The True Story of Jesus — Page 71
Chapter Ten—Chronology of Jesus’ Trial 71 death the Jews might have ignored their religious laws. This doesn’t seem to be the case as we know that Jews were always keen to fol- low their religious laws. The fourth Gospel tells us that the Jews did not enter the Roman court for fear of becoming unclean on the eve of Passover. Moreover, ‘it is also significant that, of all the charges made by the first Christians against the Jews, they never accused them of breaking the law in order to have Jesus executed. ’1 It appears from these Biblical accounts that Jesus as was arrested on Thursday evening and questioned by the Jewish authorities during the night. According to Mark and Matthew he faced the Jewish Council during the night and again early in the next morn- ing, after which he was taken to Pilate. According to Luke, how- ever, he faced the Jewish Council only in the morning. Some Christian scholars have disputed this and said that there could not have been a night time meeting of the Jewish Council. One of them says: As has been pointed out very convincingly by most Jewish scholars, the historical authenticity of an overnight meet- ing on this occasion of the full Sanhedrin, the supreme Jewish Council, is extremely doubtful. No normal Sanhedrin meeting ever took place at night and the dif- ficulties of summoning appropriate representatives from their beds at festival time would have been far greater than simply holding Jesus overnight, or indeed over several nights had there been any legitimate trial. 2 1. An Introduction to the Bible, by John Drane, p. 425 2. Jesus, the Evidence, by Ian Wilson, published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson London 1984, p. 121