Jesus taken before Annas (Notes)

Saint John - Chapter 18

And they led him away to Annas. J-J Tissot

[13] Et adduxerunt eum ad Annam primum : erat enim socer Caiphae, qui erat pontifex anni illius.
And they led him away to Annas first, for he was father in law to Caiphas, who was the high priest of that year.

From The Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ, by J-J Tissot (1897)

The first halt made by the captors of Jesus was at the house of Annas, father-in-law of Caiaphas, whose Tribunal was situated in the part of the city overlooking the so called Millo, which they reached soon after passing through the gate.  The crowd had now increased, and the populace, bribed perhaps to some extent at least by the enemies of Jesus, are already beginning to get up a tumult.  All the judges had been summoned to attend and most of them are assembled in the house of Annas, a man of more importance than Caiaphas, but the law required that the case should be heard by the High-Priest of the year, and it was now decided to take Jesus to him.  The procession, therefore, resumed its march and, going through an ancient gate-way in the outer walls of the city, entered a network of narrow streets, where groups of hostile or merely curious spectators had already gathered.  John is the only one of the Evangelists who mentions the incident of the halt at the hands of Annas; the others only speak of the prisoner having been brought before Caiaphas, where the actual judgment was pronounced; they evidently considered the first pause on the road as an episode of no consequence, not worth introducing into the narrative.

Notes

[13] Et adduxerunt eum ad Annam primum : erat enim socer Caiphae, qui erat pontifex anni illius.
And they led him away to Annas first, for he was father in law to Caiphas, who was the high priest of that year.

And they led Him away to Annas first, for he was father-in-law to Caiaphas, which was the High Priest that same year. But why did Judas and the Jews lead Him first to Annas, and not to Caiaphas, when He had to be judged by Caiaphas (as High Priest), and not by Annas?

I answer 
(1.) To pay honour to Annas, as being the elder, and father-in-law to Caiaphas, whom “Caiaphas honoured as father,” says Euthymius, and by whose counsel he governed the people. 
(2.) The house of Annas was on the way to that of Caiaphas. 
(3.) Because Annas especially wished and arranged for the seizure of Christ. And hence the soldiers lead Him as it were in triumph, in order to delight him, and that they, in return, themselves might obtain some reward for so doing. 
(4.) To summon Annas (who on the previous evening had gone to his own house, on account of the cold) to attend the council which was about to be held the next morning at the house of Caiaphas to try Jesus. 
(5.) And specially, because Annas had promised Judas the reward of his betrayal, Judas therefore takes Jesus to his house, to obtain from him the thirty pieces he had promised, and, as S. Cyril thinks, he then actually received. And this is inferred from the fact that in the first agreement with the Rulers, the money was only promised, not paid (see Matt. 26:15). Judas therefore received them this very night at the house of Annas, and shortly afterwards, in sorrow at what he had done, threw them down in the temple (Matt. 27:3). For he could not receive them at the house of Caiaphas, who was so engaged in finding false witnesses, in examining Christ, in summoning the Council, &c., that he had no time to treat with Judas. And Judas does not appear to have gone with the soldiers further than to the house of Annas, or to have entered the house of Caiaphas. For if Judas had been there, Peter would not have gone in, for fear of Judas betraying him. For if Judas had been present in the house of Caiaphas when Peter thrice denied Christ, he would certainly have either publicly convicted him of falsehood, or have secretly informed the servants that Peter was a fellow-disciple of Christ, in order that they might apprehend him.

The High Priest that same year. Because the Roman Governors often changed the High Priests every year, and created new ones; though it was peculiar to Pilate that he did not remove Caiaphas whom he found High Priest: who accordingly held the High Priesthood for the whole three years of Christ’s ministry.

Totus tuus ego sum 

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam