But a certain one of them, Caiaphas, being high priest that year, said to them, Ye know nothing
Caiaphas breaks into a panicked council meeting with one sentence of scorn, and the man who says it holds the highest religious office in Israel. Yet John attaches a strange note — Caiaphas was "high priest that year" — and his words carry a meaning far beyond what he meant.
The phrase "that year" is not a small detail. The high priesthood was meant to last for life. By this time Rome handed it out and took it back.
"Being high priest of that year." Instead of election for life, the Romans handed out the office at their own whim, as Josephus records. Valerius Gratus removed Annas and then appointed Eleazar and Simon one after the other, and each of them held the office for only one year.
That same phrase exposes the state of the whole nation.
The present destruction of their moral order is also clear: "The High Priest of that year." Who ever heard of such a thing? But they were wrapped up in their own selfishness, along with a claim to power.
Caiaphas talks down to the room: "You know nothing at all." He speaks like a man who thinks his position makes him the only clear thinker there.
Caiaphas, we are told, was high priest that year. Herod set up and removed high priests to suit himself at any time. This of course went against God's original appointment. Caiaphas was clearly puffed up with pride in his own position. He looked down on his colleagues, announced how ignorant they were, and showed off his superior wisdom by finding some justification for murdering the Lord Jesus.
What he offers them is a calculation, not a judgment. He never asks whether Jesus deserves to die.
So Caiaphas comes forward. He scolds them for failing to work out so simple a sum: the value of one man set against a nation. He does not speak of what is right but of what pays, and he claims that profit for his own side of the account. He does not see how blinding self-interest is, nor does he doubt his conclusion for a moment. His arithmetic is so simple that it can hardly come out wrong.
Caiaphas measures the case by what is useful, not by what is right. One writer sees the same habit in politics today.
Caiaphas throws aside every claim to righteousness and acts only on expediency. With Caiaphas, as too often with the politicians of this world, the question is not what is right but what is expedient (or "profitable"). This man is ready to crucify a just Man to preserve, if he can, the standing of a guilty nation.
John adds that Caiaphas "did not say this of his own accord" but prophesied. God took a corrupt man's cynicism and made it carry truth — as He had done before with a prophet hired to curse Israel.
It was He who spoke through Balaam against his will to bless His people, though Balak had hired him to curse them... It is He who now speaks through Caiaphas, whose high priesthood in that year gave his words all the more official weight... No wonder that God, long silent, should speak through the high priest of that year. He is Sovereign.
Caiaphas belonged to a different party from the Pharisees he scolded. He and John heard two different things in the same sentence.
"You know nothing at all," Caiaphas said to the Pharisees — and he was himself a Sadducee, which may explain how he spoke at that council... This was the last real prophecy to fall from anyone holding the office of high priest in Israel. He could have understood little of what the Evangelist saw hidden in those words. Caiaphas only thought of calming Roman suspicion by putting the Lord to death. John saw in them a prediction of the Lord as the sin offering... Caiaphas feared the Roman power and its anger. John thought of divine judgment, and of God's way of escape — a substitute of His own choosing.
The sentence was vile as Caiaphas meant it. Read as God meant it, it states the ground on which sinners are saved.
In the heart of Caiaphas it was an unprincipled remark. In the mind of the Spirit it was most holy, and more: it expressed the foundation of God's righteousness in Christ. On His death rests the future hope of Israel, and the present gathering of God's scattered children, the Church.
- Ruin. "That year" marks an office Rome now handed round at will — the sign of a nation whose moral order had collapsed.
- Pride. From that broken office comes contempt. Caiaphas tells the council they know nothing and sets himself up as the one clear head in the room.
- Profit. His argument is arithmetic, not justice — one man against a nation, with the gain counted on his own side.
- Overruling. God took that cynical sum and made it prophecy, just as He once spoke through Balaam. The speaker's wickedness did not block the message.
- Result. Caiaphas meant murder. The Spirit meant the foundation of God's righteousness in Christ — a death that gathers God's scattered children into one.
nor consider that it is profitable for you that one man die for the people, and not that the whole nation perish.
Caiaphas was the high priest, and the council had met to decide what to do about Jesus. His cold political advice turned out, without his knowing it, to state the meaning of the cross.
Caiaphas breaks into the council's debate with a calculation.
They have to confess that He whom they are relentlessly pursuing "does many signs." Their only argument from this is that if they let Him alone, all men will believe on Him. Then the Romans will take away their place and nation. This brings forward Caiaphas. He rebukes them for failing to do so simple a sum: the value of one man set against a nation. He does not speak of right but of profit, and claims this for his own side of the account. Nor does he realise the blinding nature of self-interest, nor question his own conclusion in the least. His arithmetic is so simple it can hardly be worked wrong.
The verse asks what is "better for you." The man who held Israel's highest religious office decided the case on profit alone.
Caiaphas throws aside all claim to righteousness and acts only on what is profitable. He pleads that whatever Jesus might have done, or whatever people might think of Him, it is better that He should die than that the whole nation should perish. With Caiaphas, as too often with the politicians of this world, it is no question of what is right, but of what is expedient (or "profitable"). This man is ready to crucify a just Man to preserve, if possible, the position of a guilty nation.
John treats these words as prophecy. He and Caiaphas meant very different things by the same word: perish.
This was the last real prophecy ever spoken by a man holding the high priest's office in Israel. Little indeed could he have understood what the Evangelist saw lay hidden in those words. Caiaphas only thought of calming Roman jealousy by putting the Lord to death. John saw in them a prediction of the Lord as the sin offering. He would meet the claims of a holy God on behalf of the godly remnant of the nation. "That the whole nation perish not," said Caiaphas. Precisely so, John could have replied. But the high priest's thought and John's understanding of his words were far apart. Caiaphas considered the Roman power and feared its wrath. John thought of divine judgment, and of God's provision to escape it by the substitute of His choice.
Much hangs on the little word "for." One writer reads it as substitution.
"For the nation." This is plainly substitution: not "on behalf of," but "instead of." Our Lord died as Saviour or Redeemer of Israel, as well as of the Church. "For the transgression of My people was He stricken."
Scripture is explicit that Caiaphas did not speak from himself. That raises a striking question: how can God's Spirit use a man whose plan at that moment was murder?
This is a remarkable instance of how far God's Spirit can overrule a human mind, with no connection at all to that mind's moral state. Caiaphas was a witness to his nation's turning away from God. The Spirit made him voice their desire to murder the Messiah — and turned those words into a prophecy of the purpose of the Messiah's death for the nation he represented.
Caiaphas meant his own nation. But one writer points to a second purpose in that death.
God's purposes for that nation were surely before the Lord Jesus as one object of His death, just as Caiaphas had prophesied (though not of himself). But there was another object nearer and dearer to His heart... the blessed Lord died so that the children of God should no longer be scattered. Until then they had no sense of their relationship to Him or to one another. He died to gather them together in one on earth.
- Profit. Caiaphas argued from profit, not justice. He weighed one life against a nation, and self-interest did the counting.
- Prophecy. The Spirit took that cold sum and made it a true statement of why Christ would die. The speaker never grasped it.
- Perish. Caiaphas feared Rome. John saw divine judgment, escaped only through God's chosen substitute.
- Place. "For" here means instead of — Christ died in the place of others, as Redeemer of Israel and of the Church.
- People. The death reached past the one nation, to gather into one the scattered children of God.
But this he did not say of himself; but, being high priest that year, prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation;
The council has decided that Jesus must die, and Caiaphas has given the advice. John breaks in to tell us who was really speaking, and what that death would actually do.
The phrase "high priest that year" points to a priesthood that had drifted far from God's original design.
Caiaphas, we are told, was high priest that year. Herod set up and removed high priests to suit himself at any time — of course a contradiction to God's original appointment. Puffed up with pride in his own position, Caiaphas tells his colleagues they know nothing. He shows off his own better wisdom by finding some justification for their murdering the Lord Jesus.
John's comment takes the words out of Caiaphas' hands. God had done this before, with a prophet hired to curse His people.
It was He who spoke by Balaam against his will, to bless His people, though Balak had hired Balaam to curse them. Balaam showed afterwards, not only by his corrupting schemes but to his own destruction, how little those prophecies came from himself. It is He who now speaks by Caiaphas, whose high priesthood in that year gave his words the more official weight... No wonder that God, long silent, should speak by the high priest of that year. He is Sovereign. He can employ evil as well as good — the good willingly, the evil against their own will, and if their own will is in it, with a purpose as wicked as themselves.
This is the rare exception, not God's usual way of giving prophecy:
It is true that, on rare occasions, the Holy Spirit may use a wicked man to utter a prophecy. Balaam in the Old Testament and Caiaphas in the New are such cases. But if so, He will make it plain that the prophet is a wicked man, who seeks to oppose but is forced to speak the truth. It is, however, the way of the Spirit to use "holy men".
The same words carried two meanings. Caiaphas was managing Rome; John was reading God's own plan.
This was the last real prophetic announcement that fell from a holder of the high priest's office in Israel. Little indeed could he have understood what the writer of the Gospel saw hidden in those words. Caiaphas only thought of calming Roman suspicion by putting the Lord to death. John saw in them a prediction of the Lord as the sin offering, meeting the claims of a holy God on behalf of the godly remnant of the nation. Caiaphas considered the Roman power, and feared its wrath. John thought of divine judgment, and of God's provision to escape it by the substitute of His choice.
Everything turns on the small word "for."
"For the nation." This is clearly substitutionary. It does not mean "on behalf of," but "instead of." Our Lord died as Saviour or Redeemer of Israel (Isaiah 45; Isaiah 49), as well as of the Church. He was "stricken for the transgression of my people."
If He died for the nation, the nation still has a future. What that future is not matters as much as what it is.
To the cynical remark of the wicked high priest God gave a turn of incomparable grace. The Jews adopted it in unbelief, in the political sense Caiaphas meant, and it brought the ruin of their place and their nation by the Romans. By and by mercy will prevail according to the oath sworn to Abraham, glorying over judgment. Jesus died for the nation. He did not die to gather it into the church, as some wrongly imagine, nor to make it an object of ruin that can never be undone. He died to save and bless Israel as such at the end and for ever.
The same truth touches how we read the cross ourselves:
Believers should see more in the cross of Christ than the mere putting away of our sins. Thank God, He has borne our sins in His own body on the tree (1 Peter 2:24); but there is a part in that cross for Israel also. They will be brought to know this by and by.
- One office. Herod handed out the priesthood at will, yet God still spoke through the office He Himself had once appointed.
- One mouth, not his own. Caiaphas meant political convenience; the Spirit meant prophecy. As with Balaam, God can force an enemy to speak the truth, though He normally uses holy men.
- One meaning underneath. Caiaphas feared Rome; John saw divine judgment, and Christ as the sin offering God Himself provided.
- One substitution. "For the nation" means in its place, not merely for its benefit — the Redeemer of Israel as well as of the Church.
- One death, still reaching. Because He died for that nation, mercy for Israel is secured at the end. The cross holds more than the forgiveness we already have.
and not for the nation only, but that he should also gather together into one the children of God who were scattered abroad.
A council met to plot a death, and God turned their scheming into prophecy. John then stretches the words of Caiaphas far past Israel — but who are God's scattered children, and how does He gather them?
The council cared only about its own survival. Yet the words spoken there carried a meaning the speaker never intended.
In their wicked plans they thought only of themselves. But God was behind the scene, overruling their thoughts. He was about to make their anger praise Him by carrying out His own eternal purposes of grace and love. So He used the mouth of Caiaphas to prophesy that Jesus should die for the Jewish nation. This was God's purpose from eternity. Then the Spirit of God added a second prophecy through the hand of John. It takes in the full character of the death of Christ.
What the man meant and what God meant were two different things.
How contrary to God, how devilish, was the thought of Caiaphas! How blessed and divine the truth of God contained in it! Yet the high priest felt nothing but his own hatred and jealousy of Christ. Even so, the Holy Spirit forced him to use certain words. Those words unfold God's love to Israel and His purpose of redemption in Christ. Then God gives His commentary on them, showing that this was not what Caiaphas meant. So God controls all things to advance His truth and His glory.
The two halves of the verse point to two different works, and the first is not swallowed up by the second.
Jesus died for the nation. He did not die to gather it into the church, as some wrongly imagine, nor to make it the object of a judgment that can never be reversed. He died to save and bless Israel as such at the end and for ever. That blessing goes beyond all that was ever tasted at the beginning under David and Solomon. For He who died for them will come and reign over them.
The second half of the verse reaches out past the nation's borders.
Caiaphas was thinking of the Roman power and feared its anger. John was thinking of divine judgment, and of God's provision to escape it by the substitute of His choice. And more — God's thoughts reached out beyond the limits of the nation, and took in Gentiles within the divine purpose. The Lord had already spoken of sheep that were not in the Jewish fold. Them also He would bring, and they would hear His voice; and there would be one flock and one Shepherd.
The word "scattered" assumes these children already existed. What they lacked was not life but connection.
Before this, as all admit, there were scattered children of God, hidden people among the Israelites and among the nations. But their faith did not break their Jewish or Gentile ties in any way. They lived and died separately, though they might be believing Jews or Gentiles.
The barrier that kept them apart was one God Himself had put in place.
They were among the Jews and among the Gentiles, but had no sense of the family bond. In fact, God Himself had set a dividing wall between the Jews and the Gentiles — the law of commandments contained in ordinances. It worked to keep them at a distance both from God and from each other.
The verse makes the gathering depend on a death. Nothing less would do it.
It was the Father's will, and His will could be done in no other way. Jesus came so that the Father's will might be done... The darkness, the sorrow, the shame, the judgment of our sins, the forsaking of God, and then death! Jesus passed through all of that. He did it to set the children free from the devil's power. He did it to bind them together in a unity of life that not even death can dissolve.
The verse looks forward, and writers point to a definite moment when the words began to be fulfilled.
Children of God existed, but as yet without any special bond of union. That bond was to be created as the fruit of His death.
Commentators differ on how to describe the resulting unity. Kelly reads it as family union rather than the one body taught elsewhere; Andrew Miller identifies it directly with the body of Christ.
There were already children of God, but they were scattered — isolated. They were like stones prepared and ready for the building, but not joined together. By the death of Jesus the great work was done. That work is the foundation of Israel's future hopes. It is also the foundation of the actual gathering of God's scattered children into one — the church which is the body of Christ.
- Overruled — the council plotted murder, and God made their plan carry His own eternal purpose. Caiaphas spoke truth he never meant.
- Two purposes — one death, two results: blessing secured for Israel at the end, and the gathering of God's children now.
- Scattered — children of God already existed among Jews and Gentiles, but lived and died on their own, with no family bond.
- Gathered by death — His death alone could break the dividing wall and bind them in a unity that death cannot dissolve.
- One body — the stones lying ready are joined at last: those His death gathers into one are the church, the body of Christ.