As a matter of fact, however, the principal difficulty lay in an entirely different direction. Not to _arrest_ him but to _convict_ him was what they could not accomplish, for they could bring nothing against him. With respect to him and his following they found themselves in the embarrassing fix into which every conscientious church discipline must necessarily fall some time or another: these people were too pious for them, pious beyond proper limits, inasmuch as they with too great enthusiasm believed what the others with seemly moderation of feeling confessed in their creed,—namely, that the Kingdom is near. They could not get a conviction on the ground of the title of Forerunner [pg 216] which the people attributed to him, for he had justified this attribution by signs. Moreover he had never openly claimed for himself such a dignity. Nevertheless the manner of his behaviour was for them dangerous in the highest degree. At the head of the pious populace he terrorised them. For this reason they would gladly have made away with him—and could not. One can understand the attitude of the Sanhedrin and their difficulties if one steadily keeps in mind that, in view of Jesus’ whole activity, the thought had not occurred to anybody that he could take himself to be the Messiah. Thus they knew no charge to bring against him, and had nothing for it but to try to catch him in his speech and discredit him with the people—and in this they were not successful. Then Judas appeared before them and put the deadly weapon into their hand. As they heard what he told them “they were glad,” for now was he delivered into their power. Judas now seeks a favourable moment to deliver the betrayed into their hands (Mk 14:11). What he had betrayed to them we can see from the process of the trial. The witnesses of the Pharisees can adduce nothing that would justify his conviction. When, however, [pg 217] the witnesses have withdrawn, the High Priest puts the question to Jesus directly, whether He is the Messiah. To prove such a claim on Jesus’ part they could not adduce the necessary witnesses,—for there were none. The High Priest is here in possession of Jesus’ secret. That was the betrayal of Judas! Through him the Sanhedrin knew that Jesus claimed to be something different from what the people held him to be, though he raised no protest against it. They got the decisive charge through the betrayed secret of Cæsarea Philippi. To be Elijah, the prophet of the last times, was no religious crime. But to claim to be Messiah, that was blasphemy! The perfidy of the charge lay in the High Priest’s insinuation that Jesus held himself then to be the Messiah, just as he stood there before him. This Jesus repudiated with a proud word about his coming as Son of Man. Nevertheless he was condemned for blasphemy.