Judas said to them, “I will take you to where he is with his students. And so that you can distinguish him from all the others, watch for this: whomever I kiss first, that will be him.”
And right away he went up to Jesus and said, “Hello, teacher!”
And he kissed him.
And Jesus said to him, “Friend! Why are you here?”
Then the guards surrounded Jesus, wanting to take him.
And at this point Peter took the knife of the bishops’ servant and severed the man’s ear.
Jesus said, “There is no need to oppose evil. Leave it alone.”
And to Peter, he said, “Give the knife back to the one you took it from. Whoever takes up the sword will perish by the sword.”
After this Jesus turned to the whole crowd and said, “Why have you come to me, like bandits, with weapons? I have been among you every day, after all, at the temple, teaching you, and you did not take me then. Your time has come as has the power of darkness.”
Then, having seen that he had been taken, all the students scattered.
Then the chief commanded the soldiers to take Jesus and bind him. The soldiers bound him and took him first to Anan, who was the father-in-law of Caiaphus. Caiaphus was the high priest for the current year and lived in the same courtyard as Anan. This was the same Caiaphus who had devised the way to destroy Jesus. He had proposed that it would be beneficial for the nation to destroy Jesus because if they did not destroy Jesus, it would be bad for the whole nation.
And Jesus was taken into the courtyard of the home where the high priest lived. When Jesus was being taken there, one of his students, Peter, followed after him at some distance and saw where he was being taken. When they took Jesus into the courtyard of the high priest, Peter went in as well to see how it all would end.
And a certain girl in the courtyard saw Peter and said to him, “You were with Jesus the Galilean also.”
Peter was scared that he would be condemned as well, so he loudly said, in front of all the people, “I do not know what you are saying.”
Then, when Jesus had been taken into the home, Peter went with all the people into the inner porch. On the porch, there was a woman keeping warm by a fire as Peter approached.
The woman glanced at Peter and said to the other people, “Look at this man, it seems to me that he was with Jesus the Nazarene also.”
Peter was scared even more and swore that he had never been with Jesus and did not know who this man Jesus was.
A short time later, some people came to Peter and said, “But by all appearances you were one of these insurgents. We can tell by your accent that you are from Galilee.”
Then Peter began to swear and vow that he never knew and had never seen Jesus. And just as he said this, the cock crowed. And Peter remembered the words that Jesus had said when Peter swore that even if all the others denied him, he would never deny him, “Before the cock crows to end this night, you will deny me three times.” And Peter left the courtyard and cried bitterly. He cried because he had failed to raise his spirit high enough to avoid falling into temptation. He had fallen into the one temptation of violence, when he had begun to defend Jesus, and into the other temptation of fear before death when he had denied Jesus.
And the orthodox bishops, dogmatists and leaders all gathered together at the high priest’s home. And when they had all come together, they brought in Jesus, and the high priest asked him what his teaching was and who his students were.
And Jesus answered, “I have always spoken openly to the world and I am speaking that way now. I have never hidden anything from anyone and am not hiding anything now. Why is it that you are asking me? Ask those that listened to me and understood my teaching. They will tell you.”
When Jesus had said this, one of the bishops’ servants hit Jesus in the face, saying, “Do you know who you are speaking to? Is that how one ought to speak to a bishop?”
Jesus said, “If I said something wrong, tell me that I said something wrong. But if I did not say anything wrong, then you have no reason to hit me.”
The orthodox bishops attempted to accuse Jesus and at first they could not find the sort of evidence that would be required in order to sentence him. Then they found two witnesses.
These witnesses said of Jesus, “We heard with our own ears what this man said: ‘I,’ he said, ‘will destroy this man-made temple of yours and in three days will build another temple to God—one made without human hands.’”
But these pieces of evidence were still not enough to convict him.
Therefore the bishop decided to challenge Jesus and said, “What is keeping you from answering their statements?”
Jesus was silent and did not say anything.
Then the bishop said to him, “Then tell us, are you the Christ, the son of God?”
Jesus answered him by saying, “Yes, I am the Christ, the son of God. And you yourselves will see now that the son of man is equal to God.”
Then the bishop shouted, “You are blaspheming against God! And now we have no need for additional evidence. We all can hear now that you are a blasphemer.”
And the bishop turned to the council and said, “Now you have heard for yourselves that he blasphemes against God. What sentence will you give him for this crime?”
And they all said, “We sentence him to death.”
And then all of the people and the guards fell upon Jesus and began to spit in his face and to slap his cheeks and scratch him.
They bound his eyes, hit him about the face and asked, “Well now, you prophet, take a guess: who is it that hit you?”
And Jesus was silent.
Having humiliated him, they took the bound man to Pontius Pilate, leading him to the administration.
Pilate, the ruler, came out to them and asked, “What do you accuse this man of doing?”
They said, “This man does evil, and that is why we have brought him to you.”
And Pilate said to them, “But if he does evil to you, then you should judge him yourselves according to your law.” But they said, “We have brought him to you because we want you to execute him; we are not allowed to kill anyone.”
And that is how what Jesus had expected came to pass. He had said that he must be prepared to die on a cross at the hands of the Romans, and not a natural death and not at the hands of the Jews.
When Pilate had asked them what they were accusing him of doing, they said that he was guilty of inciting the people to rebellion, that he had forbidden them from paying their taxes to Caesar and that he presented himself as the Christ and a king.
Pilate listened to them and commanded that Jesus be brought to him in his chambers.
When Jesus came in, Pilate said to him, “Are you this Jewish king?”
Jesus said to him, “Do you really suspect that I am a king or are you just repeating what the others have told you?”
Pilate said, “I am not a Jew. Accordingly, you cannot be my king, but your own people have brought you to me. What sort of man are you?”
Jesus said, “I am a king, but my kingdom is not an earthly one. If I were an earthly king, my subjects would be fighting for me and not surrendering to the bishops. But as you can see, my kingdom is not an earthly one.”
Pilate said to this, “But all the same, you consider yourself a king?”
Jesus said, “Not only I, but you also must consider me a king. I make this point only in order to reveal to everyone the truth of the kingdom of heaven. And everyone who lives by the truth is a king.”
Pilate said, “You say: truth. What is truth?” And having said that, he turned and went back to the bishops. He went out to them and said, “In my opinion, this man has not done anything wrong.”
But the bishops insisted, saying that he had done considerable evil and had incited the people to rebellion, that he had incited all of Judea, starting in Galilee.