Matthew 26:63-66

26:63 But Jesus was silent. The ¹  high priest said to him, “I charge you under oath by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, ²  the Son of God.” 26:64 Jesus said to him, “You have said it yourself. But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand ³  of the Power ⁴  and coming on the clouds of heaven.” ⁵  26:65 Then the high priest tore his clothes and declared, ⁶  “He has blasphemed! Why do we still need witnesses? Now ⁷  you have heard the blasphemy! 26:66 What is your verdict?” ⁸  They ⁹  answered, “He is guilty and deserves ¹⁰  death.”

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¹ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

² tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

sn See the note on Christ in 1:16.

³ sn An allusion to Ps 110:1. This is a claim that Jesus shares authority with God in heaven. Those present may have thought they were his judges, but, in fact, the reverse was true.

⁴ sn The expression the right hand of the Power is a circumlocution for referring to God. Such indirect references to God were common in 1st century Judaism out of reverence for the divine name.

⁵ sn An allusion to Dan 7:13 (see also Matt 24:30).

⁶ tn Grk “the high priest tore his clothes, saying.”

⁷ tn Grk “Behold now.” The Greek word ἰδού (idou) has not been translated because it has no exact English equivalent here, but adds interest and emphasis (BDAG 468 s.v. 1).

⁸ tn Grk “What do you think?”

⁹ tn Grk “answering, they said.” This is somewhat redundant and has been simplified in the translation. Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

¹⁰ tn Grk “he is guilty of death.” L&N 88.313 states, “pertaining to being guilty and thus deserving some particular penalty – ‘guilty and deserving, guilty and punishable by.’ οἱ δὲ ἀποκριθέντες εἶπαν, ᾿Ενοχος θανάτου ἐστίν ‘they answered, He is guilty and deserves death’ Mt 26:66.”