45 The officers therefore came to the chief priests and Pharisees, and they said to them, Why have ye not brought him? 46 The officers answered, Never man spoke thus, as this man [speaks]. 47 The Pharisees therefore answered them, Are ye also deceived? 48 Has any one of the rulers believed on him, or of the Pharisees? 49 But this crowd, which does not know the law, are accursed. 50 Nicodemus says to them (being one of themselves), 51 Does our law judge a man before it have first heard from himself, and know what he does? 52 They answered and said to him, Art thou also of Galilee? Search and look, that no prophet arises out of Galilee.
53 And every one went to his home.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on John 7:45-53
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.