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Joh_12:9-11. Οὖν ] since Jesus thus tarries in the neighbourhood. The lively intercourse among the pilgrims to the feast tended the more to spread the information.
ἐκ τῶν Ἰουδαίων ] here again (comp. Joh_11:19), not generally of the inhabitants of Jerusalem (so usually), but, according to the standing usage in John, of the Jewish opposition. They came, not for Jesus’ sake alone, to observe Him further, but in order also to see Lazarus, and to be convinced of His actual and continued restoration to life. Since, however, many of the Ἰουδαῖοι went forth (from Jerusalem) for the sake of Lazarus, and became believers in Jesus, the chief priests (i.e. not indeed the Sanhedrim as such in general, bat rather that part of it which composed its hierarchical head) took counsel to put Lazarus also to death. We have here, accordingly, the antithesis, that the sight of Lazarus subdues many of the hitherto adverse party to faith (comp. already Joh_11:45); and on the other hand, that the extreme Right of the hierarchy resolves the more energetically to counterwork this.
ἦλθον ] Still on Saturday evening and Sunday. The procession of people took place then on Sunday (Joh_12:12).
ἐβουλ . δέ ] Simple continuation of the narrative; hence, neither is δέ to be understood as namely, nor ἐβουλ . as the pluperfect (Tholuck).
οἱ ἀρχιερ .] It was indeed for the interest of the hierarchy (not exactly for that of the Sadducees, Act_5:17, as Lampe thought, since the chief priests are here adduced as such generally, not according to their possible sectarian tendency) to remove out of the way the living self-witness also on whom the miracle had been wrought, not merely the worker of the miracle Himself. The tyrannical power, in this way, proceeds consistently, in order, as it imagines, to put away even the recollection of the affair. “Praeceps est malitia et semper ultra rapit,” Grotius.
ὑπῆγον ] not: they fell away (Cornelius a Lapide, Lampe, Paulus), which, without closer definition, does not lie in the word, but rather: they took themselves off, they removed to a distance; so great an attractive power did the matter possess for them, and then followed the falling away. The separation in the position of the words: πολλοὶ … τῶν Ἰουδαίων , brings both points emphatically out.