{The chief priests took counsel} (ebouleusanto hoi
archiereis). First aorist middle indicative of ouleu(935c), old
verb, seen already in  11:53  which see. The whole Sanhedrin
( 7:32 ) had decided to put Jesus to death and had asked for
information concerning him ( 11:57 ) that might lead to his
arrest, but the Sadducees were specially active now to accomplish
the death of Lazarus also (hina with first aorist active
subjunctive of apoktein(935c) as in  11:53 ). Perhaps they argued
that, if they should kill both Jesus and Lazarus, then Lazarus
would remain dead. The raising of Lazarus has brought matters to
a crisis. Incidentally, it may be observed that here we may see
the reason why the Synoptics do not tell the story of the raising
of Lazarus, if he was still living (cf. the case of Malchus's
name in  Joh 18:10 ).