49‐52. Then Caiphas, the High‐priest for that year said: *You know nothing*, &c. Caiphas meant that Jesus should be got rid of to save the Jewish nation from incurring the anger of the Romans. The Holy Ghost, however, as St. John tells us, signified through Caiphas (as an unconscious instrument) that the death of Jesus was necessary for the eternal salvation of the Jewish people, and of all to be called to the faith who were scattered then or since among the Gentiles. Caiphas was unaware of the solemn sense of the words which he enunciated; so that the Holy Ghost speaking through a prophet may sometimes mean one thing, the Prophet himself something quite different. It is the common opinion, too, that even the _inspired writers_ did not always understand the meaning of what they wrote, and in such cases the sense of Scripture is, of course, that which was intended by the Holy Ghost. Caiphas, whom on this occasion the Holy Ghost employed to declare the necessity for man of the vicarious sacrifice of Christ, was the Jewish High‐priest at the time (xi. 49, xviii. 13). His father‐in‐law, Annas, is called High‐priest by St. Luke (Luke iii. 2; Acts iv. 6), from which some, as Beelen, conclude, that each filled the office of High‐priest every alternate year. For this view, however, there is no historical evidence, and it seems more probable that Annas is called High‐priest by St. Luke, not because he was then discharging the duties of the successor of Aaron, but because, having been High‐priest, and unlawfully deposed (A.D. 14) by Valerius Gratus, the Roman Governor of Judea, he was still regarded by the Jews as the lawful High‐priest.(78) Or it may be that, as _President of the Sanhedrim_, a position which Annas filled, after he had been deposed from that of High‐priest, he is styled ἀρχιερεύς by St. Luke. This latter is the view of Cornely, iii., § 76, n. 18. See Acts vii. 1; ix. 1, 2. 53. Ab illo ergo die 53. From that day therefore cogitaverunt ut interficerent they devised to put him to eum. death. 53. Thus the raising of Lazarus, which was the occasion of Caiphas’ suggestion, had an important influence upon the final determination of the Jews to put Christ to death. St. John notes the growth of Jewish hostility step by step: v. 16 ff.; vii. 32, 45 ff.; viii. 45 ff.; viii. 59; ix. 22; x. 39. 54. Iesus ergo iam non in 54. Wherefore Jesus walked no palam ambulabat apud Iudaeos, more openly among the Jews, sed abiit in regionem iuxta but he went into a country desertum, in civitatem quae near the desert, unto a city dicitur Ephrem, et ibi that is called Ephrem, and morabatur cum discipulis suis. there he abode with his disciples.