Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Mark 14:60

"And the high priest stood up in the midst, and asked Jesus, saying, Answerest thou nothing? what is it which these witness against thee?" — Mark 14:60 (ASV)

The situation had become extremely tense. There were plenty of witnesses, but they could not pass the test of Dt 17:6. Finally, in exasperation, the high priest stood up in the Sanhedrin to interrogate Jesus himself. Caiaphas apparently wanted Jesus to respond to the charges made against him in the hope of provoking an incriminating answer. But Jesus refused to give him thatopportunity.

The silence of Jesus to the first questions prompted the high priest to ask him another, based on the fact that the religious authorities either knew or suspected that Jesus regarded himself as the Messiah. “Son of God” was understood by the Jews of Jesus’ time solely in a messianic sense; and since the Messiah in Jewish expectations was to be a man, the question of the high priest was about Jesus’ claim to messiahship and had nothing to do with deity. The question proved to be a stroke of genius. Blasphemy was a capital crime. Perhaps Jesus’ own testimony about himself could effect an accusation.