40 When these words came to their ears, some of the people said, This is certainly the prophet. 41 Others said, This is the Christ. But others said, Not so; will the Christ come from Galilee? 42 Do not the Writings say that the Christ comes of the seed of David and from Beth-lehem, the little town where David was? 43 So there was a division among the people because of him. 44 And some of them had a desire to take him; but no man put hands on him.
45 Then the servants went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, Why have you not got him with you? 46 The servants made answer, No man ever said things like this man. 47 Then the Pharisees said to them, Have you, like the others, been given false ideas? 48 Have any of the rulers belief in him, or any one of the Pharisees? 49 But these people who have no knowledge of the law are cursed. 50 Nicodemus—he who had come to Jesus before, being himself one of them—said to them, 51 Is a man judged by our law before it has given him a hearing and has knowledge of what he has done? 52 This was their answer: And do you come from Galilee? Make search and you will see that no prophet comes out of Galilee.
53 [And every man went to his house;
Matthew Henry's Commentary on John 7:40-53
Commentary on John 7:40-53
(Read John 7:40-53)
The malice of Christ's enemies is always against reason, and sometimes the staying of it cannot be accounted for. Never any man spake with that wisdom, and power, and grace, that convincing clearness, and that sweetness, wherewith Christ spake. Alas, that many, who are for a time restrained, and who speak highly of the word of Jesus, speedily lose their convictions, and go on in their sins! People are foolishly swayed by outward motives in matters of eternal moment, are willing even to be damned for fashion's sake. As the wisdom of God often chooses things which men despise, so the folly of men commonly despises those whom God has chosen. The Lord brings forward his weak and timid disciples, and sometimes uses them to defeat the designs of his enemies.