Outline Studies in the New Testament for Bible Teachers

by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut

I. General View of the Period.

1. This period embraces the events of but one day in the life of Jesus. It was the day following the Passover Day, and therefore the fifteenth of the month Nisan, in the Jewish year. See Num. 28. 16.

The betrayal of Jesus took place a little after midnight, on Friday morning, and the burial about sunset on the same day; so that the transactions of the period include about eighteen hours.

2. It was, however, an eventful day in the life of Jesus. No day in all Bible story is narrated with the fullness of this day. Nearly one-twelfth of the matter in the four gospels is occupied with the account of this one day. If the whole story of Christ's life were written out with equal completeness to this one day's record it would require more than four hundred volumes as large as the New Testament.

3. It was an important day; the most important in the history of the world. Notice in the epistles how much more is said of the death of Christ than of his life. See 1 Cor. 2. 2; Gal. 6. 14; 1 John 1. 7. Because of its eventfulness and importance we should give it careful study and place in order its events as a separate period in the life of Jesus Christ.

II. The Places. All these are in or near Jerusalem; but none of them can be identified with certainty. Yet it is well to know the traditional localities and to fix them upon the map of the city. There are five places named in the story of this day.

1. The Garden of Gethsemane. Here Jesus was arrested, immediately after the agony (Mark 14. 43). See the mention of this locality in the last study.

2. The High Priest's House (Mark 14. 53, 54). The high priest at that time was Caiaphas, but his father-in-law, Annas, who had been deposed by the Romans, was still regarded by the Jews as the legitimate priest, and possessed great authority. There was no special "palace" of the high priest, and Annas and Caiaphas may have lived in the same group of buildings. The place is located by tradition on Mount Zion, near that of the supper room.

3. Pilate's Palace (Mark 15. 1-16). The Roman capital of Judea was not in Jerusalem, but at Cæsarea, where the procurator resided (Acts 23. 23, 24). But it was customary for the governor to visit Jerusalem at the time of Passover, in order to quell any disturbance at that time, when the city was thronged. Pilate may have made his headquarters in Jerusalem either in the castle of Antonia, north of the temple (referred to in Acts 21. 34, and elsewhere), or in the palace of Herod the Great on the northwest corner of Mount Zion, the place now occupied by the (so-called) Tower of David. The latter locality is accepted by the best of the recent authorities. Here Jesus was brought for his trial and sentence by Pontius Pilate.

4. Herod's Palace. At that time Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee and Peræa (Luke 3. 1), the slayer of John the Baptist, was present in Jerusalem attending the Passover, and to him Jesus was sent by Pilate (Luke 23. 7). His abiding place was probably the old Maccabean palace, about midway between the temple and Pilate's headquarters.