Going in the hole.

You know that Jesus was put on trial by the chief judge of the Sanhedrin, a man named Caiaphas. The site of his house was never lost.

But here's what you might NOT know...

Above this hole is the floor of Caiaphas' house. It was big and elegant, and its great room was nice enough to use for trials and official business. Fancy mosaic floor, etc. And to make the business of trials and perpetrator management easier, they dug the hole in the center of the floor and dug out a huge chamber beneath the house. The reason for this stone cell with no doors?

To keep the tried and guilty perps for the several days it would take to prepare them for execution. Procedure, schedules, this was all important to the governance of the Jews. And this was among the worst of their practices; they lowered the guilty on ROPES, through this hole and into the cell, to remain there until their execution day. During Roman occupation, it often took several days to gain the approval of the regional governor (Pontius Pilate filled that office for several years). Romans demanded of the Jews that they give final approval for severe punishments, concerned as they were with maintenance of public order.

Jesus, having been found guilty in a trial that, for haste, had violated no less than THIRTY SEVEN Jewish laws about such trials, found Himself dangling from a rope, lowered through this hole to the floor.

As with many such practices, this one degraded over time into prisoner abuse, which by Jesus' time was dreadful. Trash, including rotting food, was tossed into the hole, along with emptied chamber pots and whatever else they though might make a prisoner's time in the hole insufferable. Jesus was put in the hole after his trial finished; he spent a whole night in here, and the next morning was pulled out and marched around the Temple Mount to see Pilate, which was the last step before His crucifixion.

This room I was in when I looked up and snapped the picture is the room in which Jesus spent His final night on earth. I don't think you can see them in the picture, but the edges of that hole have some well defined abrasions which were made with ropes with a lot of weight on them... when they ground against the sandstone going down, or up.

The abuse didn't begin when he was flogged in the square while Pilate washed his hands. It began the night before... not at the hands of Romans but of his fellow Jews.