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JOHN 18:14 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
John 18:13John 18:15
“Now Caiaphas was he, which gave counsel to the Jews, that it was expedient that one man should die for the people.”
Caiaphas was the one who had advised the Jews that it is better for one person to die for the people — John immediately introduces Caiaphas' prophecy (also in 11:49-52), establishing that the high priest unwittingly speaks truth about substitutionary atonement. The advice-counsel (symbouleuō) to sacrifice one for national preservation echoes Israelite scapegoat theology (Leviticus 16) and later developed into Christian understanding of vicarious atonement. John highlights how worldly political reasoning unknowingly articulates salvation history.

Church Fathers on John 18:14

Every thing having been done that could be to dissuade the Jews, and they refusing to take warning, He suffered Himself to be delivered into their hands: Then the band and the captain and officers of the Jews took Jesus.

Theophylact · 11th century

They took Him Whom they did not draw nigh to; nor understood that which is written in the Psalms, Draw nigh to Him, and be you lightened. For had they thus drawn nigh to Him, they would have taken Him, not to kill Him, but to be in their hearts. But now that they take Him the way they do, they go backward. It follows, and bound Him, Him by Whom they ought to have wished to be loosed. And perhaps there were among them some who, afterwards delivered by Him, exclaimed, you have…

Augustine · 4th century

In exultation, to show what they had done, as if they were raising a trophy.

Chrysostom · 4th century
Read all 7 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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