious liberty for the Jews. When Judah was killed while leading a revolt around 6 AD, his followers fled to the desert and continued in guerilla warfare against the Romans.
If I mentioned the Rotary or Kiwanis clubs, used the acronyms AARP, NRA, or PETA, or referred to the #MeToo or BLM movements, today’s readers would understand my references but they’d be unfamiliar to a reader 2,000 years from now. That’s the difficulty we sometimes encounter when reading the New Testament. While the authors knew who they were talking about, the 21st century American often doesn’t.
Just north of us are the winter estates of Henry Ford and Thomas Edison. Along with their homes, gardens, and laboratory, is a museum. It was there that I first learned of the unlikely friendship between automobile pioneer Henry Ford and naturalist and essayist, John Burroughs. After Ford introduced his Model-T car in 1908, Burroughs, who was concerned about its effects on nature, called it a “demon on wheels” that would “seek out even the most secluded nook or corner of the forest and befoul it with noise and smoke.” Upset by the naturalist’s censure, Ford sent Burroughs a letter explaining his view that the automobile would connect people to the land and allow them to explore it rather than destroy and pollute it. Accompanying that letter was a new Model-T! “Out of that automobile grew a friendship,” Ford wrote in his memoirs.
Devotions of the Heart 