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.
L. M. GrantCaiaphas, 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.
William KellyIt 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:
Hamilton SmithIt 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.
C E StuartThis 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."
William Kelly"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.
William KellyTo 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:
W. W. FeredayBelievers 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.
The Christian's FriendIn 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.
The Bible TreasuryHow 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.
William KellyJesus 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.
C. E. StuartCaiaphas 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.
William KellyBefore 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.
J. A. TrenchThey 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.
J. T. MawsonIt 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.
F. B. HoleChildren 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.
Andrew MillerThere 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.