13. Et adduxerunt eum ad Annam 13. And they led him away to primum: erat enim socer Annas first, for he was Caiphae, qui erat pontifex father‐in‐law to Caiphas, who anni illius. was high‐priest of that year. 13. This journey to Annas is mentioned only by St. John. Annas, though not the actual high‐priest, was the head of the Sanhedrim, and a man of great authority among the Jews (see above on xi. 49), and so Jesus was brought before him in the first instance. 14. Erat autem Caiphas, qui 14. Now Caiphas was he who had consilium dederat Iudaeis: given the counsel to the Jews, Quia expedit, unum hominem that it was expedient that one mori pro populo. man should die for the people. 15. Sequebatur autem Iesum 15. And Simon Peter followed Simon Petrus, et alias Jesus, and so did another discipulus. Discipulus autem disciple. And that disciple ille erat notus pontifici, et was known to the high‐priest, introivit cum Iesu in atrium and went in with Jesus into pontificis. the court of the high‐priest. 15. The other disciple was almost certainly our Evangelist himself (see Introd. I. B. 2); and the fact that he was known to the high‐priest makes it probable that he belonged to a family of some importance. But who is the high‐priest into whose court Peter and John followed Jesus? Is it Caiphas that is meant, or Annas? Some think the reference is to Annas, who, it must be admitted, is called “high‐priest” by St. Luke (Luke iii. 2; Acts iv. 6), and to whom it has just been stated, in verse 13, that Jesus was led. But as our Evangelist has just stated in verse 13, as he also does in xi. 49, that Caiphas was high‐priest for that year, we prefer to hold that the “high‐priest” here referred to is not Annas, but Caiphas. We hold, then, that what is recorded by St. John in this passage (verses 15‐23) took place in the court of Caiphas, after Jesus had been led thither from Annas, and that verse 24: “Annas (_had_) sent,” &c., is added by St. John to guard the reader against supposing that what is recorded in verses 15‐23 took place at the house of Annas. St. Cyril of Alexandria, and a few Greek and Syrian MSS. read verse 24 between verses 13 and 14. In this view the account of St. John harmonizes at once with the Synoptic Gospels, which represent St. Peter’s first denial, recorded in verse 17 here, as taking place in the court of Caiphas.