But despite the uncertainty of the evidence, the suspicion that Jesus might have spoken out against the temple was troubling among the Sadducean temple aristocracy. After all, they remembered Jesus' statements not against the temple as such, but against the existing cult practice in the temple. Let us recall how "Jesus, having entered the temple, began to cast out those who sold and bought in the temple; and he overturned the tables of the moneychangers and the benches of the pigeons sellers; and he did not allow anyone to carry any thing through the temple. And he taught them, saying, Is it not written, My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations? but you have made it a den of thieves" (Mark 11:15-17). For the Sadducees, from the 2nd century BC onwards, were constantly confronted with the opinion that the temple in Jerusalem had been so desecrated by the actions of an unworthy priesthood that its consecration could only take place by replacing it with a new temple from heaven. We read about this popular belief in the Qumran manuscripts and other Jewish writings (1 Enoch 90:28-29; Jubilees 1:27).

Jesus expressed no desire to answer the accusation made against Him. "He was silent and did not answer anything." This silence seems to reflect what is said in Psalm 37:

"But those who seek my soul set snares;

and those who wish me evil speak of my destruction

and they plot every day.

And I, like a deaf man, do not hear,

and like a dumb man who does not open his mouth;

And I became like a man who does not hear

and hath no answer in his mouth.

For in Thee, O Lord, I trust;

Thou shalt hear, O Lord my God" (Psalm 37:13-16).

In view of the widespread eschatological ideas about the Heavenly Temple that the Messiah will bring with him, we understand the next step of the high priest in the interrogation, who finally took the whole matter into his own hands. He asked Jesus directly if He was the Messiah.

2. The high priest's question: "Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?" In this matter, some points should be noted:

The designation of God as "Blessed" is unusual among Christians, but was accepted among the Jews, who so sometimes substituted for the unpronounceable Name of God. There were a lot of substitutes for the Name of God: the Lord, the Mighty, the Almighty, Heaven, the Holy One, including the Blessed One.