Third passover until Jesus' arrival at Bethany
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The Sanhedrin's Decree
The chief priests and the Pharisees gathered a council. They asked:
What should we do? This man does many signs and miracles and if we let him continue, then everyone will believe in him. Then the Romans will come and take away our positions of authority and our nation.
But the high priest, Caiaphas, said to them:
Don’t you know anything at all? Don’t you think it is better for one man to die than for the entire nation to perish?
Caiaphas did not realize it but he was not speaking this by himself. Because he was the high priest that year, he was actually prophesying that Jesus was going to die for the nation -- and not for the nation of Israel only, but also for all the children of God who are scattered abroad.
So from that day forward the chief priests and the Pharisees began scheming how they might put Jesus to death.
Jesus, knowing this, did not walk openly among the Jews. He left for a city called Ephraim, near the wilderness. And there he stayed with his disciples.