John 11:45-57 - The Jewish Leaders Plot To Kill Jesus
45 So it came about that many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary and saw what Jesus did, came to believe in him, 46 but some of them went back to the Pharisees and told them what he had done.
47 Then the high priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the council, and they said, "What are we to do about the fact that this man is showing so many signs? 48 If we let him go on, everybody will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and put an end to our holy place and our people."
49 But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, 50 "You know nothing about it. You do not realize that it is to your interest that one man should die for the people, instead of the whole nation being destroyed." 51 Now he was not self-moved in saying this, but as high priest for that year he was inspired to say that Jesus was to die for the nation??52 and not only for the nation but also for the purpose of uniting the scattered children of God. 53 So from that day they planned to kill Jesus. 54 In consequence of this, Jesus did not appear in public among the Jews any longer, but he left that neighborhood and went to the district near the desert, to a town called Ephraim, and stayed there with his disciples.
55 Now the Jewish Passover Festival was approaching and many people went up to Jerusalem from the country, to purify themselves before the Passover. 56 So they were looking for Jesus there, and asking one another as they stood in the Temple, "What do you think? Do you think he will not come to the festival at all?" 57 For the high priests and the Pharisees had given orders that anyone who found out where he was should let them know, so that they might arrest him.