And the high priest arose, and said to him, Answer you nothing? what is it which these witness against you?
And the high priest arose, and said to him, Answer you nothing? what is it which these witness against you?
And the high priest stood up, and said unto him, Answerest thou nothing? what is it which these witness against thee?
And the high priest got up and said to him, Have you no answer? what is it which these say against you?
And the high priest arose, and said to him, Answerest thou nothing, what is it which these testify against thee?
The high priest stood up, and said to him, "Have you no answer? What is this that these testify against you?"
And the high priest stood up, and said unto him, Answerest thou nothing? what is it which these witness against thee?
Answerest thou nothing? - The accusation was so completely frivolous that it merited no notice: besides, Jesus knew that they were determined to put him to death, and that his hour was come; and that therefore remonstrance or defense would be of no use: he had often before borne sufficient testimony to the truth.
Jesus held his peace - Was silent. He knew that the evidence did not even appear to amount to anything worth a reply. He knew that they were aware of that, and that feeling that, the high priest attempted to draw something from him on which they could condemn him.
I adjure thee by the living God - I put thee upon thy oath before God. This was the usual form of putting an oath among the Jews. It implies calling God to witness the truth of what was said. The law respecting witnesses also made it a violation of an oath to conceal any part of the truth; and though our Saviour might have felt that such a question, put in such a manner, was very improper or was unlawful, yet he also knew that to be silent would be construed into a denial of his being the Christ. The question was probably put in auger. They had utterly failed in their proof. They had no way left to accomplish their purpose of condemning him but to draw it from his own lips. This cunning question was therefore proposed. The difficulty of the question consisted in this: If he confessed that he was the Son of God, they stood ready to condemn him for "blasphemy;" if he denied it, they were prepared to condemn him for being an impostor, and for deluding the people under the pretence of being the Messiah.
The living God - Yahweh is called the living God in opposition to idols, which were without life.
The Christ - The Messiah, the Anointed. See the notes at Matthew 1:1.
The Son of God - The Jews uniformly expected that the Messiah would be the Son of God. In their view it denoted, also, that he would be "divine," or equal to the Father, John 10:31-36. To claim that title was therefore, in their view, "blasphemy;" and as they had determined beforehand in their own minds that he was not the Messiah, they were ready at once to accuse him of blasphemy.