John 11:45-57 - The Jewish Leaders Plot To Kill Jesus
45 When many of Mary's Jewish friends, who had come to console her, saw what Jesus had done, they believed in Him. 46 But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.
47 So, the leading priests and the Pharisees assembled the Council [Note: This was the Jewish governing body called "the Sanhedrin"] and said, "What should we do, for this man is performing many [miraculous] signs? 48 If we allow him to go on [doing this], everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy our Temple and our nation [i.e., its people]."
49 But a certain member of the Sanhedrin, [named] Caiaphas, who was head priest that year, said to [the rest of] them, "You do not know what you are talking about. 50 And you are not taking into consideration that it would be profitable to you for one man to die for the people, so that the entire nation would not be destroyed." 51 Now he did not say this on his own [i.e., he was not aware of the significance of his words], but since he was head priest that year, he was prophesying [i.e., predicting] that Jesus should die for the nation. 52 And not just [die] for the [Jewish] nation, but also that He would assemble together into one body the children of God who were scattered [throughout the world]. 53 So, from that day onward, the Jewish authorities began plotting [how] to kill Jesus. 54 So, Jesus stopped traveling publicly among the Jews [in Judea], but left there and went to a district near the desert, to a town called Ephraim, where He remained with His disciples. [Note: Ephraim was a small town about
55 Now the Jewish Passover Festival was to be held soon and many people went up to Jerusalem from the countryside before the [actual] Festival in order to perform the ceremonial purification rituals. 56 So, they began looking for Jesus and saying among themselves, as they gathered in the Temple, "What do you think? He will not attend the Festival, will he?" 57 Now the leading priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where Jesus was, he was to report it, so they could arrest Him.