Matthew 26:63
Matthew 26:6363But Jesus remained silent. Then the high priest said to Him, “I charge You under oath by the living God: Tell us if You are the Christ, the Son of God.”
The high priest's question is read as asking whether Jesus is the Messiah, and Jesus' answer as an affirmation of messiahship. On the Watchtower reading, "Son of God" carries no claim to deity, so the Sanhedrin's charge of blasphemy is understood as the reaction of corrupt men to a claim they simply did not want to accept.
The question matters less than the answer, so read on to verse 64 and ask what Jesus added. He was asked whether he was the Christ, the Son of God. He could have said yes and stopped. Instead he said: from now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven. That sentence fuses with — the seat at God's right hand, and the figure who arrives on the clouds. He was speaking to men who knew both texts by heart, and the reaction is the interpretation. The high priest tore his robes and the council convicted him of blasphemy. Messianic claims were not blasphemy — several men made them in that century without a robe being torn. What the Sanhedrin heard was something else. This is the strongest form of the argument because it does not depend on any disputed translation. Ask a Witness to read verses 63 to 66 in their own Bible and explain what the high priest thought he had just heard. Compare , , .