(a) Outline Your Knowledge and Understanding of Luke’s Account of the 3 Trials of Jesus (35) (B) Comment on the Claim That Luke Presents Herod and Pilate as Reluctant to Condemn Jesus. Justify Your Answer (15)

R.E Luke’s Gospel Essay

(A) Outline your knowledge and understanding of Luke’s account of the 3 trials of Jesus (35)

(B) Comment on the claim that Luke presents Herod and Pilate as reluctant to condemn Jesus. Justify your answer (15)

(A) The trial before the Sanhedrin, the trial before Pilate, and the trial before Herod all make up the trials of Jesus, and the last one, the trial before Herod, is unique as Luke is the only one of the Gospel writers to tell it. Luke in general in his account of the trials, portrays Jesus to be calm, and not condemning of those accusing him; this is in keeping with his messianic message of forgiveness.

A peculiar aspect of Luke’s portrayal of the trial before the Sanhedrin is that Luke chronologically places Peter’s denial before the trial. This, it could be argued, is Luke’s way of playing down Peter's denial, as in the eyes of Jesus it was not so much his fault, he was possessed by Satan. This is reinforced by the fact that unlike Mark, there Peter is not said to have sworn. There is a common misconception however, that the trial was technically illegal, and should not have taken place, however Luke dismisses this argument, as he has Jesus taken into an ‘unofficial enquiry’ at night, where Mark has the trial at night, this would have made the trial illegal, however as, according to Luke it was this ‘unofficial enquiry’, then it, and the trial itself was technically legal, as it would have been illegal to hold the trial between sunset and sunrise. However according to Luke they did not call witnesses, this was evidence of the Sanhedrin ignoring rules as according to Jewish law a man could not be convicted by his own words. Wilkinson believes this is the case, arguing that Jewish guards mock Jesus before the trial in the morning, this was to pass the time before the trial. There are still however, some debate in regards to the historical accuracies of this passage in Luke, as if a prisoner was found guilty, and...