John 11:45-50
The Pharisees decide how to kill Jesus
45 The Jews who had come to visit Mary saw this. They saw what Jesus did. So many of them believed in him. 46 But some of them went to the Pharisees. They told the Pharisees what Jesus had done. 47 Then the Pharisees and the leaders of the priests had a meeting with the group of Jewish leaders. They asked each other, ‘What will we do? This man is doing so many miracles. 48 If we let him do more things like this, everyone will believe in him. Then the Roman rulers will come and punish us. Their soldiers will destroy our temple and even destroy our whole country of Israel.’
11:48Rome was an important city in the world at the time of Jesus. It was a powerful city and it had a strong army. The Romans ruled many other countries and they made the people obey the laws of Rome. They made them pay taxes to Rome.
49 One of the group was the leader of the priests that year. He was called Caiaphas. He said, ‘You do not understand the problem. 50 It is better that one man should die on behalf of our people. That is better than if all Israel's people should die.’