Church Fathers Commentary Mark 14:60-65

"And the high priest stood up in the midst, and asked Jesus, saying, Answerest thou nothing? what is it which these witness against thee? But he held his peace, and answered nothing. Again the high priest asked him, and saith unto him, Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed? And Jesus said, I am: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven. And the high priest rent his clothes, and saith, What further need have we of witnesses? Ye have heard the blasphemy: what think ye? And they all condemned him to be worthy of death. And some began to spit on him, and to cover his face, and to buffet him, and to say unto him, Prophesy: and the officers received him with blows of their hands." — Mark 14:60-65 (ASV)

The Venerable Bede: The more Jesus remained silent before the false witnesses who were unworthy of His answer and the impious priests, the more the High Priest, overcome with anger, tried to provoke Him to answer, so that he might find a reason to accuse Him from anything He might say.

Therefore, it is said, And the High Priest stood up in the middle and asked Jesus, saying, “Do you answer nothing? What is it that these men witness against you?”

The High Priest, angry and impatient at finding no grounds for accusation against Him, rises from his seat, thus showing the madness of his mind by the motion of his body.

Pseudo-Jerome: But our God and Savior Himself, Who brought salvation to the world and assisted mankind by His love, is led as a sheep to the slaughter without crying out, and remained mute and “kept silence, yes, even from good words.”

Therefore, it continues, But He held His peace, and answered nothing.

The silence of Christ is the pardon for Adam's defense or excuse (Genesis 3:10).

Theophylact of Ohrid: But He remained silent because He knew that they would not pay attention to His words; therefore He answered according to Luke, “If I tell you, you will not believe” (Luke 22:67).

Therefore, it follows: Again the High Priest asked Him, and said to Him, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?”

The High Priest indeed asks this question, not so that he might learn from Him and believe, but in order to find an accusation against Him. But he asks, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed,” because there were many Christs—that is, anointed persons, like kings and high priests—but none of these was called the Son of the Blessed God, that is, the Ever-praised.

Pseudo-Jerome: But they looked for Him from afar, whom they cannot see even though He is near, just as Isaac, from the blindness of his eyes, does not recognize Jacob who is right before him, but prophesies long beforehand about things that were to come to him.

It continues: Jesus said, I am; namely, so that they would be without excuse.

Theophylact of Ohrid: For He knew that they would not believe; nevertheless, He answered them, lest they should say afterward, “If we had heard anything from Him, we would have believed in Him.” But this is their condemnation: that they heard and did not believe.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Matthew, however, does not say that Jesus answered, “I am,” but, “You have said.” But Mark shows that the words “I am” were equivalent to “You have said.”¹

There follows: And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven (Matthew 26:64).

Theophylact of Ohrid: As if He had said, “You will see Me as the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Father,” for here He calls the Father “power.” He will not, however, come without a body, but as He appeared to those who crucified Him, so will He appear at the judgment.

The Venerable Bede: Therefore, if to you, O Jew, O Pagan, and heretic, the contempt, weakness, and cross of Christ are a subject of scorn, see how by this the Son of Man is to sit at the right hand of the Father and to come in His majesty on the clouds of heaven.

Pseudo-Jerome: The High Priest indeed asks about the Son of God, but Jesus in His answer speaks of the Son of Man, so that by this we may understand that the Son of God is also the Son of Man. Let us not create a quaternity in the Trinity (a reference to the charge brought by the Apollinarians against the Catholics, that their doctrine of a divine human substance in our Lord introduced a fourth Person into the Blessed Trinity; it is also answered by St. Ambrose, de Incarnatione, 7, 77), but let man be in God and God in man.

And He said, “Sitting at the right hand of power,” that is, reigning in everlasting life and in the divine power. He says, “And coming with the clouds of heaven.” He ascended in a cloud; He will come with a cloud. That is, He ascended in that body alone which He took from the Virgin, and He will come to judgment with the whole Church, which is His body and His fullness.

Leo, Sermon 5, de Pass.: But Caiaphas, to increase the odiousness of what they had heard, “rent his clothes,” and without knowing what his frantic action meant, by this madness he deprived himself of the honor of the priesthood, forgetting the command by which it is said of the High Priest, “He shall not uncover his head or rend his clothes” (Leviticus 21:10).

For there follows: The High Priest rent his clothes and said, “What further need do we have of witnesses? You have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?”

Theophylact of Ohrid: The High Priest acts according to the custom of the Jews, for whenever anything intolerable or sad occurred, they would tear their clothes. Therefore, to show that Christ had spoken a great and intolerable blasphemy, he tore his clothes.

The Venerable Bede: But it was also with a higher mystery that the Jewish priest tore his own clothes during our Lord's Passion, while the garment of the Lord could not be torn, even by the soldiers who crucified Him. For it was a symbol that the Jewish priesthood was to be torn apart on account of the wickedness of the priests themselves. But the solid strength of the Church, which is often called the garment of her Redeemer, can never be torn apart.

Theophylact of Ohrid: The Jewish priesthood was to be torn apart from the moment they condemned Christ as guilty of death.

Therefore, it follows: And they all condemned Him as deserving of death.

Pseudo-Jerome: They condemned Him as deserving of death, so that by His guiltiness He might absolve our guilt.

It continues: And some began to spit on Him, and to cover His face, and to buffet Him, and to say to Him, “Prophesy!” And the servants struck Him with the palms of their hands. That is, so that by being spit upon He might wash the face of our soul; and by the covering of His face, He might take away the veil from our hearts; and by the blows to His head, He might heal the head of mankind, that is, Adam; and by the blows with which He was struck, His great praise might be declared by the clapping of our hands and by our lips, as it is said, O clap your hands, all you peoples! (Psalm 47:1).

The Venerable Bede: By saying, “Prophesy! Who is it that struck you?” they meant to insult Him, because He wished to be seen as a prophet by the people.

St. Augustine of Hippo: We must understand by this that the Lord suffered these things until morning in the house of the High Priest, where He had first been brought.

1. de Con., iii, 6