Mistaken Identity

In 2006, Laura van Ryn and Whitney Cerak, two schoolteachers, were in a school van that was in an accident. Among the dead was Laura, whose body was mistaken as Whitney’s, who survived. Whitney’s family buried Laura, while Laura’s family cared for Whitney. Only when Whitney woke from her coma and identified herself did the families realize the immensity of their mix-up.

A mistaken identity can be damaging, especially when someone falsifies or steals someone’s identity. The high priest Caiaphas thought Jesus did just that – stole someone’s identity.

After capturing Jesus at Gethsemane, they took him to Caiaphas’s house, where the high priests and scribes had gathered (Mark 14:53). The Sanhedrin (aka Council) was the Hebrews’ supreme high court. It comprised twenty-three rabbis from priests, scribes, elders, Pharisees, and Sadducees if they decided on non-capital cases and seventy-one in capital cases. The ruling high priest, Caiaphas, headed the Sanhedrin and had the final deciding vote if the decision was split evenly. Although the Sanhedrin generally met at the temple during the daytime to judge a capital case, they made an exception in Jesus’s case. They met at Caiaphas’s house at nighttime (14:55). They sat while making the judgments.

For a capital case to result in capital punishment, they needed at least two witnesses according to the law (Deut 17:6). The Sanhedrin searched for two witnesses to agree in their accusations against Jesus (Mark 14:55–59). Several gave testimonies, but their testimonies weren’t unanimous. The high court was at a deadlock, unable to condemn Jesus to death.

Caiaphas stood in their midst, perhaps out of frustration, and asked Jesus if he had a reply to the false testimonies. Jesus didn’t answer. Then Caiaphas asked,

“Are you Christ, the son of the Blessed?” (14:61), meaning if he were Israel’s Messiah.

Jesus said,

“I AM. And you will see me sitting at the right hand of Power, among the clouds of heaven.” (14:62)*

Jesus’s reply upset the high priest for three reasons. First, Jesus said, “I I-am” (ego eimi). Although this pronoun (“I”) + verb (“I-am”) combination can be used for “Yes, I am he,” not many people used it because it reflected a portion of YHWH’s name: ego eimi o on “I am who be.” For Caiaphas, that itself would have been blasphemous.

Second, Jesus said, “You will see me sitting at the right hand of Power, among the clouds of heaven.” In ancient cultures, the high king’s most significant commander sat at the right hand of the high king, and the Hebrews believed that that seat belonged to the ruling high priest. But Jesus said he sat there, although he wasn’t a Levitical priest or high priest. (The author of Hebrews circumvents this by showing Jesus was a Melchizedek high priest to whom Levitical high priests paid homage.)

Third, Jesus said he was sitting. The Sanhedrin would have understood that as a gesture of judgment, and Jesus said he would be the next judge, not the high priest.

Caiaphas took this personally. Jesus was replacing him. So, he tore his tunic, accused Jesus of blasphemy (a speech against the Almighty), and asked for his punishment (Mark 14:63).** The Sanhedrin unanimously agreed Jesus needed to die (14:64–65).

People still find Jesus’s claim blasphemous – how could he be the only “greatest”? But his priesthood purchases our salvation.

* The phrase “and coming” was added in manuscripts, perhaps because of 13:26.

** High priests wore two pieces of clothing: a tunic inside the priestly garment. The latter shouldn’t be torn (Lev 21:10).