Trials of Jesus before the Sanhedrin and Pilate

The event

Jesus is first taken to Annas, the influential former high priest, then to Caiaphas, the sitting high priest, where the Sanhedrin gathers false and contradictory testimony before Caiaphas presses Jesus directly: "Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?" Jesus's affirmative answer, paired with a claim to be seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven, is declared blasphemy, and the council condemns him as deserving death — even as Peter, warming himself in the courtyard below, denies knowing Jesus three times before the rooster crows, just as Jesus had predicted.

Lacking authority to execute anyone, the Jewish leaders bring Jesus to the Roman governor Pontius Pilate, reframing the charge as political treason: claiming to be a king who opposes Caesar. Pilate, finding no basis for a charge and learning Jesus is a Galilean, sends him to Herod Antipas, who is in Jerusalem for the feast; Herod mocks Jesus but sends him back uncondemned. Pilate, despite three declarations of Jesus's innocence and a warning from his own wife's troubling dream, ultimately caves to the crowd's demand — stirred up to prefer the release of the insurrectionist Barabbas — and hands Jesus over to be crucified, symbolically washing his hands of the decision.

Scripture references

• Matthew 26:57-27:26
• Mark 14:53-15:15
• Luke 22:54-23:25
• John 18:12-19:16