John 11:51

51. Not of himself But by impulse from a higher power.

High priest… prophesied John clearly implies that the prophetic impulse was connected with the pontifical office. Whether this was a popular notion or not is not, as some assume, the question. It is John’s idea of the fact. It was the high priest who anciently drew responses from the Urim and Thummim. Both Josephus and Philo are quoted by Alford as sustaining the belief that the priesthood was occasionally prophetic. The momentary gift belonged not to the impious man but to the office. Nor did he even know the supernatural import of his own expression. The devil instigated his thoughts, but God overruled his words. As Pilate, (Stier in substance says,) the representative of the secular power, testified by the superscription to Jesus as King, so Caiaphas, the head of the ecclesiastical system, symbolized Jesus as the true priest and sacrifice. That year In John 18:13, the phrase is, of that same year. The words do not imply that the high-priesthood was an annual office; but Caiaphas was high priest “of that memorable year.”