Accusations - Peter Denies Jesus & the Trials of Jesus

Bible Verses

So the detachment, the commanding officer, and the officers of the Jewish leaders, seized Jesus and bound him, and led him to Annas first, for he was father-in-law to Caiaphas, who was high priest that year. Now it was Caiaphas who advised the Jewish leaders that it was expedient that one man should die for the people.

Simon Peter followed Jesus, as did another disciple. Now that disciple was known to the high priest, and entered in with Jesus into the court of the high priest; but Peter was standing at the door outside. So the other disciple, who was known to the high priest, went out and spoke to her who kept the door, and brought in Peter. Then the maid who kept the door said to Peter, "Are you also one of this man's disciples?" He said, "I am not." Now the servants and the officers were standing there, having made a fire of coals, for it was cold. They were warming themselves. Peter was with them, standing and warming himself.

The high priest therefore asked Jesus about his disciples, and about his teaching. Jesus answered him, "I spoke openly to the world. I always taught in synagogues, and in the temple, where all the Jewish people come together. I said nothing in secret. Why do you ask me? Ask those who have heard what I spoke to them; surely they know what I said." When he had said this, one of the officers standing by slapped Jesus with his hand, saying, "Do you answer the high priest like that?" Jesus answered him, "If I have spoken evil, testify of the evil; but if well, why do you beat me?" Annas sent him bound to Caiaphas, the high priest.

Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. They said therefore to him, "You are not also one of his disciples, are you?" He denied it, and said, "I am not.".

John 18:12-25

 

Now the chief priests and the whole council sought witnesses against Jesus to put him to death, and found none. For many gave false testimony against him, and their testimony did not agree with each other. Some stood up, and gave false testimony against him, saying, "We heard him say, 'I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and in three days I will build another made without hands.'"

Even so, their testimony did not agree. The high priest stood up in the midst, and asked Jesus, "Have you no answer? What is it which these testify against you?" But he stayed quiet, and answered nothing. Again the high priest asked him, "Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?" And Jesus said, "I am, and you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of the sky."

The high priest tore his clothes, and said, "What further need have we of witnesses? You have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?" They all condemned him to be worthy of death. Some began to spit on him, and to cover his face, and to beat him with fists, and to tell him, "Prophesy." And the officers took him and beat him.

Mark 14:55-65

 

After about one hour passed, another confidently affirmed, saying, "Truly this man also was with him, for he is a Galilean." But Peter said, "Man, I do not know what you are talking about." Immediately, while he was still speaking, a rooster crowed. The Lord turned, and looked at Peter.

Then Peter remembered the Lord's word, how he said to him, "Before the rooster crows today you will deny me three times." And he went out, and wept bitterly.

Luke 22:59-62

Explanation

This part of the story took place late on Thursday night / early Friday Morning from about 12.00am to 6.00am.

After Jesus had been arrested in the Garden, he was led away by the Jewish leaders and Roman soldiers for the first of several trials, most of which were actually illegal in the way that they were conducted.

Jesus was first taken to the house of Annas, who was an Ex High Priest and the Father in Law of the High Priest Caiaphas, and then taken on to the large house and court of Caiaphas. Annas was widely thought of as the real power behind the High Priest and that Caiaphas just did what Annas told him! Annas was much cleverer than Caiaphas and was the more respected of the two priests.

Peter and John had followed the party that had arrested Jesus to the house of Annas, and then after Annas had briefly questioned Jesus (illegal under Jewish law!), they followed them on to the house of Caiaphas. The Romans soldiers would not have gone into either house, and after they had taken Jesus to Caiaphas, they would have gone back to the their barracks next to the Temple.

Jesus would have arrived at the house of Caiaphas between 2.00am and 3.00am. John probably went into the house with Jesus, as he was known by the Jewish leaders. So Peter was left alone in the courtyard outside the house with the servants of Caiaphas. He was afraid of what might happen to him (remember he'd cut the ear off one of Caiaphas' most important servants earlier that night!). As it was night, it would have been quite cold and he would have felt safer in a group, so Peter went to warm himself with the servants around a small fire or brazier.

Peter was first accused of knowing Jesus and also of being friends with a criminal. He denied that he knew Jesus. A bit later, while he was still warming himself, someone else said that Peter knew Jesus. For the second time, he denied this and moved away from the group.

He would have stayed on his own and kept quiet while the trial and questioning of Jesus took place inside the house. This would have lasted about two to three hours.

Whilst this was happening outside, Jesus was being questioned by Caiaphas in the house. The questioning / trying of Jesus by Annas and then Caiaphas was illegal under Jewish law on six points:

• it was illegal to arrest / question or try a Jew in the afternoon or after sunset
• t was illegal to arrest / question or try a Jew during a feast or festival such as Passover
• it was illegal to question or try a Jewish prisoner without the full Jewish council being present (in both cases only a few friends or family members would have been present)
• it was illegal to question or try a Jewish prisoner in a private house. (All questioning and trials should take place in the Jewish Council Building. The Jewish Law court was next to the house of Caiaphas, but he first questioned Jesus in his house not in the court!)
• it was illegal to have a questioning or trial without two or more witnesses making the accusation
• it was illegal for a Priest (or ex Priest!) to question or take a trial, it should have been a Jewish judge

In this illegal questioning, Caiaphas was trying to get Jesus to incriminate himself and his disciples. But Jesus refused to fall for the trap and said that he was in the temple courts every day, so why didn't they arrest him then if what he was doing was wrong! The guard hitting Jesus on the cheek was trying to insult Jesus. Hitting someone on the cheek was only done to someone who had committed a very minor offense. Criminals being charged with a serious crime were whipped on the back.

Although at this point it says that in John 18:24 "Then Annas sent him, still bound, to Caiaphas the high priest.", Jesus was not at the house of Annas, but at the house of Caiaphas. This verse really means that Annas had 'officially' sent Jesus for trial at the full Jewish court.

After the first 'trial' by Caiaphas was over, a call went out for the Jewish council to assemble, it would have been about 4.30am - 5.00am. The house servants would have been sent out at daybreak to wake up and assemble the council members for the trial. However, not all the members were called to the trial.

After the Jewish council members had gathered, the only vaguely lawful Jewish trial of Jesus took place.

A proper trial had to have ALL members present and remember it was illegal to question or try a Jew during a feast or festival such as Passover! However, two notable council members weren't present at the trial. These were Joseph of Arimathea (a secret friend of Jesus and his followers, you will hear more about Joseph later in the story!) and Nicodeamas (a member who had spoken to Jesus previously in the Temple and was sympathetic to his views). These two council members were probably not woken up and called to the meeting as Caiaphas knew they would not have agreed with what was happening.

Jesus was made to stand trial for the crime of blasphemy. Crimes such as these, that were punishable by death, were supposed to have a long and complicated system of witnesses. In this case this was not done and no good Jewish judge would have allowed this, however prejudiced he might have been, so Annas and Caiaphas had the trial without a judge!

Trials also had to have two independent witnesses to make the accusations. At this trial the council did have more than two witnesses, but they were all friends of the council members who had been talked into testify against Jesus, and so couldn't even agree on a story of what Jesus had done wrong!

As a Jew, Jesus would have known that the whole trial was illegal and so kept quiet, as he also knew that the High Priests and Pharisees would try to twist anything he said against him.

The accusation of Jesus saying he would rebuild the temple was probably made by a Priest or high ranking temple official who had heard Jesus preaching in the temple when this had happened:

Then the Jews demanded of him, "What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?" Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days."
John 2:18-19

What Jesus had meant was that he would be killed and be raised to life again three days later, and that he would be the new temple and the only way of coming to God, and that the old temple would not be needed for this purpose anymore. But the Jewish leaders did not understand this!

They tried to convict Jesus on these points, as they could argue that he was a dangerous leader that might lead the people into destroying the temple, and that in saying he could rebuild the temple, that he had magical powers like God. But these crimes still couldn't bring the death sentence on a prisoner, only a long time in jail, so Caiaphas had to ask Jesus directly if he claimed to be the Son of God. In asking Jesus if was the 'Christ' (the prophesied Jewish Messiah or Saviour) and the Son of God, Caiaphas would have been forcing Jesus into an answer. This was an offical 'charge' that had to be answered by a prisoner.

At this point Jesus was forced to reply and answered that he was; and that he would sit next to God and rule over the earth. This was completely blasphemous to the Jewish leaders and just what they wanted to hear! They could now 'convict' Jesus on a crime punishable by death. A person tearing their clothes is a sign of great emotion, usually grief, among Jews. It should have been a Jewish judge or the president of the trial that pronounced the sentence, but as there wasn't one at the trial, Caiaphas, with the other council members, sentenced Jesus.

Jewish trials (even ones preceded over by judges!) could not 'officially' pass the death sentence, only the Roman authorities could do this. So the Jewish leaders next planned to go and see the Roman authorities. (You can learn more about this in the next section of the story.)

Jesus was then beaten and mocked by the Jewish guards. This also was completely illegal as Jewish law stated that no man condemned to death could be beaten or whipped until the process of being put to death had been properly started.

Whilst all this was taking place, the courtyard would have become more lively with all the servants now being awake and talking about what was happening in the house.

Peter was again accused of knowing Jesus. The man would have known that Peter came from the northern province of Galilee because of his accent. This was a very different accent and even dialect to that spoken by people from Jerusalem. (The man was also probably the servant who's ear Peter had cut off during the arrest of Jesus the previous evening!) Peter denied knowing Jesus for the third time and then the rooster crowed as Jesus had predicted.

Peter could well have turned and seen Jesus looking at him from a window of the court house.

After the rooster had crowed. Peter ran off and cried because he was ashamed of what he had done, denying Jesus.