Bible Synapse
Did Jesus answer the high priest with a plain “I am”, or only indirectly?
Hard question · The death and resurrection of Jesus · raised by 1 of the lists sceptics circulate
See the passages joined in the interactive mapThe passages
Charged on oath to say whether he was the Christ, the Son of God, Jesus said “Thou hast said” and spoke of the Son of man at the right hand of power.
But Jesus held his peace. And the high priest answered and said unto him, I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.
Asked “Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?”, Jesus said, “I am”.
But he held his peace, and answered nothing. Again the high priest asked him, and said unto him, Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed? And Jesus said, I am: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.
Asked “Art thou then the Son of God?”, he answered, “Ye say that I am”.
Art thou the Christ? tell us. And he said unto them, If I tell you, ye will not believe: And if I also ask you, ye will not answer me, nor let me go. Hereafter shall the Son of man sit on the right hand of the power of God. Then said they all, Art thou then the Son of God? And he said unto them, Ye say that I am.
The objection
In Mark, Jesus answers the high priest’s question with a plain “I am”. In Matthew he says only “Thou hast said”, and in Luke “Ye say that I am”, which some read as evasive: ‘that is your word, not mine’. Critics ask whether Jesus openly claimed to be the Christ or avoided a direct answer.
The answer
“Thou hast said” (Greek su eipas) was a recognised way of saying yes. Matthew uses exactly the same words earlier in the same chapter, when Judas asks “Master, is it I?” and Jesus answers “Thou hast said” (Matthew 26:25); there the meaning is plainly ‘yes, it is you’. Barnes calls it a form of assenting or affirming, and Adam Clarke gives an example of the same idiom from the rabbis. Luke’s “Ye say that I am” works in the same way. The Greek hoti can mean ‘that’ or ‘because’, and Gill takes Jesus’ reply as ‘ye say it, and ye say right; … for I am’.
The reactions settle what the words meant. In Matthew the high priest tears his clothes and cries “He hath spoken blasphemy” (Matthew 26:65); in Luke the council says “What need we any further witness? for we ourselves have heard of his own mouth” (Luke 22:71). Nobody in the room took the answer as a refusal. So Mark gives the plain sense of the reply, and Matthew and Luke the idiom in which it was spoken. All three agree on what followed: Jesus went on to speak of the Son of man sitting at the right hand of God’s power, words drawn from Psalm 110:1 and Daniel 7:13, which his judges took as blasphemy.
Other answers Christians give
Two sessions
Luke places his account “as soon as it was day” (Luke 22:66), and Matthew and Mark also mention a meeting of the council in the morning (Matthew 27:1; Mark 15:1). Some think Luke records that morning session, held to confirm the night’s verdict, and Matthew and Mark the hearing at night. If so, Jesus was asked more than once and answered in similar words each time.
From the classic commentators
Thou hast said - This is a form of assenting or affirming. Thou hast said the truthAlbert Barnes, Notes on the Bible, on Matthew 26:64 (1832)