John 11:41-53

⁴¹So they moved the stone away; and Jesus, with uplifted eyes, said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard my prayer;

⁴²I know that you always hear me; but I say this for the sake of the people standing near, so that they may believe that you has sent me as your messenger.”

⁴³Then, after saying this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus! Come out!”

⁴⁴The dead man came out, wrapped hand and foot in a winding-sheet; his face, too, had been wrapped in a cloth. “Set him free,” said Jesus, “and let him go.”

⁴⁵In consequence of this, many of the people, who had come to visit Mary and had seen what Jesus did, learnt to believe in him.

⁴⁶Some of them, however, went to the Pharisees, and told them what he had done.

⁴⁷The chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the High Council, and said, “What are we to do, now that this man is giving so many signs?

⁴⁸If we allow him to continue as we are doing, everyone will believe in him; and the Romans will come and will take from us both our city and our Nationality.”

⁴⁹One of them, however, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them,

⁵⁰“You are utterly mistaken. You do not consider that it is better for you that one person should die for the people, rather than the whole nation should be destroyed.”

⁵¹Now he did not say this of his own accord; but, as high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was to die for the nation —

⁵²And not for the nation only, but also that he might unite in one body the children of God now scattered far and wide.

⁵³So from that day they plotted to put Jesus to death.