Luke 22:63-71
The men who held Jesus mocked him and beat him. Having blindfolded him, they struck him on the face and asked him, “Prophesy! Who is the one who struck you?” They spoke many other things against him, insulting him.
As soon as it was day, the assembly of the elders of the people was gathered together, both chief priests and scribes, and they led him away into their council, saying, “If you are the Christ, tell us.”
But he said to them, “If I tell you, you won’t believe, and if I ask, you will in no way answer me or let me go. From now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God.”
They all said, “Are you then the Son of God?”
He said to them, “You say it, because I am.”
They said, “Why do we need any more witness? For we ourselves have heard from his own mouth!”
It is important to note here that Jesus is claiming to be God in these words. If you don’t know the Old Testament well you will miss the importance of the words: “I Am.” This is the way that God told Israel to refer to Him, so when Jesus used these words in referring to Himself, He was clearly saying that He was God. That is why they felt that they had achieved their goal of exposing “blaspheme” in Jesus.
The problem with the accusation of “blaspheme” is that it if Jesus was God then the charge could not stand because it isn’t blasphemous for God to call Himself God. If a man calls himself God then he is being blasphemous. The Jewish leadership was taking it for granted that Jesus was only a man, without looking at the evidence about whether He was really telling the truth or not. A person seeking evidence would have had to do research on the claim before making the assumption that it is “obvious.” This is not unlike how people today argue against Creationism in favor of Evolutionism. They claim that it is obvious that Creationism requires a God and so Evolutionism must be correct, but this is not an argument. Of course, Creationism requires God, that’s the point. That’s like saying because Creationism is Creationism it must be wrong! This is just a way of avoiding a real search for truth. The assumption that anything that requires God is automatically incorrect is a fallacy. Since it relies completely on assumption, it is arbitrary and neither scientific nor reasonable.
It is interesting that there was really no difference between the guards who beat Jesus with fists and the leadership that beat him up with lies.
Logic: This judgment was based on a well understood and documented fallacy called: “begging the question” or “circular reasoning.” According to Dr. Jason Lisle it is defined as: “[A fallacy that is committed] when a person merely assumes what he is attempting to prove, or when the premise of an argument actually depends upon its conclusion.” You can learn much more about logic and logical fallacies by studying Dr. Lisle’s book: “The Ultimate Proof of Creation.” Also, in the book of John, you can read more about the Pharisees circular logic. The argument was illogical and fallacious making a mockery out of the trial.