The high priest called for the council's verdict. The trial had stalled, because the false witnesses could not agree (Mark 14:56, 59). Matthew Henry observes that their testimony "was not equal to the charge of a capital crime, by the utmost stretch of their law." Jesus' own answer, "I am" (Mark 14:62), gave the high priest what the witnesses could not. He rent his clothes and said they needed no more witnesses (Mark 14:63). Gill says rending the clothes "was usual upon hearing blasphemy; which he now supposed the case, or at least would have it so thought." Then he turned to the council. Barnes, on the same question in Matthew 26:66, explains it this way: "What is your opinion? What sentence do you pronounce?" As president of the council, he was asking for their judgment. Notice that he named the crime first, "Ye have heard the blasphemy," before he asked what they thought.

The council answered together: "they all condemned him to be guilty of death" (Mark 14:64). Matthew records their words: "He is guilty of death" (Matthew 26:66). Then the trial turned to abuse. "Some began to spit on him, and to cover his face, and to buffet him," and to say "Prophesy," while the servants struck Him with their palms (Mark 14:65). In the morning the council bound Jesus and delivered Him to Pilate (Mark 15:1). Gill notes one exception to "all": Joseph of Arimathea, who, Luke says, "had not consented to the counsel and deed of them" (Luke 23:51).

The council here is the Sanhedrin, the ruling body of chief priests, elders, and scribes (Mark 14:53, 55). Its president was the high priest, which is why he asks the others for their sentence.

"Guilty of death" was a court phrase. Barnes, in his note on the parallel in Matthew 26:66, says it "was the form which was used when a criminal was condemned to die," and means "he is found guilty of a crime to which the law annexes death." He points to the law on blasphemy in Leviticus 24:10-16. As for the high priest rending his clothes, Gill says it "was usual upon hearing blasphemy."

The council condemned Jesus for telling the truth about Himself. The charge was blasphemy, but the "blasphemy" was His answer to their own question: He is "the Christ, the Son of the Blessed" (Mark 14:61-62). The verdict that seemed to end His claim actually rested on it. Matthew Henry sees in these outrages "proofs of man's enmity to God, and of God's free and unspeakable love to man."

None of this caught Jesus by surprise. On the road to Jerusalem He had told the Twelve that the Son of man would be delivered "unto the chief priests, and unto the scribes; and they shall condemn him to death," and also that "the third day he shall rise again" (Mark 10:33-34). The council thought it was deciding Jesus' fate. Mark shows God's plan moving forward step by step, just as Jesus said it would.