Mark 15:1

The verdict of the Sanhedrin 15:1 (cf. Matthew 27:1-2; Luke 22:66-71)

Matthew and Mark described this meeting as though it was separate from the earlier one (Mark 14:53-65). They probably did so to bring the reader back from the courtyard to the upper room in Caiaphas’ house. Yet the decision seems to have been a separate one from the conviction for blasphemy. The Roman authorities would not have prosecuted Jesus as a blasphemer. Consequently the Sanhedrin, evidently now at full strength or close to it, decided to charge Jesus with treason against the Roman government. This verse does not explain that decision, but Pilate’s examination of Jesus that follows shows that was the charge the Sanhedrin had made against Him.

"Jesus, who is, indeed, king of the Jews in a deeply spiritual sense, has refused to lead a political uprising. Yet now, condemned for blasphemy by the Jews because of his spiritual claims, he is accused by them also before Pilate by [sic] being precisely what he had disappointed the crowds for failing to be-a political insurgent." [Note: Moule, p. 124.]

Mark did not explain who Pilate was, as Matthew did, evidently because his Roman readers knew about Pilate.

"Pilate belonged to a special group of imperial administrators, consisting of men beneath the rank of senator, the so-called equestrian class or Roman ’knights.’ These magistrates, who owned a moderate minimum of property, were used to govern relatively small areas that required careful supervision. Their official title in the period prior to Claudius was not procurator but prefect (praefectus). . . . Pilate came to Judea in the year A.D. 26 as the fifth of the provincial prefects and remained in office ten years. He showed himself a harsh administrator who despised the Jewish people and their particular sensitivities." [Note: Lane, pp. 548-49.]

When Pilate visited Jerusalem from his provincial capital of Caesarea, he normally stayed in Herod’s palace on the northwest corner of the city or in the Fortress of Antonia just northwest of the temple. [Note: Hiebert, p. 379.] It was apparently to one of these places that the guards led Jesus in the early morning hours of Friday, the fifteenth of Nisan (April 3). Christian tradition favors the Fortress of Antonia, but modern commentators usually favor Herod’s palace.

"As Friday morning arrives and the death of Jesus approaches, Mark will slow time from days to hours. Such slowing of time is yet another way of calling attention to the pivotal importance of Jesus’ death." [Note: Kingsbury, p. 49.]

The Sanhedrin involved the Romans in Jesus’ trial because the Romans did not allow the Jews to execute anyone without their permission, though the Sanhedrin could pass a death sentence. The Jews probably bound Jesus to make Him look like a dangerous criminal. He would not have tried to escape.