Why did Jesus need to be identified when arrested?

Answer 1

A:This is the unanswered question of the gospels. The gospels frequently talk of Jesus being confronted by the Pharisees and scribes, who obviously knew who he was. The synoptic account says that the trigger for his arrest was the 'Cleansing of the Temple', an act for which there must have been many recent good witnesses, well motivated to see him punished. Yet, the priests had to hand over a small fortune - 40 pieces of silver - in return for someone identifying Jesus for them.

A literary or theological reason for Judas being paid to identify Jesus is that this fulfils Old Testament prophecies. If we suspend the critical faculty that would cause us to doubt the rational for bribing Judas like this, we are left with a sense that the scriptures were fulfilled by divine providence.

Answer:

The Gospel writers record an account when Jesus avoided violence by an angry mob simply my mingling with the crowd. Judas had to identify Him with a kiss of betrayal. Obviously, Jesus looked like any other Jew of His day.

Most all who read The Bible come away with the correct 'picture' of what Jesus would look like - the average Jew with no striking features:

Isaiah 53:2-4New King James Version (NKJV)

2 For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant,

And as a root out of dry ground.

He has no form or comeliness;

And when we see Him,

There is no beauty that we should desire Him.

3 He is despised and rejected by men,

A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;

He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

4 Surely He has borne our griefs

And carried our sorrows;

Yet we esteemed Him stricken,

Smitten by God, and afflicted.

Answer 2

Both paternal (earthly step-father) and maternal genealogies are presented and for important reasons:

The Jews had a great concern over genealogical records as these proved if one was an Israelite. This confirmed their religious, hereditary, and biological rights in the Law of Moses. These records then were kept in the Temple and all were destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D. But they were there for anyone - scribe, Pharisee, Sadducee or citizen to look to as a potential challenge/dispute.

Moreover, as the Jewish people were awaiting the Messiah, they would require Him to meet the requirements set in Genesis 12:1-7; Jeremiah 33:15. And as Jesus claimed to be our Eternal High Priest, He had to meet the requirements mentioned in Ezra 2:62. Remember, the Temple is fully functional in the first half of the 1st Century when Jesus lived.

Additionally, in Jesus' time if one claimed to be the Messiah he would have to prove through his genealogy that he had descended from Abraham and David. To prove this was the case for Jesus, the Gospel writers placed His genealogies at the beginning of Matthew (Joseph's genealogy) and in Luke 3 (Mary's genealogy) for all to see and verify.

It would have been easy for Jesus' adversaries to have refuted His claims to be the Messiah by simply comparing his genealogies with the official records of the time and have shown this was not the case. Scripture doesn't record any instance of the Jewish leaders challenging Jesus on this point. Nor do any extra-biblical writings of the time period.