John 11:50

50 You do not see that it is in your interest for one man to be put to death for the people, so that all the nation may not come to destruction.

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 let him go on in this way, everybody will have belief in him and the Romans will come and take away our place and our nation.

49 But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, You have no knowledge of anything;

50 You do not see that it is in your interest for one man to be put to death for the people, so that all the nation may not come to destruction.

51 He did not say this of himself, but being the high priest that year he said, as a prophet, that Jesus would be put to death for the nation;

52 And not for that nation only, but for the purpose of uniting in one body the children of God all over the world.