Matthew 26:3

‘Then were gathered together the chief priests, and the elders of the people, to the court/palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas,'

This gathering took place in the palace of the High Priest, which would be built around a central courtyard. It is possible that they gathered in the courtyard around which the palace was built before proceeding to a room overlooking the court, or alternatively that they gathered in a room which could be seen as a part of the courtyard, because it opened out onto it. Or the word can be seen as applying to the palace which was built around the court, and centred on it. The gathering was composed of Chief Priests and Elders. The Chief Priests were the leading authorities of the Temple and included the High Priest, the Temple Treasurer, the Leaders of Priestly Courses, the Captain of the Temple, and so on. All were priests in authority. The Elders would be those members of the lay aristocracy, including some Scribes, especially Sadducean Scribes, who were hand in glove with the Chief Priests. These were all ‘rulers of the people', although the official Sanhedrin would also additionally include some Scribes of the Pharisees and other lay members, who had seemingly not been invited. Those gathered here were the ones called in because of their united agreement, and because the High Priest knew that they would be in sympathy with him. Jesus had offended these men by His condemnations of the Temple and its trafficking and by His whole attitude towards them. They would feel that what He taught demeaned them in the people's eyes. We note that the Scribes of the Pharisees, and the Pharisees as such, were not heavily involved at this stage, although some of the above might have been Pharisees. This gathering was a matter of political expediency, for these were the men who more directly ran the country (under the Romans) and were concerned constantly to appease the Roman government, even though not being on the best of terms with the governor. They constantly made concessions in order to survive. And they were afraid that Jesus' activities could only bring trouble on them. Their aim above all things was to maintain the status quo, which guarded their own wealth, and their concern was probably mainly political and financial rather than religious, although in Judaism such attitudes were all very closely combined. We can see from their attitude why Jesus had declared that the Temple had to be destroyed, for that was their power base.

We learn here for the first time in Matthew that the official High Priest at the time was Caiaphas. He would be the chairman of the Sanhedrin and politically very influential. His father-in-law Annas was also seen as High Priest by the Jews. He had been deposed by the Romans. The Jews, however, considered that the High Priesthood was for life. Thus they now saw themselves as having at least two High Priests (see Luke 3:2), and paid Annas great honour. (Once a man was High Priest, and had officiated as such on the Day of Atonement, he was High Priest for life).