Suffered under Pontius Pilate - Page 2

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Jesus is arrested

At the end of this Last Supper, Judas Iscariot went to the chief priests and told them that a little later that night they could catch Jesus alone with the rest of his disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives.  So Judas got his 30 pieces of silver.

A large band of men, armed with swords and heavy sticks, was at once sent to the Garden, and Judas, who led the way, pointed out Jesus to them by walking up to him and kissing him.  Then all the disciples forsook Jesus and fled.

Jesus before Caiaphas

Jesus was taken off to Caiaphas who had in the meantime called all the rulers together.  They had already decided that Jesus should die but they wanted to satisfy the Jewish people, and so the first thing they had to do was to sentence him to death under the Jewish Law.  Caiaphas managed this by asking Jesus if he were the Son of God.  Jesus told the truth and said he was.  At once Caiaphas said Jesus had committed blasphemy (that is, spoken in a wicked way about God), the punishment for which was death.

The Jewish rulers, however, had not the power to put anyone to death; only the Romans had that.  So Jesus was taken to Pontius Pilate who was the Roman governor in charge of that part of Palestine.  The chief priests now had to get Pilate to sentence Jesus under Roman Law.