Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they would not openly acknowledge their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue — John reveals that belief exists even among the Jewish authorities but is kept hidden due to fear of excommunication (aposynagōgos, exclusion from the synagogue). This describes the experience of crypto-Christians in John's late 1st-century context, who believed but could not openly confess due to fear of expulsion from the Jewish community.

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