accompanied by the question,
"Answerest thou the high priest so?" To this cowardly assault the Lord
replied with almost superhuman gentleness:[1255] "If I have spoken evil,
bear witness of the evil: but if well, why smitest thou me?" Combined
with submissiveness, however, this constituted another appeal to the
principles of justice; if what Jesus had said was evil, why did not the
assailant accuse Him; and if He had spoken well, what right had a police
officer to judge, condemn, and punish, and that too in the presence of
the high priest? Law and justice had been dethroned that night.

"Now the chief priests, and elders, and all the council, sought false
witness against Jesus, to put him to death."[1256] Whether "all the
council" means a legal quorum, which would be twenty-three or more, or a
full attendance of the seventy-two Sanhedrists, is of small importance.
Any sitting of the Sanhedrin at night, and more particularly for the
consideration of a capital charge, was directly in violation of Jewish
law. Likewise was it unlawful for the council to consider such a charge
on a Sabbath, a feast day, or on the eve of any such day. In the
Sanhedrin, every member was a judge; the judicial body was to hear the
testimony, and, according to that testimony and nought else, render a
decision on every case duly presented. The accusers were required to
appear in person; and they were to receive a preliminary warning against
bearing false witness. Every defendant was to be regarded and treated as
innocent until convicted in due course. But in the so-called trial of
Jesus, the judges not only sought witnesses, but specifically tried to
find false witnesses. Though many false witnesses came, yet there was no
"witness" or testimony against the Prisoner, for the suborned perjurers
failed to agree among themselves; and even the lawless Sanhedrists
hesitated to openly violate the fundamental requirement that at least
two concordant witnesses must testify against an accused person, for,
otherwise, the case had to be dismissed.

That Jesus was to be convicted on some charge or other, and be put to
death, had been already determined by the priestly judges; their failure
to find witnesses against Him threatened to delay the carrying out of
their nefarious scheme. Haste and precipitancy characterized their
procedure throughout; they had unlawfully caused Jesus to be arrested at
night; they were illegally going through the semblance of a trial