The Jewish leaders and Jesus

Something I've been thinking about for a while:

Did the Jewish leaders of Jesus' day know or not know who He was, that he was the Messiah and the Son of God?

Some say that they didn't recognize him. Jesus says as much when He mentions how John the Baptist was treated because he wasn't recognized for who he was, and that Jesus as the Son of Man would suffer likewise. Also, the apostle John wrote that Christ came to His own and His own did not receive Him. Then, the apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians that the princes and rulers of this world didn't know who Christ really was, because if they had known, they would not have "crucified the Lord of glory".

On the flip side, I have read where others have said that the Jewish leaders knew full well that Christ was the Messiah and Son of God (based on prophecies in the Tanakh, or Old Testament. Yet they dismissed Him as a false prophet, a blasphemer and a political rebel/insurrectionist (the third thing is what they appealed to Pontius Pilate about). And they demanded His crucifixion.

What are your thoughts?

Seems like you answered your own question--if they dismissed Him as a false prophet, a blasphemer and a political insurrectionist, then they really didn't know Who they were dealing with.

Never underestimate the ability of a human to ignore or rationalize away something he finds uncomfortable to deal with.

The leaders hated Jesus because he upset their nice little apple cart. They had a lock on religion, turned it into a business, and they were professionals at it. They made salvation a matter of a person's works, and by their rules they were the most saved of all. Then Jesus came along saying they had got religion all wrong and missed the whole point of religion AND salvation.

That's why they followed Jesus around, asking tricky questions, trying to trip Him up. if He had ever misspoken, just ONCE, they could have claimed He was not really God.

Well done,Lynx, well said!