Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
John 11:45-57, Caiaphas: one man for the nation
After the raising of Lazarus the chief priests and Pharisees call a council, afraid the Romans will take away their place and their nation. Caiaphas tells them it is better for one man to die for the people.
John 11:45-57, in every translation this tool compares.
After Lazarus is raised, the council meets in alarm, afraid that a popular movement around Jesus will bring Roman reprisals on the temple and the nation. Caiaphas, the high priest, argues that one man's death is a better bargain than the ruin of everyone, and John reads his words as an unwitting prophecy. From that day the leaders plot to kill Jesus, and he withdraws while Passover crowds look for him.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/chief-priests-and-council\/","n":"Chief priests, elders and the council","s":"The Jerusalem aristocracy of priestly families and elders who ran the temple and the Sanhedrin and dealt with Rome.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/rome-in-charge\/","n":"Rome in charge","s":"Rome ruled through client princes, local elites and governors. It kept the power to execute, and its soldiers, coins and taxes were everywhere.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/temple-and-courts\/","n":"The temple and its courts","s":"Herod's huge rebuilt temple in Jerusalem, believed to be God's dwelling, laid out in courts that kept Gentiles, women and Jewish men at set distances.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/passover-pilgrims\/","n":"Passover and the pilgrim crowds","s":"The spring festival that retold God's rescue of Israel from Egypt. Jerusalem filled with pilgrims, and hopes of freedom ran high.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/unclean-by-touch\/","n":"Unclean by touch","s":"Under the law, skin disease, bleeding, corpses, tombs and certain animals made a person ritually unclean, and touch could pass it on.","r":""}
Wright points out that this is the "first and only time in all four gospels where the word 'Romans' is mentioned." Their place almost certainly means the temple (the ESV and CSB Study Bibles), and Keener calls their fear legitimate and borne out by history: in AD 70 the Romans did take the temple and the nation. Caiaphas held the office from AD 18 to 36, longer than any other high priest of the century (Keener and his notes), and an ossuary inscribed Joseph son of Caiaphas, found in a family tomb south of Jerusalem in 1990, is taken by most archaeologists to be his (Price and House). Keener writes, "Sacrificing the few for the many makes good politics but bad religion," and notes that Jewish teachers said not to hand over a single Israelite to death even to save everyone; the ESV and CSB Study Bibles hear an echo of the Maccabean martyrs who died for the people (2 Maccabees 7:37-38). Greeks and Jews alike allowed that someone appointed as God's representative could prophesy without meaning to (Keener). Pilgrims came early because anyone defiled by a corpse needed seven days to become clean (Keener and his notes).
- N. T. Wright, John for Everyone, Part Two, comment on John 11:47-57
- ESV Study Bible, study notes on John 11:48, 11:50-51 and 11:55
- CSB Study Bible, notes on John 11:48, 11:49, 11:50-51 and 11:55
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on John 11:47-48, 11:49, 11:50-53 and 11:54-55
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on John 11:49, 11:50 and 11:55
- J. Randall Price and H. Wayne House, Zondervan Handbook of Biblical Archaeology, ch. 12, John 18:24 The House of Caiaphas and The Ossuary of Caiaphas
