Caiaphas’ House

This is the church of St. Peter in Gallicantu. It is located on Mt. Zion looking across to the Temple Mount. Tradition, supported by archaeological evidence, holds that this is the site of the palace of Caiaphas, the high priest before whom Jesus was brought. It’s name Gallicantu, which means the cock’s crow, comes from Peter’s denial of Jesus three times before the cock crowed twice.

This was another very early morning so we could hear Kay’s teaching prior to the official opening for the crowds.

Here is the sculpture of Peter in the courtyard outside the high priest’s palace. As we sat here and listened to Kay there was a rooster that crowed several times. It was eerie.

 

The Upper Room where Jesus and His disciples would have had the last supper was farther up Mount Zion. This is the road that Jesus and the disciples would have used to walk down to the Kidron Valley and then back up the Mount of Olives.

After singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. Then Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away because of Me this night, for it is written, ‘I will strike down the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered.’ “But after I have been raised, I will go ahead of you to Galilee.” But Peter said to Him, “Even though all may fall away because of You, I will never fall away.” Jesus said to him, “Truly I say to you that this very night, before a rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.” Matthew 26: 30-34

The sun is coming up over the Mount of Olives.

Jesus’ jailers would have brought Him back up this road after His arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane.

 

We are sitting on the courtyard where Jesus was probably scourged. Kay’s teaching was entitled, “Do you really believe in Him?” Many of us say we do, but do our actions show our belief? Do we mourn over our personal sin and the sin of our nation? Do we live like we’re set apart? How can we not remember that we were bought with a price?

For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him. He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. Isaiah 53:2-6

 

 

It is believed that this is the pit in which Jesus was kept the night before He was crucified. Prisoners were tied with rope underneath their arms and lowered through this hole into the pit. Their toes barely brushed the ground so that their weight was supported by their arms. It is thought that Peter, John, and other disciples were beaten and held here as well.

People could look in this window and jeer at the prisoners.

This was the pit. Most of us were overcome with emotion at what the Lord God has done for us.

We are looking again across to the Mount of Olives. The tower that you see is thought to be where Jesus ascended into heaven.

 

Do you really believe in Him?