Why the Sanhedrin?

“The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for evidence against Jesus so that they could put him to death, but they did not find any.” Mark 14:55

When Jesus was arrested He was brought before the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin was the Jewish governing body and was made of seventy elders and the High Priest. The number of members was seventy because Moses had appointed seventy elders to help him judge the people when they were in the wilderness. When a person who was charged with a crime was brought before the Sanhedrin the members of the governing body sat in a circle and the accused was set in their midst. The charges had to be confirmed by two independent witnesses who were interviewed by the Sanhedrin separately. The two witnesses had to agree on the charges or else the prisoner was to be set free. There were no lawyers and the accused acted as his own defense. The accused could also call witness to testify on his behalf.

The chief priests and elders could not find two witnesses that would agree on the accusations against Jesus so they bribed witnesses to speak against Jesus. The Sanhedrin was to have no contact with the witnesses prior to the trial but they had gone and found their own witnesses. There were many things that the council did that were illegal. It was illegal to bribe witnesses. However they bribed the witnesses. It was illegal to hold a secret trial and yet they met at night when no one would be able to witness what was going on. The whole Sanhedrin was to be aware of the trial and yet there were members who did not know. One of those members was Nicodemus who was excluded and we can only believe it was because he was a friend of Jesus. The Sanhedrin also contracted with Judas to betray Jesus to them.

The Sanhedrin held a hastily called trial in secret because they wanted to make sure that the charges against Jesus would stick. They did not care about the legality of the trial but only the outcome. They wanted Jesus silenced and the only way for that to happen was that Jesus be put to death.

Though the Sanhedrin came to a guilty verdict of Jesus they could not sentence Him. At that point they had no alternative but to send Him to the Roman governor so that he could bring the death penalty against Jesus. They also knew that the charges that they had concocted against Jesus would not result in a death penalty when they were brought to the Roman governor so they needed to bring additional charges of treason against the Roman government. Pilate could not ignore the charge of treason.

The Sanhedrin knew that if Jesus was allowed to continue then their position would be in jeopardy just as the position of the chief priest. Jesus had to be silenced and to do that Jesus had to be eliminated.