John Kilgallen, «Jesus’ First Trial: Messiah and Son of God (Luke 22,66-71)», Vol. 80 (1999) 401-414

Luke, according to the Two-Source Theory, read Mark. At the first trial of Jesus, that before the Sanhedrin, Mark has together, "Messiah, Son of God". Luke has intentionally separated the two titles. The present essay finds the explanation for separating Son of God from Messiah in the Annunciation scene of the Gospel. It is Luke’s intention that the reader understand Son of God in a way that admittedly the Sanhedrin did not. The laws of narratology indicate that Luke 1,35, a part of the Lucan introduction, be used by the reader to interpret Son of God at Luke 22,70.

itself is the beginning of the attempt to identify Jesus. And, in accord with that first attempt, the scene before the Sanhedrin is, as Jesus’ life is decided upon, the right place to reaffirm the identity of the one about to be condemned to death. In this, Luke is drawing from the earlier Annunciation scene the meaning he wishes his reader to give to the one judged and condemned by the highest authorities of Palestine. The formal beginning, the trial, is the proper place to repeat the three-step procedure which reminds the reader of the revelation that Jesus is Messiah and Son of God, as related in the Annunciation scene.

        Messiah and Son of God

        By his first verse (1,1) and by the question he has the Sanhedrin put to Jesus (14,61), Mark may give the impression that Messiah and Son of God (Mark’s "Son of the Blessed One" in the trial of Jesus) are interchangeable titles. While Luke intends to remove this impression, in the Annunciation scene and again in this trial scene, the matter demands a distinction⁴. The distinction is between what the Sanhedrin meant when it asked, "So you are the Son of God?" and what Luke means when Jesus carefully answers, "I am".

        The Sanhedrin and the Son of God

        What did Luke’s Sanhedrin understand when it asked Jesus if he was the Son of God⁵? From the telling of the story, it is clear that it is Jesus’ saying about the future sitting of the Son of Man at