John 11:50Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Behold the power of the Spirit. He so ordered things that even from a wicked heart came words containing a wondrous prophecy. For when Christ died, all who believed from among the people were delivered from great and eternal punishment.

Thus Caiaphas said what he said according to the lawless disposition of his mind. Yet his word became the expression of the true matter, uttered as if in prophecy.

He foretells how many good things the death of Christ would cause. He says what he did not know and, like Balaam, glorifies God by necessity. Since he held the dignity of high priest, the prophecy was given, as it were, not to him but to the sacred office.

Or else, Caiaphas must not be thought to have received prophetic grace because what he said later happened and was fulfilled. Often what certain people say comes to pass, even though they speak without knowing that it will certainly happen.

Caiaphas says that the death of Christ will be for the Jews alone. The Evangelist says that it was for all mankind.

This is because all of us are called the race and children of God. He is the Father of all, as Creator bringing into being and raising to existence what did not exist.

It is also because from the beginning we were honored by being created according to His image. We received dominion over all things on earth, were deemed worthy of faith in God, and tasted life and sweetness in paradise.

But Satan scattered us. He did not allow us to remain in the same state, but by various means turned man away from devotion to God.

Christ again brought all in and gathered them through faith into one fold, the Church. He subjected all to one yoke, since all became one: Jews, Greeks, barbarians, and Scythians. They are transformed "into one new man" (Eph 2:15) and worship one God.

Caiaphas did not say this by the prophetic Spirit, for the prophetic Spirit does not plot against Christ. He spoke through a certain accidental agreement with the true and future event.

He was permitted to touch such foreknowledge because he was high priest. Thus, by his mouth, what had until then been hidden from men and unknown was proclaimed.

One should know that later, because of ambitions and rivalries among the Jews, it was established that there should be many high priests, and that they should carry out the ministry by yearly succession.

Indeed it is said also of Zacharias: "While he was serving as priest before God in the order of his division, according to the custom of the priesthood, his lot fell to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense" (Lk 1:8-9).

From this it is clear that there were many priests, and all became high priests in turn. For no one could offer incense except the high priest (cf. Ex 30:7).

It is also possible that each year there were many ministers whom others succeeded the following year. From among them someone was chosen by lot to offer incense.

What, then, did Caiaphas foretell? That Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who were scattered abroad (Jn 11:51-52).

Then the high priest Caiaphas said, "Why so much deliberation? It is obviously better that one man should die for the people, than that the whole nation should perish in an uprising. Therefore, whoever this Jesus may be, He must quickly be put to death."

These words came from an evil heart. But the thought expressed in them, that Jesus must die for the people, was true.

Thus the impious mouth of Caiaphas involuntarily uttered a prophecy, because he was high priest that year. In ancient times the high priest was an organ of divine revelation (Ex 28:30; Num 27:21).

For Jesus Christ truly had to die, according to the decree of God, for the salvation of men. "And not for the nation only," the Evangelist observes, "but also to gather into one the children of God who were scattered abroad."

That is, Christ had to die not only for the salvation of the Jewish people. He also had to form from all the people of the whole world the one catholic Church of Christ (cf. 10:16).

After this judgment of Caiaphas, the Sanhedrin made the final decision to kill Jesus.

The messianic movement that is now clearly threatening to break out will certainly draw the Romans. They will come with their legions, close the temple, and destroy all national institutions, above all the Sanhedrin.

They will deprive the people of every independence. In the event of resistance, they will lay waste the country with fire and sword.

Therefore Caiaphas concluded with ominous solemnity: "It is better for us that one man should die for the people, than that the whole nation should perish."

Caiaphas' thought was clear to everyone. He was plainly demanding the death of Christ as a necessary condition for the salvation of the people.

Yet he himself did not understand what lofty prophecy he was uttering. He foretold "that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who were scattered abroad."

In its inner character, Caiaphas' speech transferred the question from the realm of conscience to that of external politics. It decided the matter without appeal in favor of the latter.

"Why deliberate about what is to be done? Whoever He may be, a whole nation may perish because of Him. He must be sacrificed. Why decide according to conscience? We must decide according to external circumstances."

At the foundation of the decision lies the same fatal lie as among the other members of the Sanhedrin (Jn 11:47-48): He is not the Messiah. There, however, there is still deliberation. Here there is cold, egoistic resolve to sacrifice Him, without further reasoning or hesitation.

But the majority of the members needed not the Messiah of the prophets, nor one such as Christ Jesus. He preached self-denial, turned hearts not to earth but to heaven, and exposed the vices of the leaders of the people.

"If we leave Him alone," they say, "the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation." Base hypocrites attribute to Jesus their own impure thoughts and desires.

They say that Jesus supposedly wants to be an earthly king, and that His followers are ready to rise against Roman authority. For this they received what they expected.

Thirty years later, the Romans did indeed take and destroy the city, and scattered the people throughout the whole world. This happened precisely because, after slandering and putting heavenly innocence to death, they rebelled against Roman authority.

"And one of them, Caiaphas, being high priest that year, said: You know nothing, nor do you consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die, and not the whole nation perish."

"High priest that year" means that Caiaphas was presiding in that year. So also in verse 51. But this does not exclude the thought that he had been high priest before that.

Caiaphas held power throughout the whole procuratorship of Pilate. After Pilate's removal, he was deposed by the proconsul Vitellius.

"You know nothing" means, "You understand nothing; you are ignorant men." These are sharp words, revealing agitation of soul. Who agitated Caiaphas?

Since there was now a full assembly of the Sanhedrin, there were certainly members such as Nicodemus (Jn 3:2; 7:50; 9:16), Joseph of Arimathea, and others like them.

The raising of Lazarus strengthened such members in their reverence for Jesus, verse 45. They did not fail to say a few words in favor of Jesus in the Sanhedrin. These words drove Caiaphas out of himself.

In a movement of anger, he pronounced the sentence that Jesus must die, lest otherwise the whole people perish.

According to Flavius Josephus, Joseph Caiaphas was appointed high priest by the authority of the proconsul of Judea, Valerius Gratus, Pilate's immediate predecessor.

During twelve years of his proconsulship, from A.D. 15 to 27, Valerius Gratus replaced four high priests: Ananias, Ishmael, Eleazar, and Simon, the predecessor of Caiaphas.

The high priesthood had long since lost its important significance. Both the Idumean kings and the Roman proconsuls appointed Jewish high priests quite arbitrarily by their own authority, most often because of bribery.

Nevertheless, the high priest, though unworthy, was a servant of God. He stood before God in prayer for the people, vested in sacred garments, and was an instrument of God. For "there is no authority except from God" (Rom 13:1).

Therefore God was pleased to choose him so that, through his mouth, as the representative of the Jewish people, a prophecy would be uttered, though unconsciously. It concerned the meaning for all men of the coming death of our Lord Jesus Christ.

"It is expedient," says the high priest, "that one man should die for the people (λαός), and not that the whole nation (ἔθνος) should perish."

By the word λαός, people, are meant the individual persons who compose the multitude. But ἔθνος means the structure of state life, the totality of the people as a distinct tribe and race.

In this sense ἔθνος is also used of all other peoples. "The first of the nations is Amalek," ἀρχὴ ἐθνῶν Ἀμαλὴκ, it says in Num 24:20. Compare the still more general use in Gen 10:32.

In this saying of Caiaphas, however, λαός, according to the speaker's understanding, meant exclusively the people of Israel, the chosen people. Yet in the prophecy he unconsciously uttered, this word received an all-embracing human meaning, incomprehensible to Caiaphas himself.

The Evangelist explains this, saying that Caiaphas uttered a prophecy: the Lord Jesus was pleased to die for the people, "and not for the people only," in the sense Caiaphas understood, "but also to gather into one the scattered children of God."

The prophecy spoken by Caiaphas is striking. It shows how the very enemies of the Lord were instruments of God for the glorification of God Incarnate and for the establishment of faith in the Crucified One, "who bore our sins and infirmities and sicknesses."