ACC ~ Matthew 26 v57

THEY LED HIM TO CAIAPHAS

JEROME: In accordance with God’s command, Moses ordered that high priests should succeed their fathers and a line of descent should be woven among priests. Josephus relates that the disreputable Caiaphas purchased the high priesthood from Herod for one year only. [1] No wonder, then, the dishonorable high priest judges dishonorably. COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 4.26.57. [2]

[1] Josephus Ant. 18.2.2, 4.3.

[2] CCL 77:259.

THE SCRIBES AND ELDERS HAD GATHERED

ORIGEN: I believe the word for Jewish slavery whereby poor and abandoned persons now profess to be slaves is “Caiaphas.” He is known as the high priest who, at odds with the truth, rails against Jesus. But Jesus according to the truth is a priest, the Word of God; under him are established all who worthily and zealously serve God the Father. Where the high priest Caiaphas is found, however, there the scribes come together, that is, learned men who preside over the perishing written word. While being scribes, they are also elders who preside not over the truth but over the classic usage of a mere word. [1] They are unwilling to consider anything beyond that. COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 105. [2]

[1] As is his habit, Origen stresses the inability of the Jews to understand the spiritual sense of the Old Testament, which has prevented them from accepting Christ. The mention in the Gospels of the elders of the people recalls the antiquity and thus insufficiency of the literal meaning of the Scriptures, which by now are superseded by the newness of the spiritual meaning revealed by Christ.

[2] GCS 38.2:225.