Mark 14:58

ὅτι, etc.: Mk.'s version of the testimony borne by the witnesses differs in important respects from that of Mt.; viz., by the insertion of the words τὸν χειροποίητον and ἄλλον ἀχειροποίητον. Mt.'s form doubtless comes nearest to what the witnesses actually said. Mk.'s puts into their mouths, to a certain extent, the sense in which he and his fellow-Christians understood Christ's saying, viz., as a prophecy that the material temple would be superseded by a spiritual temple = the community of believers in Jesus. If they had really spoken, as here reported, the falsehood would have lain rather in the animus of their statement than in its meaning: the animus of men who regarded it as impious to speak of the temple of God being destroyed, as contemptuous to characterise it as hand-made, and as blasphemous to suggest that another could take its place.