The Sanhedrin Court Meets a Second Time 

The first appearance of Jesus before the Sanhedrin court ended in disarray; the court convened about an hour later – five-thirty in the morning, April 6, 30 CE – when the court was composed enough to reassemble. Jesus was led into a side room, where John was waiting. The court did not wish to gaze upon him again.

The court then deliberated on the charges that would be presented to Pontius Pilate. It only took them one-half hour to put together the following list of charges against Jesus that were punishable by death:

1. That he was a corrupter of the Jewish nation; he deceived the people and incited them to rebellion.
2. That he taught the people to refuse to pay tribute to Caesar.
3. That, by claiming to be a king and the founder of a new sort of kingdom, he incited treason against the emperor.

The whole preceding was irregular and not according to Jewish law. No two witnesses agreed on any of the points except in the first meeting when the two witnesses agreed about Jesus’ statement regarding destroying the temple. But there was no defense mounted, and Jesus was never interviewed about what he had actually said.

As to the three charges, no witnesses were called, and the charges were agreed upon when the accused was not present. This irregularity caused three of the Pharisees to leave the court. They still wanted to see Jesus destroyed, but they were honorable enough not to be a part of this sham trial with no witness and without the accused being present to hear the charges. In fact, the human Jesus never did hear the charges against him until he appeared before Pilate later that morning. He never again appeared in the courtroom.

While Jesus and John waited for the second session to end, some women and their friends, curious about the strange prisoner, approached him. One of the women asked Jesus: "Are you the Messiah, the Son of God?" And Jesus answered: "If I tell you, you will not believe me; and if I ask you, you will not answer."

Jesus was led from Caiaphas’ home at six o’clock that morning to appear before Pontius Pilate. He would hear the charges and confirm the death sentence that the Sanhedrist court had laid upon Jesus in their unjust and irregular proceedings.