Mark 14:63

Then the high priest rent his clothes, and saith, What need we any further witnesses?

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(63) Then the high priest rent his clothes.—It is noticeable that St. Mark uses the word for the inner garment, St. Matthew that for the outer.

Benson Commentary

Mark 14:63-65. Then the high-priest rent his clothes — Rending of clothes was an expression sometimes of deep grief, sometimes of holy zeal. The precepts, Leviticus 10:8; Leviticus 21:10; forbidding the high-priest to rend his clothes, relate only to the pontifical garments and to private mourning: that is, mourning on account of the calamities befalling himself or friends. Griefs of this kind the chief minister of religion was not to make public by any outward sign whatever. But it was neither unlawful nor unusual for him to rend his ordinary garments on account of public calamities, or instances of gross wickedness, as a testimony of his grief for the one and abhorrence of the other. See 1Ma 11:71. That the high-priest was clothed in his ordinary apparel on this occasion, appears from Exodus 29:29-30, where the pontifical garments are ordered to descend from father to son; and therefore were to be worn only at their consecration, and when they ministered. And saith, What need we any further witnesses — Namely, of his being guilty of blasphemy. Ye have heard the blasphemy: what think ye? — What punishment do you judge him to have deserved? They all condemned him, to be guilty of death — Namely, all present; for it is probable Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea, and some more, who were his disciples, or favourably disposed toward him, were not present: or if they were, they doubtless remonstrated against the iniquity of this sentence. And some began to spit on him — See note on Matthew 26:67-68.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

14:53-65 We have here Christ's condemnation before the great council of the Jews. Peter followed; but the high priest's fire-side was no proper place, nor his servants proper company, for Peter: it was an entrance into temptation. Great diligence was used to procure false witnesses against Jesus, yet their testimony was not equal to the charge of a capital crime, by the utmost stretch of their law. He was asked, Art thou the Son of the Blessed? that is, the Son of God. For the proof of his being the Son of God, he refers to his second coming. In these outrages we have proofs of man's enmity to God, and of God's free and unspeakable love to man.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

See this fully explained in the notes at Matthew 26:57-75.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

63. Then the high priest rent his clothes—On this expression of horror of blasphemy, see 2Ki 18:37.

and saith, What need we any further witnesses? (Also see on [1512]Joh 18:28.)

Matthew Poole's Commentary

See Poole on "Mark 14:53"

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Then the high priest rent his clothes,.... As was usual upon hearing blasphemy; which he now supposed the case, or at least would have it so thought:

and saith, what need we any further witnesses? or trouble ourselves to see for any more, or to hear and take the depositions of any others; See Gill on Matthew 26:65.

Geneva Study Bible

Then the high priest rent his clothes, and saith, What need we any further witnesses?

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Expositor's Greek Testament

Mark 14:63. τοὺς χιτῶνας, his tunics, or undergarments, of which persons in good position wore two.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

63. Then the high priest] Caiaphas had now gained his end. The Accused had spoken. He had criminated Himself. All was uproar and confusion. The high-priest rent his linen robes. This was not lawful for him to do in cases of mourning (Leviticus 10:6; Leviticus 21:10), but was allowable in cases of blasphemy (see 2 Kings 18:37). It was to be performed standing, and so that the rent was to be from the neck straight downwards. The use of the plural “his clothes,” by St Mark, seems to intimate that he tore all his clothes, except that which was next his body.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 63. - And the high priest rent his clothes (διαῥῤήξας τοὺς χιτῶνας); literally, his tunics.; St. Matthew (Matthew 26:65) has τὰ ἱμὰτια literally, his garments. None but people of rank wore two tunics. The Greek verb here rendered "rent" implies violent dramatic action. The Jewish tunic was open under the chin, and large enough to receive the head, so that it could easily be placed over the shoulders, by inserting the head. When the wearer wished to give this sign of indignation or grief, he would seize the garment at this opening with both hands, and violently tear it asunder down to the waist. But it was unlawful for the high priest to do this in a private grief (Leviticus 10:6). Some of the Fathers think that by this action Caiaphas involuntarily typified the rending of the priesthood from himself and from the Jewish nation. Mark 14:63