“Dicebant ergo quidam ex Jerosolymis : Nonne hic est, quem quærunt interficere ?”
“Then said some of them of Jerusalem, Is not this he, whom they seek to kill?”
“Then some of the people of Jerusalem began to say, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill?”
“Therefore some of them of Jerusalem said, “Isn’t this he whom they seek to kill?”
“Some therefore of them of Jerusalem said, Is not this he whom they seek to kill?”
Verses 25-30 Christ proclaimed aloud, that they were in error in their thoughts about his origin. He was sent of God, who showed himself true to his promises. This declaration, that they knew not God, with his claim to peculiar knowledge, provoked the hearers; and they sought to take him, but God can tie men's hands, though he does not turn their hearts.
[1.] The objection concerning this stated by some of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who seem to have been of all others most prejudiced against him, v. 25. One would think that those who lived at the fountain-head of knowledge and religion should have been most ready to receive the Messiah: but it proved quite contrary. Those that have plenty of the means of knowledge and grace, if they are not made better by them, are commonly made worse; and our Lord Jesus has often met with the least welcome from those that one would expect the best from. But it was not without some just cause that it came into a proverb, The nearer the church the further from God. These people of Jerusalem showed their ill-will to Christ,