Charles Ellicott Commentary Matthew 26:62

"And the high priest stood up, and said unto him, Answerest thou nothing? what is it which these witness against thee?" — Matthew 26:62 (ASV)

Do you answer nothing? — A different punctuation gives, Do you answer nothing to what these witness against you? as one question. The question implies a long-continued silence while witness after witness was uttering their clumsy falsehoods, the effect of which is not easy to realize without a more than common exercise of what may be called dramatic imagination. I remember hearing from a distinguished scholar who had seen the Ammergau Passion-mystery that, as represented there, it came upon him with a force he had never felt before. In the silence itself, we may perhaps trace a deliberate fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah 53:7. In 1 Peter 2:23, we find a record of the impression that fulfillment made on the disciples.

What is it ...? — The question was clearly put, as it had been before Annas (John 18:19), with the intention of drawing out something that would ensure condemnation.