Jn. 11:45 Then many of the Jews who had come to Mary and had seen the things Jesus did, believed in Him.
Jn. 11:46 But some of them went away to the Pharisees and told them the things Jesus did.
Jn. 11:47 Then the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered a council and said, “What shall we do? For this Man works many signs.”
Jn. 11:48 “If we let Him alone like this, every one will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away our place and nation.”
The Jews feared that the Romans would destroy their “holy place and nation.” Although all the High Priests were appointed by the Roman leadership, Joseph Caiaphas betrays his own fear of the governor’s power when he listened carefully to these words of warning. He responds by saying that it is better for one man to die than the whole nation perish. The holy place and the nation should be preserved. In a short span of approximately forty years the Romans did destroy the Temple. Not long after the death, burial, and resurrection of Yeshua, the swift might of the Roman Empire was revealed when legions of soldiers marched across the land of Israel making war against the Jewish people. Again, just some sixty years after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 C.E., the power of Imperial Rome put down another revolt in the land of Israel during the fierce guerilla war from 132 to 135 C.E. This time the revolt was spearheaded by the messianic hopes surrounding the charismatic leadership of Bar Kochba. The destruction of Jerusalem in 70 C.E. was Rome’s response to the Messianic hopes of the Jewish people and their longing for religious freedom and protected autonomy. The Romans were serious about fighting against Jewish Messianism in all its forms.
Jn. 11:49 And one of them, Caiaphas, being High Priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all.”
Jn. 11:50 “Nor do you consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and not that the whole nation should perish.”
Jn. 11:51 Now this he did not say on his own authority, but being High Priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation.
Josephus relates that there were four High Priests in succession from Annas to Caiaphas. Thus in the same book of the Antiquities (18.2.2) he writes as follows: “Valerius Graters having put an end to the priesthood of Ananus appoints Ishmael, the son of Fabi, the High Priest. And having removed him after a little he appoints Eleazer, the son of Ananus the High Priest, to the same office. And having removed him also at the end ofa year he gives the high priesthood to Simon, the son of Camithus. But he likewise held the honor no more than a year, when Josephus, called also Caiaphas, succeeded him.” Accordingly the whole time of our Savior’s ministry is shown to have been not quite four years, four High Priests, from Annas to the accession of Caiaphas, having held office a year each.”
Source: Jos. Ant. 18.2.2 34,35
Jn. 11:52 And not for that nation only, but also that He would gather together in one the children of God who were scattered abroad.
Jn. 11:53 Then from that day on they plotted to put Him to death.
When Yeshua called out, “Lazarus, come forth!” to the amazement of the mourners, many of whom had witnessed Lazarus’ burial four days earlier, he came out alive! The news of this miracle spread instantly to nearby Jerusalem. The Pharisees and Sadducees panicked. Accounts of Yeshua restoring a son to his mother in far-away Galilee (Luke 7:11-17) could be ignored in Jerusalem, but not reports by hundreds of eye-witnesses who had watched Lazarus walk out of his tomb in nearby Bethany. It was this event that confirmed and accelerated the Sanhedrin’s plan to put Yeshua to death.
Jn. 11:54 Therefore Jesus no longer walked openly among the Jews, but went from there into the country near the wilderness, to a city called Ephraim, and there remained with His disciples.
