What Does Mark 14:63 Mean?
Then the high priest tore his tunic and said, What further need do we have of witnesses?
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Then the high priest rent his clothes, and saith, What need we any further witnesses?THE KEY
As the high priest tears his clothes, he breaks the command that specifically forbids a high priest to tear his clothes.
THE MEANING
The high priest makes judgment visible before calling for another witness. His gesture does not establish the charge; it reveals a breach in the very office he inhabits, since the high priest is told not to rend his clothes. The verse sets his display of authority beside the standard that governs it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A high priest’s display of outrage does not prove he is upholding the sacred order; his torn clothes reveal the breach.
THE ROOT
διαρρήξας
diarrēxas
GROWS FROM
ῥήγνυμι (rhēgnymi), in διαρρήγνυμι (diarrēgnymi)
To break, burst, or tear; the compound describes tearing apart.
“rent” in this verse is diarrēxas. Mark’s form, διαρρήξας (diarrēxas, “having torn apart”), comes from διαρρήγνυμι (diarrēgnymi, “to tear apart”), built on ῥήγνυμι (rhēgnymi, “to break, burst, tear”). The Greek of Joel 2:13 uses that same compound for rending the heart rather than the garments, giving the tear an inward direction as well as an outward one.
ALSO GROWS
rhēgnymi: To break, burst, tear.
ῥήγνυμι
This is the underlying rupture carried by “rent”: something whole is split.
diarrēgnymi: To tear apart, rend.
διαρρήγνυμι
The same compound appears in Joel 2:13 for rending the heart rather than the garments.
THE PATTERN
When authority judges another, its own conduct becomes part of the evidence.
And Nathan said to David, You are the man. Thus says the LORD God of Israel, I anointed you king over Israel, and I snatched you out of the hand of Saul.For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged, and with what measure you measure, it will be measured to you.Therefore you have no word to answer with, O human, whoever you are who judges others, for in whatever you judge in another you press the sentence down upon yourself, for you who judge practice the very same things.THE THREAD
And the great priest among his brothers, upon whose head the anointing oil is poured, whose hand is filled to wear the garments, does not let his head go loose, nor tear his clothes.Leviticus names the high priest and bars him from rending his clothes. Mark places the judge’s own breach beside the charge he declares, exposing a fracture inside the authority making the judgment.
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