Luke 22:66 Commentary and Bible Study

This is the final stage of the Lord’s Jewish trial. He had a religious trial, a Jewish trial, and he had a civil trial, a Roman trial, and each one came in three stages, and if we examine all the Gospels together, we can see that laid out clearly. The first stage of the Jewish trial is recorded by John and was at night before Annas, the father in law of Caiaphas (John 18:13-14; 19-23); the second stage, also at night, was before Caiaphas, the high priest (John 18:24; Matthew 26:57-68; Mark 14:53-65; Luke 22:54-65); the third stage was early the following morning before the Sanhedrin Council (Matthew 27:1; Mark 15:1; Luke 22:67-71). The three stages of the Roman trial were, the first before Pilate (Matthew 27:2, 11; Mark 15:1-2; Luke 23:1-6); the second before Herod (Luke 23:7-12); and the third back before Pilate (Matthew 27:12-31; Mark 15:3-20; Luke 23:13-25). (See Hendriksen on the Gospel of Matthew, p 927.) Mark tends to abridge a little because he is writing something in the nature of an evangelistic tract and so we don't have the three Jewish hearings teased out for us, or the three hearings before Pilate. They are all really drawn together to make it easy for us. But this is the third hearing of the Jewish trial, which is described in detail by Luke, in which Jesus is sentenced. Mark says, ‘And straightway in the morning, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council’ – the Sanhedrin Council of the Jews. They wanted to get him to Pilate, as early as they possibly could, before the people came out on the streets, before the city was aware of what was happening. They had to have him in Roman custody in apparent weakness and defeat. They had to break the awe that the people had for him, the mystique of the Saviour. They had to have him in such a position (and he would allow it to happen) that he was seen as a defeated, broken person, in order to shatter his reputation in the eyes of the people, for it was his popularity with the people that had held back the Jewish leaders from carrying out their plan up till now. However, up till now they did not have sufficient evidence to formulate a charge against him. The false witnesses brought together in the initial attempt had failed to give consistent evidence, and could not be used (Mark 14:55-56), and further efforts to gather evidence also failed (Mark 14:57-59). Faced with this lack of evidence, Caiphas had in desperation urged Christ to say under oath whether he was the Christ, the Son of the Blessed, which the Lord had affirmed. That was enough for the Jews to warrant the death sentence. Now therefore in the morning the Jewish authorities were desperate because they sought the death penalty for Jesus, but were not allowed to impose it themselves; only the Romans could do that. But without a valid charge against him they could not hand him over to the civil authorities and expect them to carry out the sentence. This morning meeting was a final attempt to manufacture a charge against him. They came together and they once again questioned him, the same questions that they had asked him before.