Mark 14:60-65

Ver 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?" 61. But He held His peace, and answered nothing. Again the High Priest asked Him, and said unto Him, "Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?" 62. And Jesus said, "I am: and ye shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of Heaven." 63. Then the High Priest rent his clothes, and saith, "What need we any further witnesses?" 64. "Ye have heard the blasphemy: what think ye?" And they all condemned Him to be guilty of death. 65. And some began to spit on Him, and to cover His face, and to buffet Him, and to say unto Him, "Prophesy:" and the servants did strike Him with the palms of their hands.

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, endeavoured to provoke Him to answer, that he might find room for accusing Him, from any thing whatever which He might say.

Wherefore it is said, "And the High Priest stood up in the midst, and asked Jesus, saying, Answerest thou nothing? what is it which these witness against thee?"

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

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

Wherefore it goes on, "But He held His peace, and answered nothing."

The silence of Christ is the pardon for the defence or excuse of Adam. [Genesis 3:10]

Theophylact: But He remained silent because He knew that they would not attend to His words, wherefore He answered according to Luke, "If I tell you, ye will not believe." [Luke 22:67]

Wherefore there follows: "Again the High Priest asked Him, and said unto Him, Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?"

The High Priest indeed puts this question, not that he might learn of Him and believe, but in order to seek occasion against Him. But he asks, "Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed," because there were many Christs, that is, anointed persons, as 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 from afar off for Him, whom though near they cannot see, as Isaac from the blindness of his eyes does not know Jacob who was under his hands, but prophecies long before things which were to come to him. It goes on: "Jesus said, I am;" namely, that they might be inexcusable.

Theophylact: For He knew that they would not believe, nevertheless He answered them, lest they should afterwards say, If we had heard any thing from Him, we would have believed on Him; but this is their condemnation, that they heard and did not believe.

Augustine, de Con., iii, 6: Matthew, however, does not say that Jesus answered, "I am," but, "Thou has said." But Mark shews that the words "I am" were equivalent to "Thou hast said."

There follows: "And ye shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven." [Matthew 26:64]

Theophylact: As if He had said, Ye shall see Me as the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of the Father, for He here 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 in the judgment.

Bede: If therefore to thee, O Jew, O Pagan, and heretic, the contempt, weakness, and cross in 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 the Son of God, but Jesus in His answer speaks of the Son of Man, that we may by this understand that the Son of God is also the Son of Man; and let us not make a quaternity (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 [ed. note?]) in the Trinity, but let man be in God and God in man.

And He said, "Sitting on the right hand of power," that is, reigning in life everlasting, 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 of the Virgin, and He will come to judgment with the whole Church, which is His body and His fulness.

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, deprived himself of the honour of the priesthood, forgetting that 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 saith, What need we any further witnesses? Ye have heard the blasphemy: what think ye?" Theophylact: The High Priest does after the manner of the Jews; for whenever any thing intolerable or sad occurred to them, they used to rend their clothes. In order then to shew that Christ had spoken great and intolerable blasphemy, he rent his clothes.

Bede: But it was also with a higher mystery, that in the Passion of our Lord the Jewish priest rent his own clothes, that is, his ephod, whilst the garment of the Lord could not be rent, even by the soldiers, who crucified Him. For it was a figure that the Jewish priesthood was to be rent 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 asunder.

Theophylact: The Jewish priesthood was to be rent from the time that they condemned Christ as guilty of death. Wherefore there follows: "And they all condemned Him to be guilty of death."

Pseudo-Jerome: They condemned Him to be guilty of death, that by His guiltiness He might absolve our guilt.

It goes on: "And some began to spit on Him, and to cover His face, and to buffet Him, and to say unto Him, Prophecy: and the servants did strike Him with the palms of their hands;" that is, that by being spit upon He might wash the face of our soul, and by the covering of His face, might take away the veil from our hearts, and by the buffets, which were dealt upon His head, might heal the head of mankind, that is, Adam, and by the blows, by which He was smitten with the hands, His great praise might be testified by the clapping of our hands and by our lips, as it is said, "O clap your hands together, all ye people." [Psalms 47:1]

Bede: By saying, "Prophesy, who is he that smote thee," they mean to insult Him, because He wished to be looked upon as a prophet by the people.

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