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Mark 6:34 "…and He felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd… "

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Jesus Before Pilate, the First Time

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Ophy

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Text Used to Create the Splice “Jesus Before Pilate, the First Time”

Matthew 27:1-2 (Greek Text Analysis starting with Matthew 27:1 )

Matthew 27:11-14 (Greek Text Analysis starting with Matthew 27:11)

Mark 15:1-5 (Greek Text Analysis starting with Mark 15:1 )

Luke 23:1-12 (Greek Text Analysis starting with Luke 23:1 )

John 18:28-38 (Greek Text Analysis starting with John 18:28)

 

Psalm 17:8
Keep me as the apple of the eye; hide me in the shadow of Your wings.

 

THE SPLICE

Early in the morning, all the chief priests, scribes, the whole Council, and the elders of the people immediately held a consultation and 1conferred together against Jesus to put Him to death. Then the whole body of them got up, they bound Him, and led Him away from Caiaphas, into the 2Praetorium and delivered Him to Pilate the governor. 3They themselves did not enter into the Praetorium so that they would not be 4defiled, but might eat the Passover, so Pilate came out of the Praetorium to this crowd of priests, scribes, elders and the whole Council. Pilate said to them, “What accusation do you bring against this Man?” 5They answered and said to him, “If this Man were not an evildoer, we would not have delivered Him to you.” So, they began to accuse Him, saying, “We found this man misleading our nation and 6forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar, and saying that He Himself is Christ, a King.” So Pilate said to them, “Take Him yourselves, and judge Him according to your law.” The Jews said to him, “We are not permitted to put anyone to death,” to fulfill the word of Jesus which He spoke, 7signifying by what kind of death He was about to die. Therefore Pilate entered again into the Praetorium, and summoned Jesus and said to Him, 8“Are You the King of the Jews?” Jesus answered, “Are you saying this on your own initiative, or did others tell you about Me?” Pilate answered, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests delivered You to me; what have You done?” Now Jesus stood before the governor, and 9He answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm.” Therefore Pilate said to Him, “So You are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say correctly that I am a king. It is as you say. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” Pilate said to Him, 10“What is truth?” And when he had said this, he a went out again to the Jews, to the chief priests and the crowds and said to them, “I find no guilt in Him, this Man.” The chief priests began to accuse Him harshly. And while He was being accused by the chief priests and elders, He did not answer. Then Pilate questioned Him again, saying, 11“Do You not hear how many things they testify against You?  Do You  not answer? See how many charges they bring against You!”  And He did not answer him with regard to even a single charge, so the governor was quite amazed at Jesus’s refusal to defend Himself. But the crowd of Jews kept insisting, saying, 12“He stirs up the people, teaching all over Judea, starting from Galilee even as far as this place.” When Pilate heard that Jesus started in Galilee, he asked whether the man was a Galilean. And when he learned that He belonged to Herod’s jurisdiction, 13he sent Him to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem at that time. Now Herod was very glad when he saw Jesus; for he had wanted to see Him for a long time, because he had been hearing about Him and was 14hoping to see some sign performed by Him. And he questioned Him at some length; but He answered him nothing. And the chief priests and the scribes were standing there, accusing Him vehemently. And Herod with his soldiers, after treating Him with contempt and mocking Him, dressed Him in a gorgeous robe and sent Him back to Pilate. Now Herod and Pilate became friends with one another that very day; for before they had been enemies with each other.

  1. conferred together against Jesus: they had been planning this day for a long time. This wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment decision. See Matthew 12:14, 26:3-5, Mark 3:6 for examples). ↩︎
  2. Praetorium: the Roman governor’s official residence, when in Jerusalem. ↩︎
  3. They themselves did not enter: This is a difficult passage, as Jesus already celebrated the Passover and ate the Passover meal; John tells us this is the case, as do the other gospel writers (Matthew 26:19-20; Mark 14:12, 17-18; Luke 7-8, 13-15; John 13:1-4). John also tells us that after this Passover, there must have been another Passover, for the priests were afraid to enter Pilate’s Praetorium, because they didn’t want to be defiled by Gentiles so they could eat the Passover meal….except that the Passover meal was already eaten by Jesus, and could not be eaten twice, as the lambs had to be eaten that same night and nothing could be leftover (Exodus 12:8-10). Jesus would not have disobeyed these commands from God, therefore the confusion is understandably great for us modern day believers. The only explanation I have found that seemed plausible was that there was more than one Passover going on. See this website Time Reckoning for Christ’s Last Passover (harvestbiblechurch.net) for a very plausible explanation. At truthinscripture.net, they say that there were five different sects celebrating Passover, and therefore there were several different times when Passovers were being celebrated. This also sounds very plausible to me. Whatever the explanation, all of these chief priests, the disciples and Jesus, had been awake all night and probably more than 24 hours at this point. ↩︎
  4. defiled:  The priests believed that even touching a Gentile would make them unclean. The irony is amazing: can’t be defiled for the Passover with some priestly made-up idea about Gentiles, but ignoring God’s actual law by seeking to kill an innocent Man (Exodus 23:7). To read about defilement and the priesthood: Leviticus 21:1-22:16. There is nothing here about Gentiles, except that priests can only marry a virgin Israelite (Lev 21:14). Leviticus is chock-full of information on what the Levite priests were supposed to be about and what they were supposed to be doing. ↩︎
  5. They answered: It seems the chief priests were trying to pressure Pilate into just condemning Jesus to death without any accusation or explanation at all. Three plausible reasons would be as follows:
    A: They had an unsteady relationship with Pilate, and so anything could and did spark resistance and an argument, and the statement (which I think was made by a spokesman but agreed upon by the entire Council—people simply don’t speak in unison like that) was a hot-headed reply.
    B: Very unlikely, but they knew that they were lying and making stories up and it tugged just a little bit on some of the priests’ hearts, and they were hoping not to have to bring up the accusations. It seems that if this was the reason, the guilt wore off pretty quickly.
    C: A third reason would be a combo of the first and second reasons. Read about Pontius Pilate from a historical view. ↩︎
  6. forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar: Jesus said no such thing. See Matthew 17:24-27 and Matthew 22:15-22 on what He said about paying taxes, for the temple and Caesar. ↩︎
  7. signifying by what kind of death: There was only one type of punishment/death for insurrectionists or those trying to displace Caesar: crucifixion. ↩︎
  8. Are You the King of the Jews:  Pilate’s starting question seems to be a testing of the waters, to see if Jesus is an insurrectionist. If Jesus had been a regular person and then said, “Yeah, and soon Rome will be under Israel’s feet!”, then that would be some proof of insurrection-type intentions. ↩︎
  9. Jesus answered: Jesus’s answer gives Pilate enough information so that he can be sure that Jesus wasn’t trying to incite riots to take over Caesar’s position. Jesus is stating that since His kingdom isn’t here on earth, He isn’t vying for a kingship and therefore trying to overthrow Rome. ↩︎
  10. What is truth: Pilate is done questioning Jesus on the insurrection charges. Despite Pilate’s cynical and sarcastic answer and despite the weird politics of today, there is truth. Human beings are (in)famous for twisting facts, “softening” words, leaving out information, giving “alternate facts”, and changing the details to make things say what they want them to say, regardless of the truth. God is the truth. The Bible is the truth. Beyond that, if human beings are involved, you can never be sure. ↩︎
  11. Do You not hear: Pilate is amazed at Jesus’s silence to all of these harsh accusations. Pilate probably saw most of the accused that were brought before him panicking, doing everything possible to combat accusations and defend themselves. People would probably try to plead Pilate in every way possible. Jesus’s dignity truly stands out here. He’s not on His knees begging, He’s not crying, He’s not panicked, He’s not grasping at straws to stay alive. Silence was certainly not the way most people faced a trial with the result of crucifixion as the most-assured sentence. ↩︎
  12. He stirs up the people, teaching all over Judea, starting from Galilee even as far as this place (“as far as this place” means Jerusalem): These “accusations” are actually true! Jesus began His ministry in Galilee (Matthew 4:12), had been teaching all over Judea and as far as Jerusalem (Matthew 4:25), and He certainly “stirred up” the people (Mt 4:24-5:1; 8:1; 8:34; 9:31;14:35, 36; 15:30-31, and 21:10 just to name a few places), but not for the purposes of overthrowing the Roman government, which is what the priests were implying. ↩︎
  13. he sent Him to Herod: Only Luke tells us about the visit to Herod and what happened there. See Luke 23:8-12. It is interesting that there is no mention of Herodians being present at Pilate’s since the Herodians were helping to orchestrate the plot to kill Jesus (see Mark 3:6) and had an interest in the outcome, as Herod seemed to want Jesus dead, too (see Luke 13:31). The Herodians weren’t mentioned by name at Jesus’s arrest in Gethsemane or at the trial in front of the high priest, either. It is possible that they were present at those two places, but just not specified. Herodians would have had no business with Pilate and would have had zero influence with him, because Pilate and Herod were enemies until later that day (Luke 23:12). ↩︎
  14. hoping to see some sign: This is what most people seem to want from Jesus. They also want Him to fix their lives. Christianity, true Christianity, is not about getting something from God. It is about the created beings (humans) worshiping the Creator. It is about God’s glory. God does give His elected believers eternal life to be with Him eternally. But a true believer would still worship Him, even if they got nothing from Him. If you can go through horrible events in your life and at each event say “I’m not separated from God, so this is nothing”, that’s one point (among many) to help you figure out if your faith is real or not. This kind of faith is a gift from God and not conjured by humans themselves. ↩︎