Mat 26:59-66 | PNT | STEP | All the council . The Sanhedrin. Sought false witness . No one could be condemned legally without at least two witnesses who agreed ( ). "One witness", it was said, "was no witness". As there was no true testimony to a charge that could be punished with death, they sought false witness.

Matthew 26:59-66

All the council. The Sanhedrin.

Sought false witness. No one could be condemned legally without at least two witnesses who agreed (De 17:6 19:15). "One witness", it was said, "was no witness". As there was no true testimony to a charge that could be punished with death, they sought false witness. But found none. That is, witnesses who would testify to a capital offense and agree in their testimony.

At the last came two. These two gave a perverted version of what Christ had said concerning his death and the resurrection of his own body under the figure of a temple. See Joh 2:19. But even their testimony disagreed (Mr 14:59). Answerest thou nothing? Under the false charges Jesus maintained an impressive silence. "As a sheep before the shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth" (Isa 53:7). I adjure thee, etc. This was the formula for an oath. The High Priest, contrary to the principle of law which forbids that a prisoner shall be compelled to criminate himself, called on Jesus to be a witness against himself. To answer yes, or no, to such a question, was to answer under oath. Thou hast said. That is, thou hast said the truth in thy question. The Lord only breaks the silence to affirm his divinity under oath. It insured his death at their hands, for he was immediately condemned for the declaration. "At the very crisis of his history, when denial would have saved his life, he asserts his claim to the Divine Sonship and to a Godlike power. Then the high priest rent his clothes. A sign of mourning or indignation (Ac 14:14). It was a form that was always used then about to pronounce a judgment.

He hath spoken blasphemy. He did, if not Divine; he did not, if Divine. Either he spoke the truth, or the wicked Caiaphas spoke the truth and Jesus was false. If he spoke falsehood, the purest lips that ever formed human words spoke falsehood on the eve of death, when he knew that the falsehood would send him to death. Such an affirmation, from such a prisoner, at such an hour, can only be reconciled with a consciousness of divinity. He is guilty of death. This is the formal decision of the Sanhedrin to condemn the Lord to death for blasphemy. This was the second trial, the first examination being informal before Annas, and is mentioned only by John (Joh 18:13,24). There was a third, named only by Luke, at the dawn of day, because a decision by the Sanhedrin in the night was illegal (Lu 22:66). This meeting only confirmed the decision reached in the night before three o'clock. It is also referred to in Mt 27:1.