THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF ANNAS

 The Christian Church was built on the foundation of the Temple, and God revealed that to Adam as early as the Edenic Covenant (Gen 3:14-15). God revealed to Adam how the head of the viper would be crushed and who would do it.

The chief priest and Pharisees knew scripture. Would they be able to follow the thread from original sin to themselves? Surely, they did because they became enraged. Have I followed the thread from original sin to the crucifixion of Jesus? You be the judge.

Jesus said many parables that day to teach the people truth. One specific parable was aimed at the Pharisees and chief priests; the parable about the reverence of the son (Mat 21:37) whom as it turned out, they were determined to kill to get his inheritance. (v. 38). (Think now of the inheritance as the Church, kingship, and Heaven itself.)

Of course, they were so determined that they finally did kill the Son. The message in the parable was that they would kill Jesus, which they did at the crucifixion. When Jesus said to Pilate, “He that delivered Me unto you has the greater sin” (John 19:11). Who delivered Jesus to Pilate to be killed? That is revealed as well: “Judas then, having received a band of men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, cometh thither with lanterns and torches and weapons” (John 18:3), then the officers delivered Jesus to Annas first, then Caiaphas, who advised the Jews “that it was expedient that one man should die for the people” (John 18:14).

He that delivered Jesus was Caiaphas, and he was responsible for the death of his Savior. I submit that Judas had been the Antichrist that betrayed the Lord since he had Satan enter unto him (Luke 22:3). With the suicide of Judas, Satan went somewhere!

Luke also wrote about Judas, “Now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out” (Acts 1:18). In modern terms, Satan suicided Judas because the ‘Serpent’ must move on. I submit that Satan then entered Caiaphas because it was him that became the ‘Adversary’ of Jesus, and thus the ‘Antichrist.’

How would Satan go? From one contemptuous person to the next. Judas hanged himself as Satan made him feel guilty, and rather than let Jesus handle the guilt, Judas did so himself. Then he fell headlong onto the ground, ironically, the ground meaning ‘Adam’ in the Hebrew.

That fulfilled the Adamic Covenant about the ‘Serpent,’ — “On his belly he shall go” Go where? “And dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life” (Gen 3:14). (Now keep the dust in mind for the rest of the story.)

That brings us back to the parable: Jesus revealed what would happen, “Whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder” (Mat 21:44). Jesus was the head of the corner, the stone rejected by the builders (Mat 21:42). Jesus was the Cornerstone of the Invisible Church.  

He would grind him (Caiaphas) to powder. Many theologians believe that the rich man in the story of Lazarus was Caiaphas, and his ‘brothers’ the five sons of Annas that were chief priests before him. That was the ‘House of Annas’ — himself, his five sons and Caiaphas, his son-in-law.

I agree with that assessment. The House of Annas would fall, just as Jesus said about them in the parable. He accused them and provided the outcome without direct accusation, but they knew that Jesus was speaking of them. He may have antagonized them to do just that. Ultimately, as Jesus revealed to Pilate, nothing can be done unless it is the Will of the Father. As such, Jesus, as God, presented Himself as the reasonable sacrifice in accordance with Romans 12:1.

Jesus put it into their hearts to kill Him, but Satan had to be in Caiaphas to deliver Jesus to his death. That makes him the Antichrist and soon after the House of Annas fell just as Jesus revealed in the parable… “Whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.” That happened twofold: (1) the House of Vipers — the Temple — fell and after the longest reign in history, Caiaphas was deposed by the Legate of Syria, Lucius Vitellius.

Jesus was speaking of Caiaphas and his House of Annas that would fall and be ground to dust. The fall of the House of Annas was projected in the very beginning when God cursed the Serpent, “Dust shall you eat all the days of your life” (Gen 3:14). God was not speaking of how the Serpent would crawl on its belly at all. It was not a ‘Serpent;’ it was the seraph angel, Lucifer, as Isaiah revealed, although it was hidden in the Hebrew (Isa 14:29).

On its belly it would go was the Serpents motion at the death of Judas. When Judas died, what happened to Satan. It crawled on its belly to reemerge from Judas, and it appears that the Serpent entered Caiaphas immediately thereafter, who several years later, caused the House of Annas to fall as well as their viviparous Temple.

No longer since that time has there been Temple worship. After the fall of the House of Annas, the Christian Church was built on the foundation of the Temple. Obviously, not the Dome of the Rock which stands there until this time, but the Invisible Church that is eternal with Jesus as the Cornerstone that the builders — the House of Annas — rejected! The Church was built on Jesus — the Cornerstone — on the dust of the House of Annas.