The Plot to Kill Jesus

John 11:45-57. After healing Lazarus Jesus goes to the village of Ephraim until Passover week.

Jesus knew that some of the Jewish leaders wanted to kill Him So He stayed out of their way until it was time for Him to die, which was at the beginning of the Passover week, one of the feasts God commanded all Jewish men to keep.

Caiaphas, the High Priest that year, prophesied why Jesus was to die.

Ephraim is on a conical hill overlooking the Jordan valley and the Dead Sea, about Sixteen miles or 16km northeast of Jerusalem and five miles or 8km east of Bethel.

Background Reading:

The Jewish Council Plans to Kill Jesus

11:45 Many of the Jews who had come with Mary and who had observed what Jesus did believed in him. 46 Some of them, however, went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. 47 So the high priests and the Pharisees assembled the Council and said, “What are we going to do? This man is performing many signs. 48 If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our Temple and our nation.”

49 But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, told them, “You don’t know anything! 50 You don’t realize that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed.” 51 Now he did not say this on his own initiative. As high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, 52 and not only for the nation, but that he would also gather into one the children of God who were scattered abroad. 53 So from that day on they resolved to put him to death. 54 As a result, Jesus no longer walked openly among the Jews. Instead, he went from there to a town called Ephraim in the region near the wilderness. There he remained with his disciples.

55 Now the Jewish Passover was approaching, and before the Passover many people from the countryside went up to Jerusalem to purify themselves. 56 They kept looking for Jesus and saying to one another as they stood in the Temple, “What do you think? Surely he won’t come to the festival, will he?” 57 Now the high priests and the Pharisees had given orders that whoever knew where he was should tell them so that they could arrest him.
John 11:45-57
Also read: Matthew 26:1; Mark 14:1-2; Luke 22:1-2.


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