Lives of Scripture

Annas held the office of high priest earlier in his career and remained the dominant figure in Jerusalem's priestly aristocracy long after Rome replaced him, with several of his sons and his son-in-law Caiaphas cycling through the formal office. Luke names him alongside Caiaphas as marking the year John the Baptist began his ministry, treating Annas as the effective head of the priesthood even though Caiaphas held the title (Luke 3:2). On the night of Jesus's arrest, the soldiers brought Jesus first to Annas, who questioned Him about His disciples and His teaching. Jesus answered that He had spoken openly in synagogues and the temple and had said nothing in secret, prompting an officer to strike Him for what he considered disrespect toward the high priest (John 18:13, 19-23). Annas then sent Jesus, still bound, to Caiaphas for the formal proceedings (18:24). Annas appears again in Acts 4:6, seated among the rulers, elders, and scribes who summoned Peter and John after they healed a lame man and preached Christ's resurrection in the temple -- the same body that had condemned Jesus now confronting His apostles with the identical question of authority. Annas represents the entrenched religious establishment that resisted both Jesus and the early church's testimony about Him.