The Plot to Kill Jesus
45 1Many of the Jews therefore,
2who had come with Mary and
3had seen what he did, believed in him,
46
but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.
47
So the chief priests and the Pharisees
4gathered
5the Council and said,
6"What are we to do? For this man performs many signs.
48
If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and
7the Romans will come and take away both our
8place and our nation."
49
But one of them,
9Caiaphas,
10who was high priest that year, said to them, "You know nothing at all.
50
Nor do you understand that
11it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish."
51
He did not say this of his own accord, but
12being high priest that year
13he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation,
52
and
14not for the nation only, but also
15to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.
53
So from that day on they
16made plans to put him to death.
54
Jesus therefore
17no longer walked openly among the Jews, but went from there to the region near the wilderness, to a town called Ephraim, and there he stayed with the disciples.
55
Now
18the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and
19many went up from the country to Jerusalem before the Passover
20to purify themselves.
56
21They were looking for Jesus and saying to one another as they stood in the temple, "What do you think? That he will not come to the feast at all?"
57
Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where he was, he should let them know, so that they might arrest him.