If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him: and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation.
All Commentaries on John 11:48 Go To John 11
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
If we let Him thus alone, &c. i.e, the Romans will destroy Judea and the whole Jewish race. S. Chrysostom and Theophylact by place understand Jerusalem, the metropolis of Judea, and thence the whole realm. But Maldonatus understands the Temple; for the chief priests feared that this with its victims and temporal gains should be taken from them by the Romans.
All will believe on Him. See here the genius of envy, and an effect worthy of it: the chief priests wishing to obscure the glory of Christ, display it the more, in saying that all men will believe on Him.
And the Romans shall come and take away our place and nation. Some are of opinion that they thought this, viz, If all believe on Jesus, all will depart from us, our Judaism, synagogue, and state, to Him; and so there will be none to contend for us against the Roman attempts to subjugate us.
But others more probably, If all believe Jesus to be the King and Messiah of the Jews, they will irritate against us the Romans , the lords of Judea, because we have made for ourselves a new King and Messiah, and fallen away from Tiberius Csar to Him; wherefore armed men will come and take away, that Isaiah , capture, ravage, and destroy Jerusalem and Judea and the entire Jewish race and nation. So Chrysostom. "They wished," he says, "to excite the people, so as to bring Him under the risk of being suspected to be a pretender to royalty; i.e, if the Romans shall see Jesus heading throngs of people, they will suspect a pretender, and destroy the state. But what armed men and horsemen did Christ ever take about with Him? Only envy and hate blinded them, so that they plainly erred, and reasoned wrongly."
