Matthew 26:47-75, Arrest, twelve legions, the council and the rooster

The armed band sent by the city's leaders was probably the temple guard (Keener; the cultural backgrounds notes); Wilkins thinks its best-armed men were Roman soldiers Pilate had assigned to the temple, alongside Levite police with clubs. A kiss was a sign of affection between family, close friends, or a disciple and his teacher, which made Judas's kiss a special act of hypocrisy (Keener). By later Pharisaic rules a night trial in a private house, with no day between hearing and verdict, was illegal on every count (Keener). The cultural backgrounds article on Jesus' trial adds that the rabbinic rules come from well over a century later, while the Gospel accounts fit the first-century evidence, and that the night hearing may have been meant only to frame a charge for Pilate. By the Mishnah's later rule a blasphemer was guilty only if he pronounced the divine Name itself (m. Sanhedrin 7:5; Wilkins). Galileans were careless with their vowels and gutturals (Keener). The sources differ on Judean prejudice: the cultural backgrounds notes say Judeans looked down on Galileans as backward, while Keener calls the evidence that they linked Galileans with revolutionaries ambiguous at best.