John 11:47

John 11:47. The chief priests and the Pharisees therefore gathered a council, and said, What do we? for this man doeth many signs. Here, probably for the first time in this Gospel, we read of a meeting of the Sanhedrin, not a formal meeting, but one hastily summoned in the sudden emergency that had arisen. (See the note on chap. John 7:32.) The question ‘What do we?' is not so much deliberative (What are we to do?) as reproachful of themselves, What are we doing? This man (a designation of dislike or contempt) is working many miracles and we do nothing, take no steps to prevent the evil that must follow! The Evangelist is careful to preserve their testimony against themselves; in the moment of their rage they acknowledge the ‘many signs ' of Jesus, and confess themselves without excuse.