Jerusalem- Caiaphas House

 Overview of Caiaphas House

 Steps Jesus walked on the way to Caiaphas House 

                                                                                                                                       

                                                                                                                                       

     Picture Depicting the scene of Jesus
 being dragged to Caiaphas House

                                                         

This was the place in Matthew 26:57,  that Jesus was taken to, after he was arrested by the Jewish soldiers in the garden of Gethsemane. They brought him there for trial, before Caiaphas,who was the Jewish high priest and all the teachers of the law and the elders had assembled at his house. According to, Matthew 26:59-63, the chief priests and the whole of the Sanhedrin were looking for false evidence to put Jesus to death. Later, two men had stood forward and they declared that Jesus said that, he is able to destroy and rebuilt the temple in three days. After Jesus had remained silent, Caiaphas got up and charged him under oath to tell them if he was the Messiah, the Son of God. 

Jesus replied in Matthew 26:64, saying that,“You have said so, but I say to all of you that you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty one and coming on the clouds of heaven.”That statement made Caiaphas tear Jesus clothes and accused him of Blasphemy.

 Prison dungeon that Jesus was believed to be held 

The guards left Jesus at Caiaphas house for the night. Caiaphas had a prison dungeon below his house for prisoners. On the left picture, you can see two black ropes on the top and another two below it. This was possibly where Jesus could have been held for the night, and the two top ropes could have been where his hands were tied and the bottom two ropes, was for his legs. Prisoners had to stay in this uncomfortable position whereby they could neither stand nor sit in the chamber.

 Statue of Peter's denial

Peter also followed him there to see the outcome of Jesus. In Luke 22:55-60, Peter was sitting down in the middle of the courtyard and a servant girl girl saw him and approached him. She claimed that Peter was with Jesus and he denied it and a moment later, a man claimed that Peter was with Jesus and he denied it before denying the claims for the third time, after which the rooster crowed.

 There is a statue build in the courtyard depicting the events that occurred to Peter's Denial. According to it, the man in front who seems to be waving his hands is Peter, and the servant girl behind him, claiming that he was a follower of Jesus and another man behind her, who also claimed that Peter was a follower of Christ. On his right, there is a Roman soldier observing the conversation between Peter and the servant girl and on the top, is a rooster which crowed at the end of Peter's Denial for the third time. 

I think that we need to understand the historical part of this content, to understand why Jesus had to be crucified. According to history, Caiaphas, who was the Jewish high priest, had survived as a High priest, for the longest possible time as compared to the other High Priests before him. He had very close ties with the Romans and was a very influential person. One of the reason why, Caiaphas wanted Jesus dead was because of the political situation in the region. According to historical records, Caiaphas and his associates lived lives of luxury and he actually was staying in a mansion during the trial of Jesus. Jesus threatened his political relationship with Rome, as Caiaphas had to work closely with Pilate, to maintain the peace in the region. Jesus was causing problems for their political positions, by threatening the peace in the region.

 Jesus had stormed into the temple and accused them of turning the temple into a den of thieves. He even challenged the laws and practices that were being implemented by the Chief Priests and Leaders. Jesus was causing chaos all over Jerusalem and the crowds of people were actually listening to him as they saw him as a prophet. Therefore, the Chief Priests tried very hard to trap him by questioning his authority and plotted many attempts to arrest him, but they did not have a legitimate reason for it.

Finally, after many unsuccessful efforts to find a reason to kill Jesus, Caiaphas finally used Blasphemy as a reason to trap and crucify Jesus.Therefore, the main reason why Jesus was killed, was due to political reasons and I hope that, the historical reference above will help you all to understand why the religious leaders, were so determined to kill Jesus.These were people who had great influence among the people and were in high positions. They even enjoyed great wealth and power. Jesus was threatening their lifestyle and potentially their future practices. Therefore I believe that, they wanted to stop Jesus influence, by killing him to silence him and then they could carry on with their current luxurious lifestyle and leadership positions.