John 18:28

‘They then lead Jesus from Caiaphas to the Praetorium (the official residence in Jerusalem of the Roman governor).'

The whole of what happened before Caiaphas is ignored by John. He is not concerned to show up the Judaisers. Their actions are sufficient to condemn them. What he is concerned to do is to establish Jesus' innocence of the charges laid against Him. Indeed in John not a single charge is levelled against Jesus prior to His going before Pilate. What is said simply appeals to the facts to establish His innocence. He is represented as the Lamb without blemish.

There were in fact three meetings. The preliminary private hearing before Annas, which only John may have known about. The second before dawn where Caiaphas was in charge, when they tried to build up a case against Him and had to their own satisfaction proved Him guilty of blasphemy by an unfair use of the High Priest's power to adjure (officially charge) men before God to speak the truth (Mark 14:53; Matthew 26:57). The third a quick daytime meeting of all the Sanhedrin in order to make everything official (Mark 15:1; Matthew 27:1; Luke 22:66), and to gain the consent of neutrals, although some were probably ‘accidentally' not given sufficient notice. As long as they had sufficient numbers they would know who was best kept out of the way. It was necessary politically that everyone should be agreed. There Jesus under questioning confirmed that He was indeed the Son of God, and would shortly be seated at God's right hand (Luke 22:69), and He was consequently convicted of blasphemy.

However, the leaders in the Sanhedrin wanted the final verdict to be that of Rome. The Sanhedrin had wide powers in religious matters but they did not want the people to blame them for the death of Jesus, for too many recognised Him as a prophet. And they recognised that the crowds may not have been willing to accept that He was a blasphemer. Thus it was necessary that the odium fall on Rome. But this would involve a civil charge. Pilate was not interested in blasphemy. What he was concerned about was law and order.

‘And it was early. And they themselves did not enter into the Praetorium in order that they might not be defiled, but might eat the Passover.'

They knew that to enter a Gentile residence might bring them in contact with something that defiled them. It was therefore necessary for them not to do so for they had clearly not eaten the Passover, and if they were defiled they would not be able to do so. This comment by John is intended to bring out how ludicrous the situation was. These men were planning legal murder and yet were fussy about religious niceties. As Jesus says in another place, they ‘pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin and ignore the weightier matters of the Law, judgment, mercy and faith' (Matthew 23:23; compare Luke 11:42).

Among other things a Gentile residence would not have been cleared of leavened bread and there was always the possibility of the remains of dead matter being in the drains. Gentiles were not particular.

There are a number of possible explanations as to why these men may not have eaten the Passover when Jesus clearly had. We will mention but three. 1). That they had been disturbed during the Passover meal before actual participation in the Passover lamb with news of the possibility of Jesus' arrest and the need for dealing with the matter urgently. They had thus left prematurely and needed to remain ceremonially clean so as to complete the eating of the Passover. 2). That some of them celebrated the Passover on a different day. Passover was determined by the new moon and attempts were sometimes made to ‘fix' the first observance of the new moon so that the Passover fell on the day that the Sadducees wanted. But this sometimes led to disputes between the Pharisees and the Sadducees and a dual observance of the Passover. 3). That ‘eating the Passover' referred here to the participation in the joyous feast of the Chagigah (sacrificial meal) on the day (which was treated as a Sabbath) following the actual sacrifice of the Passover. The whole eight day feast was often called ‘The Passover'. Each of these positions has been strongly defended.