Mar 14:55-65 | RWP

‏ Mark 14:55-65

Their witness agreed not together ( ισα α μαρτυρια ουκ ησαν ). Literally, the testimonies were not equal. They did not correspond with each other on essential points.

Many were bearing false witness ( εψευδομαρτυρουν, imperfect, repeated action)

against him. No two witnesses bore joint testimony to justify a capital sentence according to the law (De 19:15). Note imperfects in these verses (55-57) to indicate repeated failures.

Bare false witness ( εψευδομαρτυρουν ). In desperation some attempted once more (conative imperfect).

Made with hands ( χειροποιητον ). In Mark alone. An old Greek word. The negative form αχειροποιητον here occurs elsewhere only in 2Co 5:1; Col 2:11. In Heb 9:11 the negative ου is used with the positive form. It is possible that a real λογιον of Jesus underlies the perversion of it here. Mark and Matthew do not quote the witnesses precisely alike. Perhaps they quoted Jesus differently and therein is shown part of the disagreement, for Mark adds verse 59 (not in Matthew). "And not even so did their witness agree together," repeating the point of verse 57. Swete observes that Jesus, as a matter of fact, did do what he is quoted as saying in Mark: "He said what the event has proved to be true; His death destroyed the old order, and His resurrection created the new." But these witnesses did not mean that by what they said. The only saying of Jesus at all like this preserved to us is that in Joh 2:19, when he referred not to the temple in Jerusalem, but to the temple of his body, though no one understood it at the time.

Stood up in the midst ( αναστας εις μεσον ). Second aorist active participle. For greater solemnity he arose to make up by bluster the lack of evidence. The high priest stepped out into the midst as if to attack Jesus by vehement questions. See on Mt 26:59-68 for details here.

And answered nothing ( κα ουκ απεκρινατο ουδεν ). Mark adds the negative statement to the positive "kept silent" ( εσιωπα ), imperfect, also in Matthew. Mark does not give the solemn oath in Matthew under which Jesus had to answer. See on Matthew.

I am ( εγο ειμ ). Matthew has it, "Thou hast said," which is the equivalent of the affirmative. But Mark's statement is definite beyond controversy. See on Mt 26:64-68 for the claims of Jesus and the conduct of Caiaphas.

They all ( ο δε παντες ). This would mean that Joseph of Arimathea was not present since he did not consent to the death of Jesus (Lu 23:51). Nicodemus was apparently absent also, probably not invited because of previous sympathy with Jesus (Joh 7:50). But all who were present voted for the death of Jesus.

Cover his face ( περικαλυπτειν αυτου το προσωπον ). Put a veil around his face. Not in Matthew, but in Lu 22:64 where Revised Version translates περικαλυψαντες by "blind-folded." All three Gospels give the jeering demand of the Sanhedrin: "Prophesy" ( προφητευσον ), meaning, as Matthew and Luke add, thereby telling who struck him while he was blindfolded. Mark adds "the officers" (same as in verse 54) of the Sanhedrin, Roman lictors or sergeants-at-arms who had arrested Jesus in Gethsemane and who still held Jesus ( ο συνεχοντες αυτον, Lu 22:63). Mt 26:67 alludes to their treatment of Jesus without clearly indicating who they were.

With blows of their hands ( ραπισμασιν ). The verb ραπιζω in Mt 26:67 originally meant to smite with a rod. In late writers it comes to mean to slap the face with the palm of the hands. The same thing is true of the substantive ραπισμα used here. A papyrus of the sixth century A.D. uses it in the sense of a scar on the face as the result of a blow. It is in the instrumental case here. "They caught him with blows," Swete suggests for the unusual ελαβον in this sense. "With rods" is, of course, possible as the lictors carried rods. At any rate it was a gross indignity.