{Cover his face} (perikaluptein autou to pros(9370)on). Put a
veil around his face. Not in Matthew, but in  Lu 22:64  where
Revised Version translates perikalupsantes by "blind-folded."
All three Gospels give the jeering demand of the Sanhedrin:
"Prophesy" (proph(8874)euson), meaning, as Matthew and Luke add,
thereby telling who struck him while he was blindfolded. Mark
adds "the officers" (same as in verse  54 ) of the Sanhedrin,
Roman lictors or sergeants-at-arms who had arrested Jesus in
Gethsemane and who still held Jesus (hoi sunechontes auton,  Lu
22:63 ).  Mt 26:67  alludes to their treatment of Jesus without
clearly indicating who they were. {With blows of their hands}
(
apismasin). The verb 
apiz(935c) in  Mt 26:67  originally meant
to smite with a rod. In late writers it comes to mean to slap the
face with the palm of the hands. The same thing is true of the
substantive 
apisma used here. A papyrus of the sixth century
A.D. uses it in the sense of a scar on the face as the result of
a blow. It is in the instrumental case here. "They caught him
with blows," Swete suggests for the unusual elabon in this
sense. "With rods" is, of course, possible as the lictors carried
rods. At any rate it was a gross indignity.