Caiaphas
power base was Sanhedrin, the supreme council of the Jews, which controlled
civil and religious laws. It had 71 member and mostly chief priests and
Caiaphas presided over its deliberations.
It has been discovered by archaeologists that Caiaphas and his
associates lived lives of luxury with large and lavishly decorated houses.
The
Sanhedrin however ruled because the Romans allowed them to keep peace and
maintain order in the society and
Caiaphas feared that if Jesus is not stopped He might cause the Romans
to revolt. Caiaphas himself was a Roman appointee, so he needed to keep cozy
with the Governor Pilate
in order to preserve his luxurious way of life and
remain in his position.
So, one
thing that aggravated the anger of caiaphas was the fact that Jesus undoubtedly
was gaining the interest of the people, they liked him and were paying more
attention to him (Jesus) rather than the priests themselves.
Also Jesus threatened the temple
and their source of income. This was the position in Mathew section 21
(12) and (13) (page 875 GNB) which states thus “And Jesus went into the temple of God
and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple and overthrew the tables
of the moneychangers, and seat of them that sold doves”. This was also
emphasized in (Mark section 11 (15).
The
business in the temple brought in huge revenue for the chief priest for simple
maters like purification and forgiveness of sins. The Jews always purify
themselves before worship with the Mikvehs and every body is considered unclean
if you are not purified. The dove is
used as a sign of purity especially during the period of Passover. The people
are charged for using the mikveh and purchase of the dove, so evidently this
two acts were all for money making and Jesus just caused them a huge lost which
caiaphas could no longer condone
Jesus took
the whole thing to be rubbish. He taught the people that the elaborate
purification rituals was absolutely unnecessary. He maintained that, the
kingdom of God was available to everyone and does not require any purification
or rituals to be there. Jesus went
further to accuse the money changers and dove sellers of extortion and turning
the temple into a den of thieves (see
Mark section 11 (17)
Jesus
action was an ultimate challenge to every other leader, He (Jesus) exercised
the position of God in the act of the people and did it without fear or respect
to caiaphas or his staffs in front of the crowd.
Caiaphas
had to something fast to show that he is still in charge, since Jesus was on a
roll and no one could tell what his next actions could be.