Mark 11:28

Ἐν ποίᾳ ἐξουσίᾳ; “In the right of what kind of authority art Thou acting thus?” Cf. Acts 4:7. They refer specially to His interference with the hierarchy respecting the Temple-market, but indirectly they challenge His whole career. It was a reasonable question, and they were the right people to raise it. Did He hold that He was clothed with Divine or with human authority? and by whom was it conferred? It was not merely in order to protect the public from an impostor that they pressed this question. They sought to entangle Him fatally. If He claimed Divine authority, He might be convicted of blasphemy. If He claimed human authority as the Son of David, He might be handed over to the Procurator. If He disclaimed all authority, He might be denounced to the people as a convicted impostor. The second question is not a repetition of the first; it at once arises as soon as a claim to any kind of authority is made. Authority must be received from a power that is competent to confer it. Who conferred it on Jesus? Mk alone, with characteristic fulness, adds ἵνα ταῦτα ποιῇς, and Syr-Sin. omits it here. Burton § 215, 216. For ποῖος see on Mark 12:28.