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It is often assumed that Yeshua’s overnight inquisition was under the auspices of a legal hearing conducted by Annas and his family. Be assured, there was nothing legal about it. The real and legal trial of Yeshua began at sunrise and continued through the bulk of the daylight hours.

In the early morning of the fourth day of the week - "Wednesday" - at about 0600 hours on what was the first day of Unleavened Bread (according to the Sons of Tzadok calendar of sevens),  Yeshua's legal "criminal" trial began under Caiaphas and the Jerusalem Sanhedrin in their Chamber of Hewn Stones. After hearing his testimony, the court transferred him to Roman Prefect Pontius Pilatus.

"Pilate" spoke to Yeshua (John 18) in a FIRST interview and then concluded that he had done nothing deserving of crucifixion. Meanwhile, the collective voice of the Judeans grew louder in protest.  On hearing that Yeshua was from Galilee, Pilate decided to send Yeshua to Herod who happened to be in Jerusalem. Herod mocked Yeshua and then sent him back to Pilate. In the meantime, the legal Jerusalem Sanhedrin conducted more courtroom deliberations and heard more testimony.

By sunset, they had already ruled for Yeshua's crucifixion. However, under the Judean Oral Law legal system, the court had to wait until the next day (the following morning) to make their ruling official as it is written in the Mishnah at Sanhedrin IV:1 -

• In cases of capital law, the court may conclude the deliberations and issue the ruling even on that same day to acquit the accused but must wait until the following day to find him liable (meaning the accused will likely not be acquitted). Therefore, since capital cases might continue for two days, the court does not judge cases of capital law on certain days, neither on the eve of Shabbat nor the eve of a Festival.

Therefore, early the next morning on the fifth day of the week - "Thursday" - the second day of Unleavened Bread (according to the Sons of Tzadok priestly calendar reckoning), the Sanhedrin sealed their official ruling and sent Yeshua back to Pilate for a SECOND interview to authorize his crucifixion under Judean court order. Pilate washed his hands in the matter and declared, "Behold the Man!" and Yeshua was led away to his crucifixion at about 0900 hours.

Let's learn more about all of this with today's episode 130 and PART 17 in our study of the events of Yeshua's last Passover week, which led to his crucifixion and his third-day resurrection.

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