Before the Sanhedrin Court

184:1.1An­nas, en­riched by the tem­ple rev­enues, his son-in-law the act­ing high priest, and with his re­la­tions to the Ro­man au­thor­i­ties, was in­deed the most pow­er­ful sin­gle in­di­vid­ual in all Jewry. He was a suave and politic plan­ner and plot­ter. He de­sired to di­rect the mat­ter of dis­pos­ing of Je­sus; he feared to trust such an im­por­tant un­der­tak­ing wholly to his brusque and ag­gres­sive son-in-law. An­nas wanted to make sure that the Mas­ter’s trial was kept in the hands of the Sad­ducees; he feared the pos­si­ble sym­pa­thy of some of the Phar­isees, see­ing that prac­ti­cally all of those mem­bers of the San­hedrin who had es­poused the cause of Je­sus were Phar­isees.

184:1.2An­nas had not seen Je­sus for sev­eral years, not since the time when the Mas­ter called at his house and im­me­di­ately left upon ob­serv­ing his cold­ness and re­serve in re­ceiv­ing him. An­nas had thought to pre­sume on this early ac­quain­tance and thereby at­tempt to per­suade Je­sus to aban­don his claims and leave Pales­tine. He was re­luc­tant to par­tic­i­pate in the mur­der of a good man and had rea­soned that Je­sus might choose to leave the coun­try rather than to suf­fer death. But when An­nas stood be­fore the stal­wart and de­ter­mined Galilean, he knew at once that it would be use­less to make such pro­pos­als. Je­sus was even more ma­jes­tic and well poised than An­nas re­mem­bered him.

184:1.3When Je­sus was young, An­nas had taken a great in­ter­est in him, but now his rev­enues were threat­ened by what Je­sus had so re­cently done in driv­ing the money-chang­ers and other com­mer­cial traders out of the tem­ple. This act had aroused the en­mity of the for­mer high priest far more than had Je­sus’ teach­ings.

184:1.4An­nas en­tered his spa­cious au­di­ence cham­ber, seated him­self in a large chair, and com­manded that Je­sus be brought be­fore him. Af­ter a few mo­ments spent in silently sur­vey­ing the Mas­ter, he said: “You re­al­ize that some­thing must be done about your teach­ing since you are dis­turb­ing the peace and or­der of our coun­try.” As An­nas looked in­quir­ingly at Je­sus, the Mas­ter looked full into his eyes but made no re­ply. Again An­nas spoke, “What are the names of your dis­ci­ples, be­sides Si­mon Ze­lo­tes, the ag­i­ta­tor?” Again Je­sus looked down upon him, but he did not an­swer.

184:1.5An­nas was con­sid­er­ably dis­turbed by Je­sus’ re­fusal to an­swer his ques­tions, so much so that he said to him: “Do you have no care as to whether I am friendly to you or not? Do you have no re­gard for the power I have in de­ter­min­ing the is­sues of your com­ing trial?” When Je­sus heard this, he said: “An­nas, you know that you could have no power over me un­less it were per­mit­ted by my Fa­ther. Some would de­stroy the Son of Man be­cause they are ig­no­rant; they know no bet­ter, but you, friend, know what you are do­ing. How can you, there­fore, re­ject the light of God?”

184:1.6The kindly man­ner in which Je­sus spoke to An­nas al­most be­wil­dered him. But he had al­ready de­ter­mined in his mind that Je­sus must ei­ther leave Pales­tine or die; so he sum­moned up his cour­age and asked: “Just what is it you are try­ing to teach the peo­ple? What do you claim to be?” Je­sus an­swered: “You know full well that I have spo­ken openly to the world. I have taught in the syn­a­gogues and many times in the tem­ple, where all the Jews and many of the gen­tiles have heard me. In se­cret I have spo­ken noth­ing; why, then, do you ask me about my teach­ing? Why do you not sum­mon those who have heard me and in­quire of them? Be­hold, all Je­ru­sa­lem has heard that which I have spo­ken even if you have not your­self heard these teach­ings.” But be­fore An­nas could make re­ply, the chief stew­ard of the palace, who was stand­ing near, struck Je­sus in the face with his hand, say­ing, “How dare you an­swer the high priest with such words?” An­nas spoke no words of re­buke to his stew­ard, but Je­sus ad­dressed him, say­ing, “My friend, if I have spo­ken evil, bear wit­ness against the evil; but if I have spo­ken the truth, why, then, should you smite me?”

184:1.7Al­though An­nas re­gret­ted that his stew­ard had struck Je­sus, he was too proud to take no­tice of the mat­ter. In his con­fu­sion he went into an­other room, leav­ing Je­sus alone with the house­hold at­ten­dants and the tem­ple guards for al­most an hour.

184:1.8When he re­turned, go­ing up to the Mas­ter’s side, he said, “Do you claim to be the Mes­siah, the de­liv­erer of Is­rael?” Said Je­sus: “An­nas, you have known me from the times of my youth. You know that I claim to be noth­ing ex­cept that which my Fa­ther has ap­pointed, and that I have been sent to all men, gen­tile as well as Jew.” Then said An­nas: “I have been told that you have claimed to be the Mes­siah; is that true?” Je­sus looked upon An­nas but only replied, “So you have said.”

184:1.9About this time mes­sen­gers ar­rived from the palace of Cai­a­phas to in­quire what time Je­sus would be brought be­fore the court of the San­hedrin, and since it was near­ing the break of day, An­nas thought best to send Je­sus bound and in the cus­tody of the tem­ple guards to Cai­a­phas. He him­self fol­lowed af­ter them shortly.