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Updated: June 7, 2025
But when they had conducted them, they placed them in the sanhedrim: and the high-priest interrogated them, saying, Did we not lay our strict injunction upon you, that you should not teach in this name? and, lo, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and would fain bring this man's blood upon us. Then Peter and the apostles answering said, We must obey God rather than men.
When they had divined the secret meaning of some event their vanity led them to appropriate to themselves the wisdom of their sanhedrim, and set the tone to the gossip of their respective spheres.
Paul had escaped the Sanhedrim at Jerusalem, he would have been torn to pieces by the silversmiths at Ephesus. The appeal to Cæsar's judgment-seat was the shield of his mission, and alone made possible his success. And this spirit, which confined government to its simple duties, while it left opinion unfettered, was especially present in Julius Cæsar himself.
And they stirred up the people, and the elders, and the scribes, and coming upon him, they seized him together, and dragged him to the sanhedrim; and they set up false witnesses, saying, This man doth not cease speaking blasphemous words against this holy place, and the law: for we have heard him affirm, that Jesus the Nazarean, even he, will destroy this place, and change the accustomed ordinances which Moses delivered to us.
Not only were there two trials, but in each trial there were three separate stages or acts. In the first, or ecclesiastical trial, Jesus had first to appear before Annas, then before Caiaphas and the Sanhedrim during the night, and again before the same body after daybreak.
He knew that his hearers would understand the meaning of the ceremony. He had reason also to believe, that on account of the nature of his mission, they would expect it. Hence the Sanhedrim, to whom the cognizance of the legal cleansings belonged, when they were informed of the baptism of John, never expressed any surprise at it, as a now, or unusual, or improper custom.
It is not said that Joseph got himself into trouble by his action on this occasion, or that the Sanhedrim immediately commenced a persecution against him. They were, indeed, in a state of extreme excitement, and they were seventy to one. But sometimes a single bold man can quell much more numerous opposition than even this.
Then arose a certain Pharisee, in the sanhedrim, named Gamaliel, a doctor of the law, held in high esteem by all the people, and ordered the apostles to be taken out for a little space; and he said unto them, Men of Israel, take heed to yourselves respecting these men, what ye mean to do to them.
They were little else than labouring men, but no one was elected to that court unless he had given pledges of godliness, and they bore themselves as men who had the charge of souls. The little Sanhedrim had within it the school of Hillel, which was swayed by mercy, and its Rabbi was Burnbrae; and the school of Shammai, whose rule was inflexible justice, and its Rabbi was Lachlan Campbell.
That Jesus should have been taken to him, though he held no office at the time, shows who pulled the strings in the Sanhedrim. The reference to Caiaphas in verse 14 seems intended to suggest what sort of a trial might be expected, presided over by such a man.
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