And not for that nation only. — Caiaphas had said “die for the people,” using the word which meant the people of the Jews. St. John said, “die for that nation,” using the wider word which meant the nation as one of the nations of the earth. He now passes to a wider meaning still. He has lived to see a partial fulfilment of the ingathering of the “other sheep” of John 10:16, and he thinks of that death as for God’s children in all nations, who shall be one flock under one shepherd.
Related Commentaries of John 11:52
John 11:52
52 And not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad.