"Caiaphas, Priest of the Most High God, to the Masters of Israel, greeting: In obedience to your demands for a reason for my action in the case of Jesus of Nazareth, and in defense of my conduct, I beg leave to submit the following for your consideration: I would assure you that it was not  on account of personal malice, envy, or hate, that existed in my own nature, nor for the waqnt of a willingness upon my part to conform to the Jewish law in its strictest sense. I had but very little personal knowledge of the Nazarene. The most I knew of this man was from outside sources. Nor was it because he claimed to be the King of the Jews, now because he said he was the Son of God--I would that he were---nor because he prophesied or ignored the holy temple. No, nor all of these combined. There is a cause, and a more weighty matter, back of all these things that controlled my action in the matter. Therefore, I hope you will investigate strictly on legal principles the reasons that I may give."

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"In order that you may be able to see and weigh the question fully, and remember the responsibility that rests upon me according to the laws of our nation, I will ask you to go back with me to the chronicles of our history as a commonwealth. First, our faith is pledged to one living and true God, this God being indescribable, unchangeable, incomprehensible, and, of course, unnameable. But yet in our daily communications with, and our applications to Him, He has been pleased to give us His name, or His several names, according to His relations to us, and they are found nowhere, only in the ark of His holy temple---there where He presents unto us His strength and power. He call himself Eloi,  which means almighty in strength; that He can do what He will without effort; that He does the greatest thing as easy as He does the least. This makes Him different from all beings. Himself Elaah---existence without beginning, and no contingency as to His end. Again, He writes Himself Hhelejon---unchangeable; that is, nothing but His own will can change Him. He records His name Jah---knowledge that comprehends without being comprehended. He is Adonai---full and free, and freely full. Combining the several names we have---Jehovah---the Hebrew God.

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God said to Moses that He had changed the laws, converted the elements for the protection of His people, and with His own arm had delivered them out of a strong compact; and that they might remember, and that the generation to be born might remember and never forget to trust in Him when in danger, He said that once every year we should roast a kid or lamb, and eat it with unleavened bread, and this should be the sign that we would trust in Him in all times of danger. 

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Now Jesus teaches that common bread and wine are to be used instead thereof--a thing unheard of. (New Covenant, emphasis mine) And not only so, something that is altogether repugnant to God, and something that fosters drunkenness, and is well qualified to excite men's passions. Oh, ye Masters of Israel, but think once. Jesus calls himself the Son of God; claims to have been born of almah (Hebrew word for Virgin) ; that he and his Father are one--they are equal. (Note: Jesus said he and the Father were one; but he never said they were equal, emphasis mine) These thing will establish the following conclusions: If he is right, his Father is false. If they were one, then their teachings would be one; (Obvious Jewish deliberate ignorance to understand the Father sent Jesus to change some things that will only be understood by the coming of the Holy Spirit to mankind! emphasis mine) 

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By tolerating the teachings of Jesus, we say to the Romans that all of our former teachings are false; that the Hebrew's God is not to be trusted; that He is vacillating and not to be trusted, much less to be honored and obeyed. Thus the world will lose confidence in our God, and confidence in us as a religious people. (This is an excellent example of the Jewish leadership's pure carnal thinking emphasizing physical rituals and their power as the priests over the people of God, emphasis mine)_

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Jesus teachings excludes our hope in the salvation of our forefathers, who have obeyed God in His ordinances, believed in His promises, and shouted in the triumphs of a holy life for fourteen hundred years. He entirely ignores God's holy temple---the house God had built by our forefathers under His own supervision, where He promised to dwell with His children, to hear their prayers, and to be pleased with their sacrifices. This temple is the bond of the Jews. Here all men can come and be blessed.

(This should help you understand why in 70 A.D. God allowed Titus to level the temple to the ground except for the piece of outer wall that remains today in Jerusalem, these Sabbath keepers worshiped their rituals and holy days and new moon feasts more than God. reference: John 4:19-26  The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.  Our fathers worshiped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.

   Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.

   But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeks such to worship Him.

   God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

   The woman saith unto him, I know that the Messiah is coming, which is called Christ: when He is come, he will tell us all things.

   Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am He.

Emphasis mine)

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Jesus completely ignores this temple; says the priests have made it a den of thieves; and sets up a sneer, and even scoffs at its sacred ordinances, and with a sort of selfish triumph says it shall be destroyed; and from his manner of saying it, I have no doubt he would be glad to see it quickly done. Jesus ignores in our laws, Section 13, this command has been given; Thou shall pay to the Lord thy God once a year a half-shekel of silver, that you and your children, and all the strangers that are within thy gate, may know that there is no God beside Me, on whom they may call in time of danger. Now, having all these commands from the very lips of God Himself before my eyes, and being held responsible for the soundness of our doctrine and the proper inculcation of the same among the people of the Jews, what was I to do? Could I stand as the priest of the Most High God, and see your religion perverted by an impostor? Could I stand by and see all the holy ordinances, which had been appointed by our God for securing salvation to Israel, perverted by an impostor?

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I refer you to the capitulation made by the Sanhedrin and Augustus Caesar, in the holy Tosephta of the Talmuds. We submitted to taxation by the Romans, and the Romans are to protect our holy religion from foreign foes.

 

The insinuating plan adopted by Jesus was well qualified to deceive the common people. There are two reasons for this:

First, the people to whom He preached were an ignorant set, and knew but very little about doctrine of any kind. They are a restless sort of men, who are always finding fault and wanting something new, and never associate with the more enlightened part of the community in order to learn. Second of all, He has so many followers because His doctrines are congenial to unsanctified flesh. They are so suited to human nature that they require no sacrifices; they need not go to the temple to worship God; they need not fast, and they can when and where they please.

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One of my guards informs me there was never seen such a concourse of people assembled at Jerusalem as at the cross;  that there were several hundred thousand, and, although there were two others crucified at the same time, Jesus was the great centre of attraction. They were calling out "take him down", some would say, "what is his crime"? others would answer back, "nothing! he is being executed because he was a friend to the poor". 

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It seems a necessity that he should be removed. That this may be evident to your minds, I ask you to contrast our present condition with the past. If the healing miracles of Jesus are true, as they must be (for they are acknowledged by his foes as well as his friends), he must have learned it from Horus and Serapis, as practised by those heathen priests. In addition to this, he taught ow morals, and so void of all ritualistic ideas that it was easy for him to get any number of followers. He taught the people that there was but on living and true God, but he taught them that he was that God, and that his father was merged into himself only through him.

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Now, the preaching of John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth had brought all these things upon us. When Herod Antipas captured John, it quieted matters in Galilee, so that they had peace until Jesus started it up afresh. I had issued orders to Jesus to desist from preaching, unless he taught as the Jews taught. He sent me the important word that is doctrine was not of this world, but had reference to the world to come; when he was all the time doing all he could to destroy the peace and harmony of this world.

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According to our law, it is my duty to examine all the sermons of preaching priests, and if anyone  teaches the people wrongly, I am to cause him to desist. If he be guilty of misconduct in any way, either in manner of life or doctrine, to adjudge such an one, and pronounce sentence for his crime upon him. This I did upon Jesus of Nazareth, to save the church from heresy, and to save the cause of the Jewish commonwealth from final ruin. But understand I did not act rashly nor illegally, as I am accused. I only passed sentence under the protest and order of the whole court belonging to the high priest. So you see it was not my voluntary act, but was a legal one and in accordance with law. Thus, it became my painful duty to send charges to Pilate.

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