John 7:41 Others said, This is the Christ, But some said, Shall Christ come out of Galilee?  The crowd was asking questions about Jesus. Some believed others were hostile, and others disqualified Jesus as the Messiah because He was from Nazareth, not Bethlehem.  He was born in Bethlehem although He grew up in Nazareth. They were going on what they thought they knew and was wrong and because of their lack of knowledge they were going to be destroyed spiritually because of their rejection of the truth.

John 7:42 – Hath not the scripture said, That Christ cometh of the seed of David, and out of the town of Bethlehem, where David was?  They thought He was from Galilee, Jesus was raised in Nazareth a city in Galilee. They knew the Messiah was to come from Bethlehem, they knew who they were listening to had performed miracles, He taught the Scriptures with authority, but according to their knowledge, He was from Galilee, not Bethlehem as the Scriptures had indicated.

John 7:43 – So there was a division among the people because of Him.  Some believed He was the Christ others didn’t which caused a division among the people. Although all the people saw and heard Him as well as witness the miracles some chose to reject Him as the Son of God. According to the Bible, after they have seen Jesus and during the Tribulation, there will be people that will not repent of their sins and receive Jesus (Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts – Revelation 9:21).  

John 7:44 – And some of them would have taken him, but no man laid hands on him.  The Romans ruled Palestine, they gave the Jewish religious leaders authority over minor civil and religious affairs. The religious leaders controlled their own Temple police and gave the officers power to arrest anyone causing a disturbance or breaking any of their ceremonial law, but these police officers couldn’t find one reason to Jesus.  Although Jesus was the Son of God and had been given all power, He submitted Himself as a citizen and didn’t break any of the Jewish ceremonial laws other than healing and delivering people on the Sabbath.  Secondly, it wasn’t His time to be arrested, when God has set an appointed time nothing will happen until then.

John 7:45 – Then came the officers to the chief priests and Pharisees; and they said unto them, Why have ye not brought him?  When the officers went to the chief priests and Pharisees they wanted to know why hadn’t they brought Jesus to them.  The chief priests and Pharisees needed someone to do their dirty work for them and they chose the Temple police to do it for them.

John 7:46 – The officers answered. Never man spake like this man.  The Jewish leaders saw themselves as an elite group who alone had the truth, and they resisted the truth about Jesus, they were jealous and hated Him. The Temple police heard what Jesus taught, and they knew within themselves no one else had taught like Him and they told it to the priests and Pharisees. God has given us an instinct, and we basically know when something is true or not, it’s our decision to chose truth or a lie.

John 7:47 – Then answered them the Pharisees.  Are ye also deceived?  They were angry with the Temple police and told them they too were deceived.  Like the Temple police, many Christians have had family members and friends to tell them they are being deceived by believing the Bible and attending church.  Because they don’t know the truth, therefore, they can’t agree to it because of a lack of knowledge and deny the truth.

John 7:48 – Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees, believed on him?  Some of the rulers did embrace Jesus and more believed in him, but didn’t have the courage to confess their belief in Him.  The cause of Christ has seldom had rulers and Pharisees on its side.  Self-denial and the cross are hard lessons to rulers and Pharisees.  Like the rulers and Pharisees, many reject Jesus and His teaching because of self-denial; this is what has caused thousands of religions because people don’t want to deny self, so they will make up a doctrine, throw in a few Biblical Scriptures, and the rest be the doctrine of men.

John 7:49 – But this people who knoweth not the law are cursed.  The Pharisees accused the people of being ignorant of the Law and therefore, they were under God’s curse.  The Pharisees despised the rural people who did not rigidly observe the law; the situation was that it was the Pharisees, not the crowds, who were under God’s wrath because they had rejected His Son.

John 7:50 – Nicodemus saith unto them. (he that came to Jesus by night. being one of them).   Nicodemus was a Pharisee and a member of the Sanhedrin who came to Jesus during the night.  Nicodemus had become a secret believer, and begin to speak out for Jesus.

John 7:51 – Doth our law judge any man, before it hear him, and know what he doeth?  Nicodemus confronted the Pharisees with their failure to keep their own laws.  The Pharisees saw themselves losing ground, the police officers came back impressed by Jesus and one of their own, now Nicodemus was defending Him.

John 7:52 – They answered and said unto him, Art thou also of Galilee?  Search, and look: for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet. With their hypocritical motives being exposed and their prestige slowly eroding, they began to move to protect themselves by asking the question was Nicodemus from Galilee, if so, he would know there had not been a prophet from Galilee.  They were in error because Jonah, Hosea, Nahum, Amos were prophets who arose in Galilee, and perhaps Elijah and Elisha.

John 7:53 – And every man went unto his own house.  The Scripture doesn’t indicate what else had been said for them to make the statement about a prophet not rising in Galilee then going into their own house.  Or could it had been the crowd who were among the rulers and Pharisees went into their house after hearing the statement the Pharisees made about a prophet?