The officer treated Jesus' answer as an insult to the high priest and punished Him on the spot. Gill suggests he spoke and struck "either out of flattery to the high priest, or to clear himself from being a favourer of Christ." Yet Jesus' words had been true and plain. Barnes says, "Jesus had showed no disrespect for the office of the high priest, and if he had, this was not the proper way to punish it." The question was not looking for an answer. It was a rebuke.

Jesus did not strike back or stay silent. He answered with a question of His own: "If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil: but if well, why smitest thou me?" (John 18:23). The text records no reply from the officer. Instead, "Annas had sent him bound unto Caiaphas the high priest" (John 18:24).

Barnes describes the officers as attendants of the court, standing by during the hearing. The phrase "with the palm of his hand" translates one Greek word, rhapisma. Thayer defines it as "a blow with a rod or a staff or a scourge" or "a blow with the flat of the hand, a slap in the face." Barnes allows both: he "Gave him a blow either with the open hand or with a rod." The same word describes the servants who struck Jesus later that night (Mark 14:65) and the soldiers who "smote him with their hands" (John 19:3).

Gill adds that "some have thought this was Malchus, whose ear Christ had healed; if so, he was guilty of great ingratitude" (see John 18:10; Luke 22:51). The text itself does not name the officer.

This is a question asked to Jesus, and His reply shows what He is like. He was bound and struck, yet He neither cursed the man nor pretended the blow was fair. Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary says, "He reasoned with the man that did him the injury, and so may we."

The officer defended the honor of the high priest while striking the One who had done nothing wrong. Jesus asked for evidence, and none came (John 18:23-24). The same night others "smote him with the palms of their hands" (Matthew 26:67). The Son of God bore this injustice without hitting back, and Peter later holds it up as an example: "when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously" (1 Peter 2:23).