Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Luke · About this commentary
Are You Then the Son of God?
Luke 22:63-71
63 The men who held Jesus mocked him and beat him. · WEB
Blindfolded and told to prophesy, and at daybreak the council asks the only question that matters.
The men who held Jesus mocked him and beat him. Having blindfolded him, they struck him on the face and asked him, "Prophesy! Who is the one who struck you?" Luke 22:63–64.
The guards' game is a parody of a prophet's gift, and the blindfold is what makes it possible. They have heard he foretells things, so they hide his eyes and hit him.
The irony is not labored by the account and does not need to be. He had prophesied all week, and the most recent of those predictions was fulfilled in that courtyard about ninety minutes earlier, by Peter, in his hearing.
As soon as it was day, the assembly of the elders of the people were gathered together, both chief priests and scribes, and they led him away into their council Luke 22:66.
This account has the formal hearing at daybreak rather than during the night, which is the more likely procedure — the council's own rules required capital cases to be heard in daylight. The night was spent holding him.
"If you are the Christ, tell us" Luke 22:67.
"If I tell you, you won't believe, and if I ask, you will in no way answer me or let me go" Luke 22:67–68.
The reply is not evasion; it is an accurate description of the proceeding. He has evidence of both halves. When he asked them about John's baptism they refused to answer Luke 20:5–7, and the verdict in this room was settled days ago. A man does not give testimony to a court that has told him it decides on other grounds.
"From now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God" Luke 22:69.
He answers by going past the question. The image is the psalm about a lord seated at God's right hand Psalms 110:1 — the text he had put to them in the temple that same week — and from now on is this account's wording. Not at some future assize: from this moment, the direction of travel is upward, and the trial they think they are conducting is a stage in it.
"Are you then the Son of God?" He said to them, "You say it, because I am" Luke 22:70.
They supply the title, which is the one thing they wanted him to say, and the answer concedes it in their own words.
"Why do we need any more witness? For we ourselves have heard from his own mouth!" Luke 22:71. Which is an accurate summary of a trial that never had any other.
settled What this mark means