Then the high priest tore his clothes, saying, He has spoken blasphemy; what further need have we of witnesses? behold, now you have heard his blasphemy.
All Commentaries on Matthew 26:65 Go To Matthew 26
John Chrysostom
AD 407
Then the high priest rent his clothes, saying, he has spoken blasphemy. He did this to add force to the accusation and to aggravate what he said by a symbolic action. What had been said moved the hearers to fear. They did in this case what they would later do in the case of Stephen: they stopped their ears. The high priest does the same thing. Yet what kind of blasphemy was this? For indeed he had said before, when they were gathered together, that “the Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou on my right hand.” And he had interpreted the saying, and they dared to say nothing. They held their peace and from that time forward did not challenge him further. Why then did they now call the saying a blasphemy? And why did Christ now answer them? He did so to take away all their excuses. Even to the last day he taught that he was the Christ, and that he would sit at the right hand of the Father and that he would come again to judge the world. All this was the language of one manifesting his full accordance with the will of the Father. The Gospel of Matthew, Homily
