Mark 14:63 Commentary and Bible Study

The result was that Caiaphas, the acting high priest, ‘rent his clothes, and saith, What need we any further witnesses?’ He rent his clothes. Of course he did. It was a great exhibition of distress. ‘Oh, what sorrow, what agony, to be present here when this impostor should claim to be the Messiah, and claim to be God.’ So he is stricken with grief, but it is an act. ‘What a terrible thing to hear this blasphemy’, but inside, his heart is rejoicing. ‘He said it! We have got him! He has claimed to be God and now we can destroy him.’ Caiaphas was a hypocrite, a cunning individual. Matthew tells us that he had ‘consulted that they might take Jesus by subtilty, and kill him’ (Matthew 26:4), and now he thinks he has achieved his goal. That is enough for the chief priests. ‘What need we any further witnesses? Ye have heard the blasphemy: what think ye? And they all condemned him to be guilty of death’ They are trying to convince themselves against their own consciences. All condemned Christ, that is, all who were present. They were not all present. There were some, such as Joseph of Arimathea, who loved him and who followed him and would eventually intervene for his burial. He too was a member of that council, but all who were there at that night hour condemned him to be guilty of death.