The Jewish Council Plans to Kill Jesus^(A)

⁴⁵ Many of the Jews who had come with Mary and who had observed what Jesus did believed in him. ⁴⁶ Some of them, however, went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. ⁴⁷ So the high priests and the Pharisees assembled the Council^[a] and said, “What are we going to do? This man is performing many signs. ⁴⁸ If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our Temple^[b] and our nation.”

⁴⁹ But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, told them, “You don’t know anything! ⁵⁰ You don’t realize that it is better for you^[c] to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed.” ⁵¹ Now he did not say this on his own initiative. As high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, ⁵² and not only for the nation, but that he would also gather into one the children of God who were scattered abroad. ⁵³ So from that day on they resolved to put him to death. ⁵⁴ As a result, Jesus no longer walked openly among the Jews.^[d] Instead, he went from there^[e] to a town called Ephraim in the region near the wilderness. There he remained with his disciples.

⁵⁵ Now the Jewish Passover was approaching, and before the Passover many people from the countryside went up to Jerusalem to purify themselves. ⁵⁶ They kept looking for Jesus and saying to one another as they stood in the Temple, “What do you think? Surely he won’t come to the festival, will he?” ⁵⁷ Now the high priests and the Pharisees had given orders that whoever knew where he was should tell them so that they could arrest him.