THE TRIAL AND DEATH SENTENCE
OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST BY THE
JEWISH SANHEDRIN COURT AT
JERUSALEM WAS ILLEGAL!
By Marvin Brooks Norfleet, Attorney of the Bar of Memphis, Tenn.
Still, at his late date of nearly 2,000 years after our
Saviour, Jesus Christ, was crucified to three days of temporary
physical death on the trumped up charge of "blasphemy" against
Him by the Jewish Grand Sanhedrin court, at Jerusalem, when all
of its members "condemned Him to be guilty of death." Mark 14:64;
Matt. 26:66 because, since then, the effort continues to mislead
mankind that the trial of Jesus and the death sentence by that
court against Him were legal under the Jewish criminal law then
in force, whereas, to the absolute contrary, quoting, "the
pages of human history present no stronger cause of judicial
murder than the trial and crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth, for
the simple reason that all forms of law were outraged and
trampled under foot in the proceeding against Him. The errors
were so numerous and the proceedings so flagrant that many have
doubted the existence of a trial." (The Trial of Jesus, 2 Vols.,
1908, Vol. 1 The Hebrew Trial of Jesus, page 216). Any competent
research approves the validity of said quotation from Mr.
Chandler's exhaustive investigation and commentary on said
subject, as follows, to-wit:
1. The members of the Grand Sanhedrin Jewish court, 71 in
number; as judges then the same as judges now, were supposed to
have been fair and impartial in their judicial function, whereas,
historically, we find them to have been the very opposite toward
Jesus before them: that in order to get Jesus arrested and to
then be brought before them for trial they, the chief priests and
scribes of said court had earlier "sought how they might kill
Jesus," Luke 22:2, they and their elders had assembled together
at "the palace of the high priest, Caiaphas, and consulted that
they might take Jesus by subtility, and kill Him," Matt. 26:3-4,
the chief priests and others gathered together in a council and
"from that day forth they took counsel together for to put Jesus
to death," John 11:47 & 53, and they bribed Judas Iscariot by
"thirty pieces of silver" to betray Jesus to them, Matt.
26:14-16, they promised to give Judas "money" whereupon he sought
how he might "conveniently betray" Jesus to them, Mark 14:10-11
which he did, Matt. 26:48-50, Mark 14:45-46, Luke 22:47, John
18:5 which use of said "thirty pieces of silver" had been
foretold by the prophet Zechariah, Zech. 11:12 and had earlier
been so referred to, Ex. 21:32. Thus, the illegality of the
Jewish Sanhedrin court's action, proceedings and death sentence
it imposed upon Jesus is glaringly and obviously apparent for all
to see because its judges were openly and wickedly biased and
prejudiced against Jesus denying Him a fair and impartial trial
by them, to which He was entitled after they had conspired
together to vent their active animosity against and to kill Him.
The illegality of the trial and of its sentence of death
against Jesus by the Jewish Grand Sanhedrin court because of its
wicked and biased judges opposed to Jesus is indisputably
confirmed by their lie they manufactured and had circulated that
Jesus had not been resurrected from the dead, but, instead, that
"His disciples came by night, and stole Him away" from his
tomb while dead, which they caused to be reported by soldiers
watching at the tomb by they giving them "large money" to so say,
Matt. 28:11-15. What does the record show as to the type and
character of said judges when Jesus was before them? Namely, that
they had grown to be degenerate and corrupt. Many of them had
been guilty of criminal acts in both public and private life, and
had bought their seats on that court, and were unfitted to be
judges in any case. Their general disqualification also appears
by Jewish authority as from Rabbi Wise in his "The Martyrdom of
Jesus," quoting, "They purchased their commissions for high
prices and used them for mercenary purposes. They were considered
wicked men by the ancient writers and must have stood very low in
the estimation of the people over whom they tyrannized and any
good man among them was an exception." The Talmud, of the Jews,
contains bitter denunciation of the high priestly families of the
time of Christ, who were the controlling spirits in the Jewish
Great Sanhedrin court at the time of Christ. - Chandler, supra,
296-299.
2. The Jewish Grand Sanhedrin court illegally adjudged and
sentenced Jesus to death on its charge of "blasphemy" against Him
upon His uncorroborated confession, alone, when Jesus answered "I
am" when the high priest, Caiaphas, asked Him "Art thou the
Christ, the Son of the Blessed?" Mark 14:61-64, Matt. 26:63-66.
Such adjudication and sentence, under the circumstances of there
then being no two required corroborating witnesses, rest,
illegally, upon the uncorroborated confession of Jesus, above
quoted, in violation of the Jewish law then so applying, to wit:
"We have it as a fundamental principle of our (Jewish)
jurisprudence that no one can bring an accusation against
himself. Should a man make a confession of guilt before a legally
constituted tribunal, such confession is not to be used against
him unless properly attested by two other witnesses. "-Chandler,
supra, pages 271-272, citing: Maimonides, Sanhedrin 1V2,
Mendelsohn, "Criminal Jurisprudence of the Ancient Hebrews,"
p.133.
3. Said trial and sentencing of Jesus was also illegal because
of each and all of the following reasons, to-wit:
(a) The arrest of Jesus in the place called Gethsemane, at
night, was in violation of Jewish law and having been brought
about by a traitor and informer, Judas Iscariot, the arrest was
in violation of a provision of the Mosaic Code and a Rabbinic
rule founded thereon, which illegality also existed because the
arrest, was not based on any legal order of any court, Chandler,
supra, pages 219-220. (b) Upon his arrest Jesus was first taken
to the house of Annas, former high priest, who privately examined
Jesus, which was illegal because it was done at night in
violation of Jewish law and because no judge, alone, could make
such an examination of an accused person, Chandler, supra, pages
238-239. (c) The indictment against Jesus was illegal because it
was made, partly, by Caiaphas, the high priest of the Sanhedrin,
who had no such right, Chandler, supra. pages 248-249. (d) The
first part of the Sanhedrin's trial of Jesus was illegal because
it was conducted at night between two and three o'clock in the
morning in violation of Jewish law, Chandler, supra, pages
255-256. (e) The second part of said trial was illegal because
said court convened the following morning after the night part of
the trial to hold it before the offering of the morning
sacrifice, which was in violation of Jewish law, Chandler, supra,
pages 260-262. (f) Jewish courts were prohibited to act on either
a Sabbath or on a feast day, which was violated by said court in
its trial and sentencing of Jesus, Chandler, supra, pages
263-266. (g) The said trial of Jesus was illegal because
resulting in His sentence of death because both parts of it
occurred on one, the same day, which was prohibited in such cases
by Jewish law. The first part of said trial was between 2 and 3
A.M., of Friday, April 7th, (30 A.D.), as appears by Matt.
26:57-66; Mark 14:55-64 and the second part was at about daylight
of the same date as appears by Matt. 27:1; Mark 15:1 and Luke
22:66-71, within six hours of each other, Chandler, supra,
pages 267-269. Which precipitate, headlong and hurried action by
the members of the Jewish Grand Sanhedrin court to try and
sentence Jesus to death patently shows the great extent of their
prejudice and bias against Jesus who was then within their
judicial power and that He was without mercy in their hands.
Their active animus, hostility and hatred of Jesus clearly shows
by their outrageous and brutal conduct toward Jesus incidental to
their sentence of death against Him when they, themselves, "spit
on Him and buffeted Him" in their said court, Mark 14:65.
The above illegalities are not nearly all of them committed
against Jesus by the Jewish Grand Sanhedrin court and its members
in their evil conspiracy against Him and by their "Kangaroo
court" trial of Jesus and by their illegal sentencing of Him
to death, who then bound Jesus and carried Him away and
delivered Him to Pilate, Mark 15:1; Matt. 27:2; Luke 23:1; John
18:28; Acts 3:13 which brought about His crucifixion all on the
same day after Pilate allowed Jesus to be crucified, he "being
willing to content the people," Mark 15:15, which people had
been persuaded by said chief priests and elders that they should
ask Pilate to release Barabbas "and to destroy Jesus," Matt.
27:20; Mark 15:11; Luke 23:18; John 18:40; Acts 3:14, who then
said to Pilate "Let Him (Jesus) be crucified," Matt. 27:22 and
that "His blood be on us, and on our children," Matt. 27:25.
What then, is to be thought of such a statement as, quoting,
"The arrest (of Jesus) was legal. The hearing by the Sanhedrin
was legal. The conviction was legal and was justified" appearing
from the book "The Prosecution of Jesus" by Richard Wellington
Husband so quoted on page 7 of the magazine "The Plain Truth" in
its issue of March, 1969, and the statement appearing on page 8
of said magazine from its reported booklet "Reflections on the
Trial and Death of Jesus" by Haim H. Cohn, Justice of the Supreme
Court of Israel to the effect that the "only one thing" that the
"High Priest" of the Sanhedrin court and "the Jewish leadership
of the day can have been and was really and vitally interested:
to prevent the execution by the Romans of Jesus! Such authors
stand upon the premises that all are ignorant of the true record,
as above cited, and their such statements fade into
insignificance in the light thereof.
.................................................................
The above article appeared in March 1998 "Thy Kingdom Come" - a
publication of the Association Of The Covenant People, Burnaby,
B.C. Canada.
