John 18:12Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

They lead Him “to Annas, the father-in-law of Caiaphas.” From this the thought arises in us that he was the author and arranger of the crime against Christ. Probably the betrayer who had sold himself demanded from him the crowd of servants and soldiers for taking Christ. Therefore He is led to him first.

Thus for the Jews and for us, what they were saying through the voice of the prophet had already proved true and fulfilled: “Let us bind the righteous man, because he is of no use to us” (Is 3:10).

Indeed, Christ was of no use to the Jews, not because He Himself was such, but because to them He seemed to bring nothing better. They had a disposition that loved sin and the passions. He introduced a righteousness beyond the law and set forth for knowledge, without any covering, the true will of the God who loves the good.

The law did not proceed in this way. Through shadow and riddles, indirectly and only barely, it indicated to its hearers what could bring them benefit.

Thus, for those with impaired sight, the light of the sun is perhaps of no use, since illness prevents it from benefiting them. And to those suffering a diseased condition of health, foods seem almost wholly useless, though they can bring the desired health.

So also Christ seemed to the Jews to be somehow useless, although He was the author of salvation, for salvation was not dear to them. And they sent Him bound to Caiaphas the high priest.

“This was Caiaphas who had advised the Jews that it was expedient for one man to die for the people.” Therefore, through the scheming of Annas and the wickedness of those hired for this, the sacred and holy Sacrifice, that is, Christ, was caught. Taken in the nets, He is led to the author or director of the unrighteous slaughter.

This was Caiaphas, though he was crowned with the grace of priesthood. Thus, as in word he appears the originator of the murder, so afterward he proves the firstfruits of the wicked deed itself. For he receives Jesus bound. As the fruit, so to speak, of his counsel and impious designs, the wretched man committed this deed, the most impious of all evils. For what can be more grievous than impiety against Christ?

But now, since the Jews sinned not against a man, but against God become man, “Woe to their soul! Let us bind the righteous man.” But could He not, someone will say, loose Himself, He who loosed Lazarus from the bonds of death after four days (Jn 11), and loosed Peter from the iron chains of prison (Acts 12:7)?

The angels stand ready, saying, “Let us burst their bonds” (cf. Ps 2:3). Yet they are restrained from this, because the Master wills to endure it.

Yet these men so boldly touch this spiritual ark that He begins even to complain: 'Man has trampled Me; My enemies have trampled Me' (Ps 59:2-3). He once asked: 'Someone touched Me, for I perceived power going out from Me' (Lk 8:46). But here the bloodthirsty touch Him so fiercely that His strength is now wholly weakened. For He says: 'My strength has left Me' (Ps 37:11). Some tear at His hair, others strike Him with fists, and others beat Him with weapons and clubs. They not only deprive Him of bodily strength, but also prepare for Him the path to a speedy death. He laments in Job: 'At night my bones are pierced, and my sinews have no rest; You attack Me without mercy, and with a strong hand You war against Me' (Job 30:17, 21). Delilah once bound Samson and cried loudly to him: 'The foreigners are upon you, Samson!' (Judg 16:19-20). Then the bonds on him broke apart, as though fire had burned them. Cunning Delilah, the malice of the Jews, has bound You, almighty Samson, Christ the Savior. Why do You not tear apart the bonds and cast off their yoke? Where is Your strength, O Lord mighty in battles? Yet You say to them: 'Do you think that I cannot now entreat My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels?' (Mt 26:53). They bind Him who binds the water in the clouds. They bind Him who gives freedom to the bound, who brought Lazarus out of the prison of death and commanded that he be loosed. 'He whose hands are innocent' now Himself permits Himself to be bound. Stop, you flesh-devourers! 'The word of God is not bound' (2 Tim 2:9). Halt, barbarians! These are the hands before which flame is afraid and loses its power. These are the hands before which death trembles: 'Taking her by the hand, He said, "I say to you, arise"' (Mk 5:41). These are the hands that heal withered hands and make the blind to see. They bind His hands so that He may not free them and feed them. They bind them so that He may not bless them. They bind liberty, so that they themselves may become eternal captives of the devil. They bind Him so that in due time He may say to them: 'Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into the outer darkness' (Mt 22:13). Once Jeremiah, when seized, said to the people: 'Behold, I am in your hands; do with me what seems good and right in your eyes. Only know for certain that if you put me to death, you will bring innocent blood upon yourselves, upon this city, and upon its inhabitants. For truly the Lord sent me to you to speak all these words in your ears' (Jer 26:14-15). In exactly the same way, Christ, when seized, could have said the same. What do they answer to this? 'His blood be on us and on our children' (Mt 27:25). Thus they take Him as a criminal and bring Him in triumph to the place. They set Him before the chief priests, scribes, and elders of the people. They question Him about His teaching and His disciples, and they seek false witnesses. 'They sought false testimony against Jesus, and found none' (Mt 26:59-60). Jesus did not answer these false testimonies.

After Judea was joined to the Roman Empire, the confirmation and replacement of high priests depended on the Roman governors. They often changed them, appointing men pleasing to themselves. In general, they did not like one and the same person to remain long in this office. In addition, the first man in a priestly division was also called high priest.

Thus, besides the one actual high priest, who at that time was Caiaphas, there were many so-called chief priests. Such chief priests and rulers of the temple joined the crowd of guards sent for Jesus.

Seeing them, Jesus said: “Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs, to take Me? I was with you daily in the temple, and you did not lay hands on Me. But this is your hour, and the power of darkness” (Lk 22:52-53).

After this, the guards, having fully come to themselves, approached Jesus at the command of the chief priests and elders and bound Him. Then the Apostles, fearing that the same fate would befall them, immediately left their Teacher and fled. And the prophecy was fulfilled: “I will strike the Shepherd, and His sheep will be scattered” (Zech 13:7; Mt 26:31).

When one of the servants, wishing to ascertain his identity, seized him by the edge of the blanket, he tore himself away in fear from the servant’s hands. Leaving the blanket in his hands, he fled naked into the darkness. According to tradition, this was St. Mark, who alone tells of this event.

Approximately there, even then, there was a bridge across the Kidron valley. It was over this bridge that the Lord Jesus Christ had to pass.

The unruly crowd, taking advantage of the place, thrust Him down from the bridge. There, on the gray rock, as though on wax, the mark of His body was clearly imprinted.

According to some accounts, the imprint of the feet of Jesus Christ remained there. According to others, the marks of His hands and feet remained. According to still others, the hands, knees, and feet were marked, or even the whole body.

A Greek description says that in front of the tombs of Absalom and Isaiah, in the middle of the valley, on a hard rock, are the footprints of our Lord.

The same tradition says that these marks on the stony slope of the valley of Jehoshaphat remained unchanged, though believing pilgrims broke off pieces of the rock at that place and carried them away as a holy object.

After crossing the lower bridge, the crowd surrounding the bound holy Prisoner went toward the house of the high priest Annas. According to some accounts, they passed through the Golden Gate.

These gates, tradition says, had seen the glory of the Lord. They had seen how He entered Jerusalem triumphantly, as a king greeted with palm branches and cries of "Hosanna!"

Now the Jews themselves led Him again through these very gates, in order to mock His glory.

According to another account, below the bridge the Jews turned southwest. They went around the corner of the Jerusalem wall and entered the city, likewise to mock the Lord Jesus Christ, through the Dung Gate.

That gate was used for removing all kinds of impurity from the city.

Some even tried to measure exactly the distances between the separate points of the via captivitatis. According to some, from the garden of Gethsemane to the house of Annas was 1,800 steps, and between the houses of Annas and Caiaphas, 200 steps.

According to others, the first distance was 2,360 steps, and the second 230. Finally, some measured the entire way as one mile.

Before we express any suppositions concerning the road by which the Lord Jesus Christ passed from the garden of Gethsemane to His voluntary Passion, we must decide another question.

Where in modern Jerusalem is the place of the houses of Annas and Caiaphas, the endpoint of the via captivitatis?

Modern Jerusalem possesses no material evidence that would help us resolve this question. Turning to tradition as the only source left to us in this case, we see that the site of the palace of the high priest Annas is now occupied by a small Armenian convent.

Situated not far from the splendid Armenian monastery of St. James the son of Alphaeus, the monastery of the olive tree, as Sepp calls it, shelters within its walls about one hundred Armenian nuns.

On its northern side, outside the church building, there formerly stood an old olive tree, enclosed by a lattice. In 1673 its place was taken by a young shoot from the root, which soon became a large tree.

Pilgrims reverently took away its dry branches and kernels. The tree was still seen in 1751, but in recent times only a lamp burning in a niche recalls it.

Tradition makes this olive tree a holy place. The Lord Jesus Christ, brought from the garden of Gethsemane, was tied to the olive tree that grew in the courtyard of the high priest Annas.

In the northern part of the small church, elegantly decorated with faience along the walls in the style of the church of St. James, the monastery superior points out a prison to the curious pilgrim.

There, the Lord was confined until the time when He was led for questioning to the high priest Caiaphas.

One of our monuments from the end of the fourteenth century makes this observation concerning the house of the high priest Annas. There on Mount Zion was the court of Annas the high priest.

There our Lord Jesus Christ sat in prison. Now that prison is in the Armenian church, where there is an Armenian monastery.

In that Armenian church, a large stone, said to have lain on the Lord's tomb, has been made into an altar. At that monastery is the hearth by whose fire Peter, the chief Apostle, warmed himself during the voluntary Passion of Christ.

The history of this monastery can be traced only from the fifteenth century. In 1498 the house of Annas, then a church dedicated to the holy Angels, still belonged to the Armenians.

In 1507 the Greeks took possession of it. In 1556 it again belonged to the Armenians, and only from the seventeenth century has there been a convent here.

About 170 steps southwest of this Armenian convent, and about 65 steps from the Zion Gate, between that gate and the building of Nebi-Daud, stands another monastery, now also Armenian property.

It is dedicated to the Savior and among the Arabs bears the name Habs el-Messieh. On this spot, according to tradition, stood the house or palace of the high priest Caiaphas, Παλατινον τοῦ Άρχιερέως Καϊάφα.

From the outside the monastery presents nothing but bare walls, built in a pentagonal form. A low iron door on the northern side leads into a courtyard, a paved space twenty-five steps long and ten wide.

The attention of one entering is first drawn to a grapevine. Its old trunk, more than a foot and a half in circumference, winds upward along the wall.

There it branches into many young shoots, forming with its beautiful thick foliage a bower. On three sides of the courtyard are covered galleries, serving as a shelter for marble tomb monuments with gold inscriptions.

Here lies the dust of several Armenian catholicoi of Jerusalem. On the fourth side a small door leads into the Armenian church.

Small in size, it gives a very pleasant impression inside. The whole floor is covered with carpets, and the walls are faced with rather ancient faience work.

But the reverent attention of the pilgrim is fixed on the high altar of the church. It contains the stone which supposedly guarded the entrance to the Savior's tomb.

It formerly belonged to the church of the Holy Sepulcher, from which the Armenians allegedly stole it by cunning only in the seventeenth century.

This stone is approximately six feet long. To protect it from pious damage, it is almost entirely covered with plaster. The Arabs call it the angelic stone, Hadschar el-Melak.

A few steps to the south, on the right, a small door leads into a narrow room in which two people can barely fit. This is properly the Habs el-Messieh of the Arabs.

It is the prison in which Jesus Christ was confined on the night of His questioning before the high priest Caiaphas.