Careful study also serves to cast some light on the sites connected with our Lord’s Passion, including those of the palaces of Annas and Caiaphas, the Prætorium, the palace of Herod, and the Golgotha. It should be noted that the Sanhedrin[291] assembled first in the “Chamber of Hewn Stone,” which was near the south-west corner of the Priests’ Court. But forty years before the fall of Jerusalem--according to rabbinical tradition--when the power of life and death had been taken from this assembly by the procurators, “the Sanhedrin transferred itself and established itself in vaulted buildings”[292] (or “in a vaulted building”), by which we may well understand the “Council House” (_boulê_ or _bouleutêrion_), which--as we have seen--was possibly the “ancient hall” found by Sir Charles Warren outside the West Gate of the Temple. Josephus also notices the house of a high-priest (Ananias) apparently as being near the Hasmonæan palace (rebuilt by Agrippa II. in the north-east corner of the upper city), or close to the “Council House.”[293] These indications are valuable, because the time between the first appearance of Jesus before the procurator and the hour of crucifixion is limited. If the latter occurred at 9 a.m., and the first appearance before Pilate “in the morning”--that is to say, after 6 a.m.--we have only three hours, during which time the various events of the trial occurred. These included the first examination by Pilate, the transference to Herod’s palace, the mocking, the return to Pilate’s tribunal, the scourging and crowning with thorns, after a second examination, and Pilate’s interviews with priests and people; finally, the slow procession of the cross to Calvary, and the preparations for crucifixion. When the author of the fourth Gospel speaks of the “sixth hour” as that when the words “Behold your King” were uttered, we can only suppose that some clerical error has arisen, as this contradicts the older Gospel.[294] The time is so short for the various events that the various places mentioned should be sought in close proximity to one another.