44
The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped in cloths, and his face wrapped round with a towel. "Untie him," said Jesus, "and let him go free."
45
Thereupon a considerable number of the Jews--namely those who had come to Mary and had witnessed His deeds--became believers in Him;
46
though some of them went off to the Pharisees and told them what He had done.
47
Therefore the High Priests and the Pharisees held a meeting of the Sanhedrin. "What steps are we taking?" they asked one another; "for this man is performing a great number of miracles.
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.
53
So from that day forward they planned and schemed in order to put Him to death.
54
Therefore Jesus no longer went about openly among the Jews, but He left that neighbourhood and went into the district near the Desert, to a town called Ephraim, and remained there with the disciples.