5-29-24 Unlawful Conviction;

Last week I laid out the foundation of a Sanhedrin trial and process in order to convict someone of a crime. How merciful the system was and how it focused on innocence not guilt. I explained who Annas was in John’s account, and former high priest with a lot of muscle and still highly influential in the high court of the Sanhedrin. Caiaphas the son in law to Annas is high priest at this time so Jesus was set up from the beginning. It is also worthy of noting that Annas and Caiaphas were Sadducees which means that they didn’t believe in the resurrection, anything to do with the spirit world, the authority of the scripture with the exception of the Pentateuch. They may have plotted and were the master minds behind this, but it was God’s plan for it to happen this way. Let me summarize four points from last week:
a) The illegal arrest of Jesus – The arrest of Jesus was illegal
according to Hebrew law for four reasons:
b) The Hebrew law forbade any trial or arrest to happen at night, especially for those that were to be tried for capital punishment. It was probably around midnight that in the gospel accounts we see that they came with lanterns and torches:

John 18:3 (NIV)
3 So Judas came to the grove, guiding a detachment of soldiers and some officials from the chief priests and Pharisees. They were carrying torches, lanterns and weapons.
c) If Judas was deliberately placed among the disciples, this too would be illegal because it was forbidden to use a traitor or an accomplice to aid and abet.
d) The arrest of Jesus was not legal because there was not legal summons to do so.
e) It was also illegal according to Hebrew law to bind an un-condemned man. In John’s account, Jesus was bound and taken away:

John 18:12 (NIV)
12 Then the detachment of soldiers with its commander and the Jewish officials arrested Jesus. They bound him