Bible Verses About The High Priest

Those who had seized Yeshua led him off to Kayafa the cohen hagadol, where the Torah-teachers and elders were assembled.

Kefa followed him at a distance as far as the courtyard of the cohen hagadol; then he went inside and sat down with the guards to see what the outcome would be.

The head cohanim and the whole Sanhedrin looked for some false evidence against Yeshua, so that they might put him to death.

But they didn't find any, even though many liars came forward to give testimony. At last, however, two people came forward and said,

"This man said, `I can tear down God's Temple and build it again in three days.'"

The cohen hagadol stood up and said, "Have you nothing to say to the accusation these men are making?"

Then Yochanan gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit coming down from heaven like a dove, and remaining on him.

I myself did not know who he was, but the one who sent me to immerse in water said to me, ‘The one on whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining, this is the one who immerses in the Ruach HaKodesh.’

And I have seen and borne witness that this is the Son of God.”

But one of them, Kayafa, who was cohen gadol that year, said to them, “You people don’t know anything!

You don’t see that it’s better for you if one man dies on behalf of the people, so that the whole nation won’t be destroyed.”

Now he didn’t speak this way on his own initiative; rather, since he was cohen gadol that year, he was prophesying that Yeshua was about to die on behalf of the nation,

and not for the nation alone, but so that he might gather into one the scattered children of God.

After hearing that, they entered the Temple area about dawn and began to teach. Now the cohen hagadol and his associates came and called a meeting of the Sanhedrin (that is, of Isra’el’s whole assembly of elders) and sent to the jail to have them brought.

But the officers who went did not find them in the prison. So they returned and reported,

“We found the jail securely locked and the guards standing at the doors; but when we opened it, we found no one inside!”

When the captain of the Temple police and the head cohanim heard these things, they were puzzled and wondered what would happen next.

Then someone came and reported to them, “Listen! The men you ordered put in prison are standing in the Temple court, teaching the people!”

The captain and his officers went and brought them, but not with force; because they were afraid of being stoned by the people.

They conducted them to the Sanhedrin, where the cohen hagadol demanded of them,

“We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name! Look here! you have filled Yerushalayim with your teaching; moreover, you are determined to make us responsible for this man’s death!”

Sha’ul looked straight at them and said, “Brothers, I have been discharging my obligations to God with a perfectly clear conscience, right up until today.”

But the cohen hagadol, Hananyah, ordered those standing near him to strike him on the mouth.

Then Sha’ul said to him, “God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! Will you sit there judging me according to the Torah, yet in violation of the Torah order me to be struck?”

The men nearby said, “This is the cohen hagadol of God that you’re insulting!”