From that day therefore they devised to put him to death.
απ εκεινης ουν της ημερας συνεβουλευσαντο ινα αποκτεινωσιν αυτον
13 Church Fathers comment on this verse
Even before this they had sought it, as it is said: “The Jews sought all the more to kill Him for this” (Jn 5:18), and again: “Why do you seek to kill Me?” (Jn 7:19). But then they were only seeking it. Now they made a decision and regarded the matter as a duty.
This means that from that day they were especially and finally confirmed in this intention. They had plotted murder even before this, but weakly, and the matter was more a question than a decision. Now a final judgment and decisive sentence took place. Even earlier they sought to kill Him (Jn 5:18), and He Himself, reproving them, said: “Why do you seek to kill Me?”
They had the desire to kill Christ. It began from the time when the Sanhedrin gathered and a common agreement on this was revealed. For the Evangelist did not say that “from that hour they resolved to commit murder,” but that “they took counsel.” In other words, what seemed good to each separately was approved by all together.
This was not because His power was insufficient, so that if He had wished, He could have walked openly among the Jews and they would have done nothing to Him. Rather, He gave His disciples an example of how to live in human weakness. He showed that there is no sin if those who believe in Him, being His members, hide from the sight of their persecutors and prefer to avoid the fury of evildoers rather than openly inflame it against themselves.
Even before this, the chief priests and Pharisees had sought to kill Jesus Christ, as was said above. But now, after consultation and discussion, they confirmed this opinion. From that time they set about the matter with full readiness and zeal.
Thus His persecutors achieved their treacherous aim and killed Him, hoping to destroy the faith of His followers. Yet faith increased precisely from that which they hoped would destroy it. <...> Even what human cruelty hurled against Him, He turned into righteousness and mercy.
At last the high priest concluded the whole council with his sentence. "Being high priest that year" does not mean that Caiaphas was high priest for that year, and another man for the next, with the office passing between them. It means that Caiaphas was high priest in that memorable year.
He belonged to the sect of the Sadducees (Acts 5:17). By the very tendency of his sect, he was far from valuing anything holy.
"You know nothing," he said. He was evidently addressing the party that gave some support to Jesus. Perhaps they insisted that the Sanhedrin should first ascertain whether Jesus truly was not the Messiah.
"You know nothing," that is, in politics, "nor do you consider that it is better for us that one man should die for the people, than that the whole nation should perish."
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.
The great miracle of the raising of Lazarus had a powerful effect on all who saw it and heard about it. Many of the Jews who witnessed this miracle, until then indifferent to the Lord, now believed in Him.
But the Jews hostile to the Lord were all the more troubled by this. They went to Jerusalem and told the Pharisees everything Jesus had done.
Then the chief priests and Pharisees gathered a council and began to deliberate. What should they undertake against Jesus? He works many miracles. If they leave Him thus, all will believe in Him.
Then the people will rise against the Romans. Yet this will end with the Romans utterly devastating Jerusalem and the temple. They will also take from the Jewish people even the slight political independence they had still enjoyed under Roman rule.
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.
Caiaphas’ speech met with no objection, and the Sanhedrin decreed: Jesus must be killed.
"From that day on they took counsel to put Him to death." The guards were ordered to watch Him carefully, so that at the first convenient opportunity they might arrest Him and subject Him to a merciless judgment of death.
Because of this, it was no longer possible for the Savior to remain in Judea. Since His hour had not yet come, He withdrew for a time "to the country near the wilderness, to a city called Ephraim, and there He remained with His disciples."
There, in complete safety from all the designs and intrigues of His mortal enemies, He spent the last weeks of His life calmly and happily. He was surrounded only by His disciples, whom in this peaceful solitude He prepared for the great labor in the ripening harvest of the world.
“From that day they planned to kill Him”: the speech of Caiaphas had a decisive effect. The Sanhedrin resolved to follow the decision of the high priest and put the Lord to death. “They had plotted murder even before this, but weakly, and the matter was more a question than a decision. Now a final judgment and decisive sentence took place” (Theophylact; cf. Chrysostom). As is clear from the following narratives, the decision was unshakable. They only sought and devised when and how best to carry it out. This they had not yet determined definitely (cf. Mt 26:3 and following, and parallels).
Verses 53-54. "From that day on they took counsel to put Him to death. Therefore Jesus no longer walked openly."
"They had sought to kill Him before," says Euthymius, "but now they confirmed the decision in council." Nicodemus and Joseph, members of the Sanhedrin, could have told Jesus' disciples that the Sanhedrin had resolved to put Jesus to death.
Because of this, Jesus withdrew into the wilderness of Judea, to the city of Ephraim. "Ephraea, a considerable town, lay to the north, eight miles from Jerusalem" (Eusebius, Onomasticon). It was south of Bethel, which was twelve miles from Jerusalem.
Thus Christ did not leave Judea even now. He withdrew only from the malice of the members of the Sanhedrin. By His example He teaches us not to expose our life to dangers without need.
He was now preparing in solitude for the great struggle of the Cross, which was soon to come. The wilderness near the city of Ephraim was the same wild wilderness in which Jesus Christ fasted forty days after His baptism.
This is the decisive moment when the Sanhedrin comes to an irrevocable decision about murder. Earlier (Jn 7:1, 25, 8, and elsewhere), the Jews sought to kill the Lord. That is, it was the desire of the embittered leaders of the people, chiefly the Pharisees.
In chapter 7, "the Pharisees and chief priests" send officers to seize the Lord. But this was not yet a decision of the Sanhedrin.
As is clear from verses 45-53, though the Sanhedrin was assembled, it had made no decision. It probably did not itself know what to do with Jesus, if the officers had brought Him then.
Most likely, the indifferent politicians, adherents of pagan philosophical schools, the Sadducees who were in power, had not yet given their open consent to the murder of a man whom all acknowledged as holy and righteous.
Meanwhile the fanatical Pharisees had long been trying to kill the Lord under the form of an uncontrollable popular tumult. Compare "they took up stones" and "they wanted to kill" in Jn 7:1, 44; 8:40, 59, and elsewhere.
But when the high priest, the official head of the Sadducees, that is, of the party in power, declared the murder necessary, matters changed. Undoubtedly he had consulted the real head of the party, his father-in-law Annas. Compare John 18 with the explanations.
Then the Pharisees, who until then had feared the intervention of the Sadducees supported by the Romans, carried through in the Sanhedrin a still secret but decisive decree concerning the necessity of the murder.
"From that day on they took counsel to put Him to death." Along with this decision, which untied their hands, the Pharisees probably took secret and active measures tending toward the seizure of the Lord.
As earlier attempts showed, this matter could by no means be easy. Many of the people truly loved the Lord. Moreover, the very officers of the temple had not dared to seize the Lord in chapter 7.
The Pharisees, of course, did not understand that the moment of the Lord's suffering could come only by His own will.
Yet there seems no doubt that at this moment they began decisive negotiations with Judas Iscariot. They bribed this lover of silver and traitor (Jn 12:6), and learned from him the place and time when it would be easiest to seize the Lord without fearing the people's intervention.
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 9 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS