Mark 14:53

14:53-65 The story of Jesus’ trial follows immediately upon his arrest. Objections have been raised as to the historicity of the various accounts of Jesus’ trial, because of differences of detail from the rules found in the Mishnah tractate Mishnah Sanhedrin. However, (1) the Mishnah was written around AD 200, whereas the Gospel of Mark was written in the late 60s, over 130 years earlier; (2) the rules found in Mishnah Sanhedrin idealize what later rabbis thought should take place in such trials and do not necessarily describe what did in fact take place; (3) it is questionable whether the Sadducees leading the Sanhedrin would have followed the Pharisaic rules found in Mishnah Sanhedrin (see Acts 23:6-10); (4) the rules found in Mishnah Sanhedrin sometimes conflict with what the Jewish historian Josephus wrote; (5) existing laws of conduct were not necessarily followed—Jesus was being tried by a kangaroo court, in which the sentence was predetermined and only the charge for carrying it out was sought (Mark 14:55); (6) if we must choose between the trial accounts found in the Gospels and Mishnah Sanhedrin, there is no reason to choose the reliability of Mishnah Sanhedrin over that of the Gospels. 14:53-54 The leading priests, the elders, and the teachers of religious law were not synonymous with the “entire high council” (14:55; 15:1), or Sanhedrin, but they made up a large part of it. Peter followed Jesus into the high priest’s courtyard, where the Sanhedrin was meeting. The stage is set for Peter’s denial (14:66-72).