John 11:50

50 You do not reflect that it is to your interest that one man should die for the people rather than the whole nation 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 in this way, everybody will believe in him, and the Romans will come and blot out both our city and our nation."

49 But one of them, named Caiaphas, being High Priest that year, said, "You know nothing about it.

50 You do not reflect that it is to your interest that one man should die for the people rather than the whole nation perish."

51 It was not as a mere man that he thus spoke. But being High Priest that year he was inspired to declare that Jesus was to die for the nation,

52 and not for the nation only, but in order to unite into one body all the far-scattered children of God.