⚡WEB · Mark 11:28
What does Mark 11:28 mean?
"and they began saying to him, “By what authority do you do these things? Or who gave you this authority to do these things?”"
— Mark 11:28 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone; so that your Father, who is in heaven, may also forgive you your transgressions.
But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your transgressions.”
They came again to Jerusalem, and as he was walking in the temple, the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders came to him,
and they began saying to him, “By what authority do you do these things? Or who gave you this authority to do these things?”
Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one question. Answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things.
The baptism of John—was it from heaven, or from men? Answer me.”
They reasoned with themselves, saying, “If we should say, ‘From heaven;’ he will say, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’
Explanation
Mark 11:28 records a direct challenge posed to Jesus by the chief priests, scribes, and elders in the Jerusalem temple. In plain language, the religious leaders are demanding that Jesus justify himself: they want to know who authorized him to do "these things" — meaning his recent actions, most notably his triumphal entry into Jerusalem and, just the day before, his dramatic overturning of the money-changers' tables and driving out those buying and selling in the temple courts (Mark 11:15-17). Their question has two parts that reinforce each other: "by what authority" asks about the source or legitimacy of his power, while "who gave you this authority" presses for a specific human or divine sanction behind his actions.
The context is crucial. Jesus had just entered the temple — the center of Jewish religious, political, and economic life — and acted with the kind of authority normally reserved for those officially sanctioned by the religious establishment, such as priests or recognized teachers with rabbinic credentials. The chief priests, scribes, and elders made up the Sanhedrin, the ruling council that oversaw temple affairs and religious law. Jesus was not part of their official structure; he had not been trained in their schools nor commissioned by their authority. So when he acted as if he had the right to judge and cleanse the temple, he was implicitly claiming an authority that superseded theirs. Their question was not really an innoc
Compare translations
Go deeper with ScriptureCompanion AI
Ask questions about any verse, follow reading plans, write personal prayers, and track your daily habit — all grounded in verified scripture text.