John 12:19

Yet many other people did not believe. The Pharisees looked on in unbelief frustrated by Jesus’ popularity and unable to do anything to stop Him at the moment. Hyperbolically they said the whole world had gone after Jesus. This is another ironic comment that John recorded for His readers’ instruction. Really relatively few people had truly believed on Jesus (John 12:37-43), but the whole world would go after Jesus as the Savior of the world to a greater degree than the Pharisees believed then (cf. John 3:16-17). Their unconscious prophecy (cf. Caiaphas’ unconscious prophecy in John 11:50) received a partial fulfillment almost immediately in the request of some Greeks to see Jesus (John 12:20-22). The Pharisees later found it just as impossible to curtail the spread of Christianity as they did to restrict Jesus personally (cf. Acts 3-4).