with " that nation," or " the nation," as it would be more liter- ally rendered.
The " gathering together in one," I believe to be that final gathering of all Christ's members which is yet to come at His second advent. (See Eph. i. 10; John xii. 32; Gen. xlix. 10.)
Lightfoot says, the Jews thought the greatest work of Mes- siah was to be the " reduction, or gathering together of the cap- tivities."
I leave the passage with a very deep sense of its difficulty, and desire not to press my views on others dogmatically, if they are not satisfied with them.
Chrysostom remarks, " Caiaphas prophesied, not knowing what he said; and the grace of God merely made use of his mouth, but touched not his accursed heart."
Musculus and Ferus remark how striking the resemblance is between Caiaphas unintentionally using language fulfilled in a sense totally unlike what he meant, and the Jews saying of Christ to Pilate, " His blood be on us and on our children." They little knew the awful and tremendous extent of the saying.
The absurdity of the Roman Catholic claim, that the Pope's words and decrees are to be received as partially inspired be- cause of his office, on the ground of this passage, is noted and exposed by all the Protestant commentators of the seventeenth century.
Lightfoot thinks we should lay great emphasis on the expres- sion, " that same year," and justly so. — He observes that it was the very year when the high priest's office ended, and the veil was rent, and the Jewish dispensation wound up, and the Mosaic priesthood abrogated by Christ's becoming manifestly our Priest.— He thinks St. Paul, in Acts xxiii. 5, "I wist not that he was the high priest," may have meant " that he did not know there was any high priest at all." He also observes that this very year at Pentecost, the Holy Ghost was poured out as the spirit of prophecy and revelation in an extraordinary measure. What wonder if " that year " the last high priest, like Balaam, should prophesy.
53. — [Then from that daij... counsel... death. ] We see here the re- sult of Caiaphas' counsel. His stern, bold, outspoken proposal carried all the council with him, and even if Gamaliel, Nicode- mus, and Joseph were there, their voices were silenced. From that very day it became a settled thing with the Jewish leaders at Jerusalem, that Jesus was to be put to death. The only difficulty was to find the way, the time, and the means of doing it without creating a tumult. The great miracle just wrought at Bethany would doubtless increase the number of our Lord's adherents, and make it necessary to use caution in carrying out the murderous plan.