Mark 14:61-64

The context

Mark 14 narrates the night hearing before the council. False witnesses have failed to agree, and the high priest then puts a direct question to Jesus. The reply combines a title from Daniel's vision with a line from a royal psalm. The high priest's reaction and the council's verdict follow at once.

What it establishes

It establishes that Mark presents Jesus as answering the question affirmatively and as describing himself in terms drawn from two scriptural visions. The charge of blasphemy follows that answer, and it is the hinge of the hearing.

What it does not establish

It does not settle what the charge meant legally. Whether the reply amounted to blasphemy under the relevant standard is disputed, and Luke's account of the same hearing differs in wording and in the order of events. The scene is Mark's composition, and it does not supply a transcript.

Short note, first pass, October 2026. Corrections welcome.

Cited in these answers

• Did Jesus really claim to be God, or did His followers just say that about Him? Might not Dan Brown have been on to something?

Part of Scripture, Opened — the exegetical layer behind every citation on this site. Scripture quotations are from the ESV.