11:50: It is better for you that one man dies for the people and not
that the entire nation perishes.
Genesis Rabbah 91 (58A): It is better מוטב
for one life to be in uncertain perilous danger than all in certain death. ‖
Genesis Rabbah 94 (60A): It is better מוטב
that this man be killed than the whole צִיבּוּרָא be punished because of him. ‖ Midrash Samuel 32 § 3 (71A): Is
it not better for you לא טב לכון
to sacrifice a thousand men than for your entire city to be destroyed?—This is
different in the parallel passage in Midr. Eccl. 9:18 (64A). (Hermann
L. Strack and Paul Billerbeck, A Commentary on the New Testament from the
Talmud and Midrash, ed. Jacob N. Cerone, 4 vols. [trans. Andrew Bowden and
Joseph Longarino; Bellingham, Wash.: Lexham Press, 2022], 2:627)
Further
Reading:
Robert David Aus,
“The
Death of One for All in John 11:45-54 in Light of Judaic Traditions,” in Barabbas
and Esther and Other Studies in the Judaic Illumination of Earliest
Christianity (Studies in the History of Judaism; Atlanta: Scholars Press,
1992), 29-63
