The Plot to Kill Jesus

(Matthew 26:1–5, Mark 14:1–2, Luke 22:1–2)

45 Therefore many of the Jews who had come to Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in Him. 46 But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.

47 Then the chief priests and Pharisees convened the Sanhedrin [fn] and said, “What are we to do? This man is performing many signs. 48 If we let Him go on like this, everyone will believe in Him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”

49 But one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all! 50 You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.”

51 Caiaphas did not say this on his own. Instead, as high priest that year, he was prophesying that Jesus would die for the nation, 52 and not only for the nation, but also for the scattered children of God, to gather them together into one.

53 So from that day on they plotted to kill Him. 54 As a result, Jesus no longer went about publicly among the Jews, but He withdrew to a town called Ephraim in an area near the wilderness. And He stayed there with the disciples.

55 Now the Jewish Passover was near, and many people went up from the country to Jerusalem to purify themselves before the Passover. 56 They kept looking for Jesus and asking one another as they stood in the temple courts,[fn] “What do you think? Will He come to the feast at all?” 57 But the chief priests and Pharisees had given orders that anyone who knew where He was must report it, so that they could arrest Him.