And when they had set them in the midst. — The Sanhedrin sat in a semi-circle, the president being in the middle of the arc, the accused standing in the centre.
They asked. — Literally, were asking. They put the question repeatedly, in many varying forms.
By what power, or by what name, have ye done this? — Literally, By what kind of power, or what kind of name? apparently in a tone of contempt. They admit the fact that the lame man had been made to walk, as too patent to be denied. (Comp. Acts 4:16.) The question implied a suspicion that it was the effect of magic, or, as in the case of our Lord’s casting out devils, by the power of Beelzebub (Luke 11:15; John 8:48). There is a touch of scorn in the way in which they speak of the thing itself. They will not as yet call it a “sign,” or “wonder,” but “have ye done this?”