John 11:50

50 nor do you take account that it is advantageous for us that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish."

John 11:50 Meaning and Commentary

John 11:50

Nor consider that it is expedient for us
Priests, Levites, Pharisees, the sanhedrim, and ecclesiastical rulers of the people; who, as Caiaphas apprehended, must suffer in their characters and revenues, must quit their honourable and gainful posts and places, if Jesus went on and succeeded at this rate: wherefore it was most expedient and advantageous for them, which was the main thing to be considered in such a council, so he thought it was,

that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation
perish not;
he proceeded entirely upon this political principle, that a public good ought to be preferred to a private one; that it was no matter what the man was, whether innocent or not; common prudence, and the public safety of the nation, required him to fall a sacrifice, rather than the Romans should be exasperated and provoked to such a degree, as to threaten the utter ruin and destruction of the whole nation.

John 11:50 In-Context

48 If we leave him alone like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation."

49 But a certain one of them, Kayafa, being Kohen Gadol that year, said to them, "You know nothing at all,

50 nor do you take account that it is advantageous for us that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish."

51 Now he didn't say this of himself, but being Kohen Gadol that year, he prophesied that Yeshua would die for the nation,

52 and not for the nation only, but that he might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.