I Appeal To Caesar!

intentions towards them. It was further an indignity and a profanation for the House of God to be turned into a market-hall, and surely also a disturbance to devotion and to the divine service, especially at festival times, when there was a great throng of pilgrims. It was even forbidden by the Temple laws to enter the building with baggage or a purse. Lastly, it was also an occasion of fraud and usury, and perhaps of disgraceful avarice on the part of the priests and rulers of the Temple, who derived pecuniary profit from it …. We hereby gain a glimpse of the decay of true piety, at least among the leaders of the people.” Wilbur Smith, Peloubet’s Select Notes, 1961. P. 7 Proposed Site of Water Baptism at Pentecost. “Just east of the Antonia Fortress [in an open area just north of the outside of the Court of the Gentiles] was the Pool of Israel, where sheep for sacrifice were brought to be washed. Between the Pool of Israel and the Antonia Fortress was the northern gate of the temple, where people habitually gathered.” Alec Garrard, The Splendor of the Temple, p. 75. This place seems the most likely place for such an occasion. P. 8 Sanhedrin. Probably the six-page discussion of the Sanhedrin in the Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, pp. 268-273, is more than enough information for the average reader, especially the last section, “7. The Sanhedrin in the NT.” This brief statement occurs there: “In the stoning of Stephen, however, the court appeared in a bad light, being guilty of an illegal, as well as an impetuous act,” p. 273. P.8 Gamaliel: Acts 5:34-39; 22:3. Nicodemus: John 3:1-12; 7:50-52; 19:39-40. Joseph of Arimathea: Mark 15:43, 46; Luke 23:51, 53; John 19:38-40. Note John 19:38-42: “After this, Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly, for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus; and Pilate gave him permission … And Nicodemus, who at first came to Jesus by night, also came … Now in that place where He was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. So there they laid Jesus….” Note that Joseph “had not consented to their plan and action” to crucify Jesus (Luke 23:51).

P. 8 Jesus’ Talk with Nicodemus. John 3:1-21.