John 11:51

ἐπροφήτευσεν for προεφήτευσεν (correction to usual form). In N.T. the better MSS. place the augment before the preposition (Matthew 7:22; Matthew 11:13; Matthew 15:7; Mark 7:6; Luke 1:67; Acts 19:6): Jude 1:14 is possibly an exception. Winer, p. 84.

ἤμελλεν for ἔμελλεν: comp. John 4:47; John 12:33; John 18:32. In John 6:71 ἔμελλεν is better attested: comp. ἐδύνατο in John 11:37. Winer, p. 82.

51. ἀφ' ἑαυ. οὐκ εἶπ. Like Saul, Caiaphas is a prophet in spite of himself. None but a Jew would be likely to know of the old Jewish belief that the high-priest by means of the Urim and Thummim was the mouthpiece of the Divine oracle. The Urim and Thummim had been lost, and the high-priest’s office had been shorn of much of its glory, but the remembrance of his prophetical gift did not become quite extinct (Hosea 3:4); and ‘in that fatal year’ S. John might well believe that the gift would be restored. For ἤμελλεν see on John 6:71.