Reflections on the Trials of Jesus That we are given quite different accounts is, of course, well known. For a
start, in the Synoptics the Last Supper is a Passover meal at which the paschal
lamb is eaten, and in John it is merely a meal on the evening before Pass-
over. We may not be able to prove which, if either, of these versions is true,
though some reasons will be advanced below for preferring John’s version.
But what is logically beyond dispute is that they cannot both be historically
true; and therefore that at least one of them is false. I make no apology for
placing so much weight on the question of literal, non-metaphorical, non-
theological, mundane truth or falsehood; for that after all is what historians
are for.
The Gospels as Biography and History
Before offering a view on the fundamental question of historical truth, it is
essential, however briefly, to look at the Gospels overall when considered as
biographical narratives. I assume in the following discussion that the con-
ventional view that Mark’s Gospel is the earliest of the Synoptics is correct;
but also that Matthew represents a development of Mark, and that Luke has
probably used both; and that John is independent. The trial narratives them-
selves, which represent so prominent a part of the structure of each of the
Gospels, lend strong support to these views.
I take up no position on the sources of the Gospels, or on the question
of the absolute date when any one of them was written, or even on whether
they were written before or after the siege of Jerusalem and the destruction
of the Temple in... All that seems to me to be certain of all four is
that they could not have come to be as they are without their deriving in
some sense, direct or indirect, from an environment in which the geography
and social structure of pre-.. Palestine was familiar; and, more impor-
tant, an environment in which theconcernsof pre- Jewish society were
still significant, whether we think of the high priests and ‘‘the Sanhedrin,’’
of Pharisees and Sadducees, of the relations between Galilee, Samaria, and
Judaea, or of the centrality of the Temple and of pilgrimage to it, and of the
major festivals celebrated there, Passover above all. In a profound sense, the
world of the Gospelsisthat of Josephus. But there remains one major puzzle,
to which too little attention has been directed: in the Synoptic Gospels two
groups calledgrammateis(scribes) andpresbyteroi(elders) play a major role. But
these terms, in the plural, as designations of apparently definable groups, are
unknown to Josephus’ accounts of the period, in theWarand theAntiqui-
ties; it may therefore be significant that they are also unknown to John. With
that exception, and allowing for very considerable variations between them,