Chapter II: The Trial of Jesus
I: Jesus before Annas
John xviii. 13, 14, 19-24; Luke xxii. 54; Mark xiv. 53.
From Gethsemane, the road leading Sionwards crosses the Brook, then, winding its way among the Tombs at the base of Mount Moriah, finally scales the steep ascent of Ophel the city by one of its southern gates. The soldiers followed this route in order to bring Jesus to the palace where dwelt the two Highly-Priests, Caïphas and Annas.
We have explained elsewhere the part played by the latter personage at this period; how, when deposed by Valerius Gratus, he nevertheless managed to preserve an actual pre-eminence in public affairs, succeeded in keeping the sovereign priesthood in his family, and in the eyes of his countrymen always remained the only legitimate Pontiff. In fact the Gospel shows him received with every honour by the Sanhedrin, the first to be made cognizant of the accusation and arrest of Jesus, in contravention of the rights of Caïphas, his son-in-law and the High-Priest put over them by Rome. As, in all probability, the two Pontiffs occupied separate wings of the same palace, there was nothing to betray this sharp double-play on the part of the Jews, and indeed it only would have been necessary, in order to conduct Jesus from Annas to Caïphas, that they should lead Him across the court which lay between their respective residences.
Thus, then, the Saviour was brought, in the first place, into the presence of Annas; and he, in order to give the Council time to assemble, questioned Him at some length "as to His disciples and concerning His doctrine." It is easy to see that, in the eyes of the High-Priest, the main object in view was not so much to give judgment touching a system of teaching, as it was to discover and frustrate the plot. He treated the much-talked-of "Kingdom" of Jesus as one of those visionary movements which were forever agitating the East at this period, especially Judaea,— and thus, by linking the adventurers participating in it under the bonds of secretly cherished hopes, had kept the country continually involved in the dangers of a new uprising against Rome. And it was for this reason they desired to find some of His accomplices, that they might extort from their confessions a condemnation of the Nazarene, and so overwhelm Him with one well-aimed blow.
It was not meet that the Christ should assume this character of a conspirator before the world. Without making any answer as to His disciples, He rose straightway to a plane of thought of which Annas had little conception.
" I have spoken publicly," He said, "I have taught always in the synagogues and the Temple, whither the Jews resort; and I said nothing in private. Why question Me? Ask those who have heard Me as to what I have said to them. They know what I have taught them."
By its bold inversions, its repetition of words, the original text alone can portray the power of these few sentences; showing how Jesus withdrew the Pontiff's mind from every foreign object, to fasten it solely and singly upon His divine Person. "It is I, and I alone," He tells them, "Whom it behoves you to know. My doctrine is — Myself. And of Myself have I spoken to the world, freely, without any dissimulation. Myself,— this everywhere and at all times, in the synagogues, beneath the temple-porches, everywhere where Jews assemble, this has been My Teaching. Why speak of secrecy? I've never concealed anything I said. Why then do you question Me? Do not examine My disciples, but ask those who have heard Me. See, even in these men here," He added, pointing to those who surrounded Him,— "they know what I have said."
These last words of Jesus amounted to a refusal to justify Himself. This the bystanders comprehended, and one of the officers of Annas' suite, standing almost beside the Saviour, gave Him a blow, saying at the same time,—
"Is that the way you answer the High-Priest?"
"If I have spoken evil," Jesus was content to answer, "show what evil I have said; but if I have spoken well, why do you strike Me?"
Annas, unable to contend with this calm, broke off the examination at once and dispatched Jesus bound to Caïphas, thereby instructing him that he delivered Him over as a victim, not so much that He might be examined, but only in order to have Him condemned. A superfluous precaution indeed, for it was this very Caïphas, as Saint John reminds us, who had explained, but a few days earlier:—
"Is it not right that one man should die for the whole people."
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