Mark 14:64 “You have heard the blasphemy; how does it seem to you?” And they all condemned Him to be deserving of death.

What does the high priest say that the Council has heard?

“the blasphemy” (Mark 14:64)

·      τῆς βλασφημίας (blasphēmias) (“the blasphemy”)

Speech that denigrates or defames, reviling, denigration, disrespect, slander, specifically against humans and transcendent entities, God and what is God’s. “Impious denigration of deity is especially heinous and many translations reflect this emotive value in the loan word ‘blasphemy’. But Greco-Roman and Semitic minds would first of all, as Act 19:37 and Rom 2:24 indicate, think in terms of disrespect shown or harm done to a deity’s reputation, a fact obscured by the rendering ‘blasphemy’, which has to some extent in England gone its own emotive way semantically and has in effect become a religious technical term, which is not the case with βλασφημέω. On the range of expressions for denigration of God see ESanders, Jewish Law from Jesus to the Mishnah ’90, 57-67.” (BDAG, 178).

·      What words had Jesus previously spoken to the Council that the high priest may be referring to as “the blasphemy” in Mark 14:64?

“But He kept silent and did not answer. Again the high priest was questioning Him, and saying to Him, ‘Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?’ And Jesus said, ‘I am; and you shall see THE SON OF MAN SITTING AT THE RIGHT HAND OF POWER, and COMING WITH THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN’ (Mark 14:61-62).

How does the Council respond to the high priest’s question, “You have heard the blasphemy; how does it seems to you?” (Mark 14:64a)

“And they all condemned Him” (Mark 14:64b)

·      κατέκριναν (katakrinon) (“condemned”) 3P Aorist Active Indicative of κατακρίνω “pronounce a sentence after determination of guilt, pronounce a sentence on τινά someone . . . they adjudged him liable to or subject to death Mk 14:64 (the actual sentence of course comes later)” (BDAG, 519).

·       
Who was the Council that the high priest addressed?

Sanhedrin (συνέδριον) (Sanhedrin): “the high council in Jerusalem, Sanhedrin, the dominant meaning in our literature (Josephus. [Schürer II 206, 18]; Hebraized in the Mishnah סַנְהֶדְרִין); in Roman times this was the highest indigenous governing body in Judaea, composed of high priests (ἀρχιερεύς 1ba), elders, and scholars (scribes), and meeting under the presidency of the ruling high priest. This body was the ultimate authority not only in religious matters, but in legal and governmental affairs as well, in so far as it did not encroach on the authority of the Roman procurator. The latter, e.g., had to confirm any death sentences passed by the council” (BDAG, 967).

  

What does the Council “condemn Him to be” (Mark 14:64)?

“deserving of death” (Mark 14:64b).

ἔνόχον (enochon) (“deserving”)

Pertaining to being held in or constrained, subject to; pertaining to being required to give an account for something held against one, liable, answerable, guilty; to denote the punishment θανάτου deserving of death (BDAG, 338).

θανάτου (thanatou) (“death”) (BDAG, 443)

·      1.  the termination of physical life, death

a.    natural death

b.   of death as a penalty

α. as inflicted by secular courts ἔνοχος θανάτου ἐστίν he deserves death (ἔνοχος 2bα) Mt 26:66; Mk 14:64

β.  of the death of Christ; […] Ac 2:24, where death is regarded as being in labor, and unable to hold back its child, the Messiah

γ. of natural death as divine punishment, i.e. “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— (Rom 5:12)

             c.  of danger of death

             d.  of the manner of death

             e.  death as personified “Yet death reigned from Adam

                 to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come" (Rom 5:14).

2. death viewed transcendently in contrast to a living relationship with God, death extension of meaning.

     a. of spiritual death, to which one is subject unless one lives out of the power of God’s grace.  θάνατον οὐ μὴ θεωρήσῃ “Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death” (John 8:51).

What did “they all condemn Him to be”?

“deserving of death” (Mark 14:64)

Father,

Jesus was without sin. We all fall short of Your glory, and the wage of our sin is death. Glory and thanks to You for sending Jesus who knew no sin but became the curse of sin so that we might become Your righteousness. Glory and thanks to You for so great a salvation as You freely give by Your abounding grace in Christ Jesus our Lord. For the wage of sin is death, but Your free gift is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Glory to the power of Jesus’ Name, the only Name by which salvation comes to man. “For ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved’” (Rom 10:13). Glory and thanks to Jesus for the new life He gives that is abundant and free, for He breaks the bonds of death and sin. By His wounds, we are healed. By the blood of His cross, our sin is forgiven. By the imputation of His perfect righteousness, we are justified by Your grace through faith in Jesus, reconciled in peace and love. Glory to You for so great a gift as salvation in Jesus Christ our Lord. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.