The city of Jerusalem

by C. R. Conder

THE COUNCIL HOUSE

Careful study also serves to cast some light on the sites connected with our Lord’s Passion, including those of the palaces of Annas and Caiaphas, the Prætorium, the palace of Herod, and the Golgotha. It should be noted that the Sanhedrin[291] assembled first in the “Chamber of Hewn Stone,” which was near the south-west corner of the Priests’ Court. But forty years before the fall of Jerusalem—according to rabbinical tradition—when the power of life and death had been taken from this assembly by the procurators, “the Sanhedrin transferred itself and established itself in vaulted buildings”[292] (or “in a vaulted building”), by which we may well understand the “Council House” (boulê or bouleutêrion), which—as we have seen—was possibly the “ancient hall” found by Sir Charles Warren outside the West Gate of the Temple. Josephus also notices the house of a high-priest (Ananias) apparently as being near the Hasmonæan palace (rebuilt by Agrippa II. in the north-east corner of the upper city), or close to the “Council House.”[293] These indications are valuable, because the time between the first appearance of Jesus before the procurator and the hour of crucifixion is limited. If the latter occurred at 9 a.m., and the first appearance before Pilate “in the morning”—that is to say, after 6 a.m.—we have only three hours, during which time the various events of the trial occurred. These included the first examination by Pilate, the transference to Herod’s palace, the mocking, the return to Pilate’s tribunal, the scourging and crowning with thorns, after a second examination, and Pilate’s interviews with priests and people; finally, the slow procession of the cross to Calvary, and the preparations for crucifixion. When the author of the fourth Gospel speaks of the “sixth hour” as that when the words “Behold your King” were uttered, we can only suppose that some clerical error has arisen, as this contradicts the older Gospel.[294] The time is so short for the various events that the various places mentioned should be sought in close proximity to one another.

For this reason we are led to suppose that the Prætorium was the castle of Antonia.[295] The Greek word (praitôrion) borrowed from Latin means “the house of a prætor,” or more generally the residence of a governor. We do not actually know where the procurators lived when they were in Jerusalem, but in 65 A. D. we find that the first object of Florus, on entering the city, was to establish himself in Antonia, and it was not till he failed to reach this citadel that he took refuge in the upper city. Peter’s prison seems also to have been in Antonia, since the gate opened thence into the city. Paul was certainly taken to this “castle” (parembolê), up the steps whence he spoke to the mob. The site of these steps is marked by a cutting in the middle of the south scarp of Antonia which is now walled up, and the mob had thus invaded the broad court of the citadel, extending from the scarp to the Temple cloisters. Antonia was the station of an “Italian band” which policed the excited Temple crowds, and we read that Jesus was led by the soldiers “to the Praitorian hall.” But the fourth Gospel gives a yet clearer indication, for it identifies the “pavement” with the Hebrew Gabbatha, or “height,” where was the bêma or tribune—the raised pulpit of the judge. It is not at first evident what a “pavement” has to do with a “height,” but the word (lithostrôton) does not mean a tessellated floor but only something “covered with stones,” and Josephus tells us that at Antonia “the rock itself was covered over with smooth pieces of stone from its foundation, both for ornament, and that any one who would try either to get up or go down it might not be able to hold his feet upon it.” Thus an apparent mistranslation of “Gabbatha” is perhaps in reality an indication that the Prætorium was in the citadel of Antonia.

THE PALACES

The “upper palace”—that of Herod the Great, on the west side of the upper city—seems always to have been held by the procurators as a fortress, and when Herod Antipas came to Jerusalem he probably—like Agrippa II.—lived in the old Hasmonæan palace close to the bridge, as this enabled him to go to the Temple without passing through the city.

These various considerations may perhaps help us to trace the course of events. In the darkness before dawn the traitor came, with the servants of the high-priest, to the garden of Gethsemane somewhere on Olivet beyond the Kidron. Jesus was led thence perhaps across Ophel, and under the great bridge, to the “hall” of the high-priest, which may probably have adjoined the Council House. He was seen first by Annas, who ordered that He should be sent bound to Caiaphas. The latter had hastily summoned “all the Sanhedrin,”[296] probably in the Council House. This expression no doubt means the full Sanhedrin of seventy-one members; for Caiaphas inquired of Jesus concerning “His doctrine,”[297] and He was arraigned as a false prophet and false Messiah. Many false witnesses were examined, and the examination may have been long, since, according to the Mishnah, “every judge who extends examination is to be commended.” A false prophet, according to the same authority, could only be judged at Jerusalem and by the full Sanhedrin, and could be tried and executed on a holiday, which in other cases was not allowable.[298] Jesus could not, according to law, be condemned as a blasphemer,[299] for that crime was defined as being the utterance of the name Jehovah. Yet the fact that the Sanhedrin “rent their clothes” shows that He was condemned unjustly on this accusation also. Peter stood in the outer court of the building, where a brazier burned because of the cold. His denial of his Master probably occurred at the moment when He was being led from the council chamber to be taken before Pilate,[300] this being at “cock crow,” though the procurator was not to be approached till the morning[301]—that is to say, after sunrise, which took place about 6 a.m.

The power of life and death had been taken from the Sanhedrin by the procurators, so that it was not lawful for them to put any man to death. They no longer held their meetings in the Temple court, and though their decisions were obeyed by Israel, their private assembly, in the precincts of the high-priest’s “hall,” had no force under Roman rule. It was necessary to induce the Procurator himself at least to consent to the punishment of Jesus by death, but the priests had scruples which forbade their entering Pilate’s Prætorium at Passover time. They passed through the Temple, where Judas met them and cast down the thirty pieces of silver, and they waited in the open court below the stairs and scarp of Antonia, with the gathering crowd of fanatical Jews, just where (more than twenty years later) another mob assembled and was addressed by Paul from the same stairs.

Pilate was the favourite of Sejanus, who was the favourite of Tiberius. The appointment did much to incense the Jews against Rome; for, judging from the various riots and massacres of Jews, Galileans, and Samaritans which occurred during his ten years’ rule, he was an incompetent governor; and from the Gospel narrative it appears that he was afraid of the mob, and anxious to shift all responsibility on others, while endeavouring to follow the advice of his wiser wife, who bade him have “nothing to do with that just man.” He took his seat on the bêma within the castle, where no doubt the angry roar of the multitude below the rock could be heard. His first attempt to evade his duties was made as soon as he learned that Jesus was a Galilean, and the trial was interrupted in order that the prisoner might be sent to Herod Antipas. We may suppose, therefore, that Jesus was taken by the soldiers of the governor down the great stairs, and along the west cloisters, where a guard was only needed on the left hand, and so across the great Tyropœon bridge to the neighbouring palace of the Hasmonæans.

But Antipas had no jurisdiction in Jerusalem, though he was curious to see the prophet of Nazareth, and “hoped to have seen some miracle done by Him.” He questioned our Lord with many words, and the priests and scribes “vehemently accused Him.” But he took no responsibility, though—with his men of war—he “set Him at nought, and mocked, and arrayed Him in a brilliant mantle, and sent Him again to Pilate”[302] by the way whereby He came.

THE PRÆTORIUM