26:3 Then assembled. An official meeting of the Sanhedrin.
The chief priests. The high priests, Annas and Caiaphas, and the heads of the twenty-four courses.
The elders of the people. The heads of the great families, the princes of Judah.
Unto the palace of the high priest. The palace of Caiaphas. The body now about to assemble, the Sanhedrin, was the supreme court of Israel. According to Jewish accounts, it was composed of seventy-one members, the high priest being president. The chief priests, or heads of the twenty-four courses, distinguished representatives of the scribes, and elders of the people, the heads of the great families, constituted the membership. It could try and condemn to death, but could not carry out capital punishment without the consent of the Roman authorities at this time. It was mostly composed of bitter, bigoted enemies of Jesus, determined at any cost to secure his death. In the trial the Jewish law was constantly violated.
Caiaphas. The reigning high priest, the son-on-law of Annas, who had been high priest, but was deposed by the Romans, but was still called a high priest. Both were Sadducees.
26:3 The chief priests and the scribes and the elders of the people - (Heads of families.) These together constituted the sanhedrim, or great council, which had the supreme authority, both in civil and ecclesiastical affairs.
26:1-5 Our Lord had often told of his sufferings as at a distance, now he speaks of them as at hand. At the same time the Jewish council consulted how they might put him to death secretly. But it pleased God to defeat their intention. Jesus, the true paschal Lamb, was to be sacrificed for us at that very time, and his death and resurrection rendered public.
