² The chief priests and the scribes were looking for a way to put Jesus^[a] to death, for they were afraid of the people.^(A)

⁴⁷ So the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the council and said, “What are we to do? This man is performing many signs.^{(A) 48} If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place^[a] and our nation.” ⁴⁹ But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all!^{(B) 50} You do not understand that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed.”^{(C) 51} He did not say this on his own, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus was about to die for the nation, ⁵² and not for the nation only, but to gather into one the dispersed children of God. ⁵³ So from that day on they planned to put him to death.^(D)

⁵⁷ Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that anyone who knew where Jesus^[a] was should let them know, so that they might arrest him.

¹⁹ When the scribes and chief priests realized that he had told this parable against them, they wanted to lay hands on him at that very hour, but they feared the people.^(A)

⁴⁷ Every day he was teaching in the temple. The chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people kept looking for a way to kill him,^{(A) 48} but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were spellbound by what they heard.

³ Then the chief priests and the elders of the people gathered in the courtyard of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas,^{(A) 4} and they conspired to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him.^{(B) 5} But they said, “Not during the festival, or there may be a riot among the people.”^(C)

⁴⁵ When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. ⁴⁶ They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet.^(A)

¹⁴ But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him.^(A)

Psalm 2

God’s Promise to His Anointed