Resource > Expository Notes on the Bible (Constable) >  Mark >  Exposition >  VII. The Servant's passion ministry chs. 14--15 >  B. The Servant's endurance of suffering 14:53-15:47 >  1. Jesus' Jewish trial 14:53-15:1 > 
The verdict of the Sanhedrin 15:1 (cf. Matt. 27:1-2; Luke 22:66-71) 
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Matthew and Mark described this meeting as though it was separate from the earlier one (14:53-65). They probably did so to bring the reader back from the courtyard to the upper room in Caiaphas' house. Yet the decision seems to have been a separate one from the conviction for blasphemy. The Roman authorities would not have prosecuted Jesus as a blasphemer. Consequently the Sanhedrin, evidently now at full strength or close to it, decided to charge Jesus with treason against the Roman government. This verse does not explain that decision, but Pilate's examination of Jesus that follows shows that was the charge the Sanhedrin had made against Him.

"Jesus, who is, indeed, king of the Jews in a deeply spiritual sense, has refused to lead a political uprising. Yet now, condemned for blasphemy by the Jews because of his spiritual claims, he is accused by them also before Pilate by [sic] being precisely what he had disappointed the crowds for failing to be--a political insurgent."370

Mark did not explain who Pilate was, as Matthew did, evidently because his Roman readers knew about Pilate. When Pilate visited Jerusalem from his provincial capital of Caesarea, he normally stayed in Herod's palace on the northwest corner of the city or in the Fortress of Antonia just northwest of the temple.371It was apparently to one of these places that the guards led Jesus in the early morning hours of Friday, the fifteenth of Nisan (April 3).372

"As Friday morning arrives and the death of Jesus approaches, Mark will slow time from days to hours. Such slowing of time is yet another way of calling attention to the pivotal importance of Jesus' death."373

The Sanhedrin involved the Romans in Jesus' trial because the Romans did not allow the Jews to execute anyone without their permission, though the Sanhedrin could pass a death sentence. The Jews probably bound Jesus to make Him look like a dangerous criminal. He would not have tried to escape.



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