Matthew 26:66

66 what seemeth to you? And they answered, and said, He is guilty of death.

Matthew 26:66 Meaning and Commentary

Matthew 26:66

What think ye?
&c.] Of the words just now spoken by him; do not they in your opinion amount to a charge of blasphemy and what punishment do you think ought to be inflicted on him? is he guilty of death, or not? This question he put, as being president of the court:

they answered and said, he is guilty of death;
they were unanimous in their vote, for Mark says, "they all condemned him to be guilty of death"; only Joseph of Arimathea must be excepted, who consented not to their counsel and deed, ( Luke 23:51 ) , and so must Nicodemus, if he was present; who seeing what they were determined to do, withdrew themselves before the question came to be put, and so it passed "nemine contradicente"; and indeed, if he had been guilty of blasphemy, as they charged him, the sentence would have been right. Now this was in the night, in which they begun, carried on, and finished this judicial procedure, quite contrary to one of their own canons ^F23 which runs thus:

``pecuniary causes they try in the day, and finish in the night; capital causes (such was this) they try in the day, and finish in the day; pecuniary causes they finish the same day, whether for absolution, or condemnation; capital causes they finish the same day for absolution, and the day following for condemnation; wherefore they do not try causes neither on the sabbath eve, nor on the eve of a feast day.''

But in this case, they begun the trial in the night, examined the witnesses, finished it, and passed the sentence of condemnation, and that in the eve of a grand festival, their Chagigah.

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FOOTNOTES:

F23 Misn. Sanhedrin, c. 4. sect. 1. Maimom. Hilch. Sanhedrin, c. 11. sect. 1, 2. T. Hieros. Yom Tob, fol. 63. 1.

Matthew 26:66 In-Context

64 Jesus said to him, Thou hast said; nevertheless I say to you, hereafter ye shall see man's Son sitting at the right half of the virtue of God [nevertheless, I say to you, from henceforth, ye shall see man's Son sitting at the right half of God's virtue], and coming in the clouds of heaven.

65 Then the prince of priests rent his clothes, and said, He hath blasphemed; what yet have we need to witnesses [Then the prince of priests rent his clothes, saying, He hath blasphemed; what yet need have we to witnesses]? lo! now ye have heard blasphemy;

66 what seemeth to you? And they answered, and said, He is guilty of death.

67 Then they spat in his face, and smote him with buffets; and others gave strokes with the palm of their hands in [into] his face,

68 and said, Thou Christ, declare to us, who is he that smote thee? [saying, Thou Christ, prophesy to us, who is he that smote thee?]