Mark 14:53-65

The Trial before the Sanhedrin. This trial is irregular in many ways. It was unlawful to hold such a trial at night. It is not, therefore, unhistorical (Montefiore, i. 345f.). Mk. speaks of the whole Sanhedrin meeting and of all condemning Jesus (Mark 14:55; Mark 14:64). This is his customary popular exaggeration, prompted here by desire to throw the guilt on all the religious leaders of Judaism (cf. Mark 15:1). The trial is really a preliminary investigation a search for a charge on which Jesus may be condemned and handed over to Pilate. It is not certain that the Sanhedrin had lost the power of capital punishment, but under the circumstances, the leaders desired to thrust the responsibility for the death-sentence on to Pilate. Wellhausen thinks the first line of testimony, the saying of Jesus against the Temple, was the true foundation of the charge of blasphemy (cf. Mark 13:1 *). To claim to be Messiah was not blasphemy. Montefiore rightly comments: Though the prediction about the Temple may have been nearer blasphemy than the claim to be Messiah, still. it was not technically blasphemy. and if - blasphemy-' could have been stretched to suit one offence, it could also have been stretched to suit the other (i. 350). Jesus died for claiming to be king of the Jews, and He died in the confidence of His ultimate triumph.

Mark 14:60. For the silence of Jesus, cf. Isaiah 53:7.

Mark 14:65. This scene seems to be reflected in 1 Peter 2:20. Some trace it to OT influence; see Micah 5:1 (RV), Isaiah 50:6; Isaiah 53:3.