⁴⁵Therefore many of the Jews who had come to Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in Him. ⁴⁶But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. ⁴⁷Then the chief priests and Pharisees convened the Sanhedrin and said, “What are we to do? This man is performing many signs. ⁴⁸If 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.” ⁴⁹But one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all! ⁵⁰You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.” ⁵¹Caiaphas did not say this on his own. Instead, as high priest that year, he was prophesying that Jesus would die for the nation, ⁵²and not only for the nation, but also for the scattered children of God, to gather them together into one. ⁵³So from that day on they plotted to kill Him. ⁵⁴As 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. ⁵⁵Now the Jewish Passover was near, and many people went up from the country to Jerusalem to purify themselves before the Passover. ⁵⁶They kept looking for Jesus and asking one another as they stood in the temple courts, “What do you think? Will He come to the feast at all?” ⁵⁷But the chief priests and Pharisees had given orders that anyone who knew where He was must report it, so that they could arrest Him.