What think you? They answered and said, He is guilty of death.
All Commentaries on Matthew 26:66 Go To Matthew 26
Theophylact of Ochrid
AD 1107
It was the practice of the Jews to tear their garments whenever something insufferable would befall them. In order to deceive the crowd, Caiaphas tears his clothes as if he were faced with manifest blasphemy, meaning to create the impression that Christ had greatly blasphemed, and thus to impel the crowd to say that He was guilty unto death. Nevertheless, learn that when Caiaphas rent his clothes, it was a symbol that the high priesthood of the Old Testament had been rent.
