---
title: Mark 14:55
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/mark-14-55/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/mark-14-55.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Mark 14:55
testament: NT
section: Gospels
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Mark 14:55

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> Now the chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were seeking testimony against Jesus to put Him to death, but they did not find any.

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "Now the chief priests and the entire Sanhedrin were looking for testimony against Jesus in order to put him to death, but they were not finding any."

## JW Usage

Mark 14:55 receives little JW commentary. The Watchtower's reading of Jesus's trial focuses on his answer in v. 62 ("I am") and the Daniel-7 / Psalm-110 combination, but treats the high priest's reaction as overheated rather than as evidence that Jesus had claimed something divine. The verse functions as background for the JW position that Jesus never claimed deity, only Messiahship.

## Protestant Usage

Mark 14:55 establishes the legal context that makes vv. 60-64 decisive. The Sanhedrin tried to find false testimony against Jesus and failed — the false witnesses contradicted each other (vv. 56-59). Then the high priest asked Jesus directly under oath, and Jesus answered truthfully. This was not a frame-up; it was Jesus's own confession, given under oath, that the Sanhedrin correctly identified as a deity claim. Pair Mark 14:55 with Deuteronomy 19:15 (the two-witness rule) and the Sanhedrin's procedural failure to underscore that the conviction in v. 64 rested on Jesus's own words, not on manufactured evidence. The hostile witnesses are the best interpreters of what Jesus said — and they understood him to be claiming divine prerogatives.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [The Trial That Proved Jesus Claimed to Be God](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/mark14-trial-deity-claim.md) — Mark 14:60-64 [Deity of Christ]