This article attempts to demonstrate that the synoptic narratives of the Passion contain a stratum composed in Judea on the eve of the Great Revolt. This proposition may provide a common solution to several controversial issues such as the identity of those who arrest Jesus, the latter's trial before the Sanhedrin and Barabbas’ liberation. There is reason to think that the author(s) of this narrative layer sought to enhance the high priests’ guilt in Jesus’ death, at a time when the members of the high-priesthood were hated by their Jewish brethren on account of their exactions.
