John 11:51Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

So also, the righteous man is not one who does some just act, but one who works righteousness according to the saying, "You shall pursue what is altogether just" (Deut 16:20).

Thus Caiaphas also prophesies, but not in a prophetic disposition of the Spirit. Therefore he is not a prophet.

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.

John presents Caiaphas' decision in this form, evidently because he learned it from those present in the Sanhedrin who were disposed toward Jesus, such as Nicodemus and Joseph. In relating this, they could not pass over the fact that they had opposed the general opinion. Yet they were repelled by the words of the high priest, which all accepted. How faithful the Evangelist is to his sources.

The supreme government of the people of God accepted his voice. They resolved to put the Son of God to death. Yet they had not decided exactly how or when to carry it out. In general, they did not wish to delay for long.

This is what the raising of Lazarus led to, not of itself, but through the ever-increasing malice of Jesus' enemies. In itself it was an extraordinary miracle of the Savior. It also completed the series of His most glorious deeds.

It was as though this miracle called forth, in proportion to its greatness, an entirely opposite decree from the Sanhedrin. The cave of Bethany gave up its dead man, so that another cave might hide within itself the One who had emptied it.

Thomas, when he said to his fellow disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with Him," with our Teacher, was not mistaken, at least concerning his Teacher. Jesus Himself, going to Lazarus' tomb, wept.

It seems He wept not only for the dead man whom He meant to raise. He also wept for the malice of men who were soon preparing a tomb for Him. So later He wept over Jerusalem, as He approached it as the meek King.

He saw before Him what was coming. When He went into Judea, He could say, "I have power to lay down My life for My sheep." When He gave up His spirit, shook the earth, and raised the dead, He could say, "I have power to take it again."

What moved Him to surrender Himself into the hands of His enemies? It was that, by the Father Himself and by His own love, He was appointed to be the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world.

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."

Yet God can make even an unworthy man an organ of His immediate revelation for His wise purposes (cf. Mt 7:22-23).

"From a wicked heart came words containing a wondrous prophecy. He, Caiaphas, said this with an evil intention, but the grace of the Spirit used his mouth to foretell the future" (Theophylact, cf. Chrysostom).

The devil often falsely distorts the word of God and presents self-existent truth as falsehood (Gen 3:4-5). God sometimes mocks the devil by placing a striking truth in the mouth of him, the father of lies, and of his instruments (cf. Mk 5:7 and note).

"He would die for the nation": this means as a propitiatory sacrifice for the sins of the people. Of course, this cannot be supposed in Caiaphas' own words.

He thought of handing one man over to death for the whole people for the sake of their political well-being. But by these words the Holy Spirit foretold another, greatest truth.

One would die for the redemption of the people from spiritual death and for their spiritual and eternal life (cf. Jn 6:51).

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."