On the night of Maundy Thursday Our Lord was first taken to Annas, so that the old man could set the seal of his great authority on the subsequent proceedings.  He did this by personally committing Jesus for trial by the Sanhedrin, the Supreme Jewish Council, and accordingly sent him to Caiaphas, the Council’s President.

Joseph Caiaphas had been high priest for the past 11 years and was to continue for another seven before he was deposed, so long a tenure of office being a tribute to his political astuteness.  For Caiaphas was essentially a man of the world whose stock in trade was religion.

Our Lord’s attacks on the religious leaders had angered and alarmed Caiaphas, but what had decided the high priest to remove him was the raising of Lazarus from the dead, a public miracle which added enormously to Our Lord’s prestige in the capital.  Caiaphas, therefore, had immediately presided at a meeting at which he recommended that Our Lord should be put to death on the grounds that his popularity and the great following which he now had, were bound to culminate in armed conflict with the Roman government and bring merciless reprisals on the whole nation.

“…it is expedient for you”, he told this meeting, “that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation should not perish” (Catholic edition RSV, John 11:50).  Such a proposal was contrary to all principles of religion and morality, and so he put it forward under the cloak of patriotism.  Caiaphas was a firm believer in appearances.