What Does John 12:10 Mean?
But the chief priests took counsel to put Lazarus also to death.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
But the chief priests consulted that they might put Lazarus also to death;THE KEY
The same life that testifies to resurrection becomes the reason the authorities decide Lazarus must die.
THE MEANING
A living witness can draw people toward what is true and provoke threatened power to seek the witness’s death. Here the chief priests’ shared counsel reaches beyond Jesus to Lazarus, whose restored life has become visible evidence.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that evidence always persuades: Lazarus’s life leads many to believe, while the same visible sign prompts others to seek his death.
THE ROOT
συνεβουλεύσαντο
synebouleusanto
GROWS FROM
βουλ-
boul-
Counsel, resolve, or plan.
“took counsel” in this verse is synebouleusanto. The Greek verb joins συν- (syn-, together) to βουλ- (boul-, counsel), making the shared deliberation audible. Here that counsel takes the form of a plan aimed at Lazarus’s death.
ALSO GROWS
boulē: Counsel, purpose, or plan.
βουλή
This branch shows counsel as an intention taking shape, as the priests’ deliberation becomes a death plan.
bouleuō: To deliberate, resolve, or plan.
βουλεύω
This verb shares the root and makes the movement from discussion to decision visible in the verse.
symboulos: Counselor or adviser.
σύμβουλος
The shared root links the act of taking counsel to the people who give it; here the counsel is collective and directed toward killing Lazarus.
THE PATTERN
When a witness unsettles power, opposition can become collective and target the witness.
The kings of the earth take their stand, and the rulers sit down together against the LORD and against his anointed one, saying,And the separated ones went out, and straightway put their heads together with the Herodians against him, to see how they might make him perish.When day came, certain of the Jews twisted themselves together and bound themselves under a curse, saying that they would neither eat nor drink until they had lifted Paul out of the way.THE THREAD
Because of him, many of the Judeans went away and leaned their full weight into Jesus.The next verse names why Lazarus is included in the death plan: many believe because of him. His life carries the testimony, and the shared counsel targets the person through whom it is seen.
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