Saying, art thou the Christ,.... The Messiah, promised and prophesied of by Moses, and all the prophets, and long expected by us: "tell us". The Ethiopic version adds, openly; tell us frankly, freely, plainly, as in John 10:24.
And he said unto them, if I tell you, you will not believe. The Vulgate Latin and Syriac versions read, "will not believe me"; neither what he said, nor that he was the Messiah; they were determined not to believe in him, and receive him as such; their unbelief was wilful, obstinate, and invincible: they were proof against all arguments, evidence, and demonstration itself.