Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of John 7:47
Then answered them the Pharisees, Are ye also deceived?
47. the Pharisees ] That portion of the Sanhedrin which was most jealous of orthodoxy, regarded both by themselves and others as models of correct belief: see next verse. For ‘then’ read therefore.
Are ye also deceived ] Strong emphasis on ‘ye;’ Surely ye also have not been led astray, ye, the officers of the Sanhedrin! Comp. Joh 7:12.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Are ye also deceived? – They set down the claims of Jesus as of course an imposture. They did not examine, but were, like thousands, determined to believe that he was a deceiver. Hence, they did not ask them whether they were convinced, or had seen evidence that he was the Messiah; but, with mingled contempt, envy, and anger, they asked if they were also deluded. Thus many assume religion to be an imposture; and when one becomes a Christian, they assume at once that he is deceived, that he is the victim of foolish credulity or superstition, and treat him with ridicule or scorn. Candor would require them to inquire whether such changes were not proof of the power and truth of the gospel, as candor in the case of the rulers required them to inquire whether Jesus had not given them evidence that he was from God.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
You, who have us not only for your masters, whose commands you ought not to dispute, but to execute; but for your teachers also, from whom you might have learned better doctrine; are you seduced? For so wicked men count all who embrace not their notions, and follow not their ways.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
47. ye also deceivedIn theirown servants this seemed intolerable.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Then answered them the Pharisees, are ye also deceived?] As well as the common people; you that have been so long in our service, and should know better; or who, at least, should have taken the sense of your superiors, and should have waited to have had their opinion and judgment of him, and been determined by that, and not so hastily have joined with a deluded set of people. It was the common character of Christ, and his apostles, and so of all his faithful ministers in all succeeding ages, that they were deceivers, and the people that followed them deceived, a parcel of poor deluded creatures, carried aside by their teachers; when, on the other hand, they are the deceived ones, who live in sin, and indulge themselves in it; or who trust in themselves that they are righteous; who think they are something, when they are nothing; who imagine, that touching the righteousness of the law, they are blameless, are free from sin, and need no repentance; who follow the traditions and commandments of men: whereas these cannot be deceived, who follow Christ, the way, the truth, and the life, and his faithful ministers, who show unto men the way of salvation.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Are ye also led astray? ( ;). The Pharisees took the lead in this scornful sneer at the officers. The use of formally expects a negative answer as in 4:29, but the Pharisees really believed it. See also 6:67. The verb form is perfect passive indicative of , for which see verse 12 with perhaps an allusion to that phase of opinion.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
1) “Then answered them the Pharisees,” (apekrithesan oun autois hoi Pharisaioi) “Then the Pharisees answered them directly,” with sarcasm and irony, the very Pharisees who had sent them to do their dirty, treacherous will, Joh 7:32; Joh 5:16; Joh 5:18. The Pharisees were the leaders of the mob band against Jesus.
2) “Are ye also deceived?” (me kai humeis peplanesthe) “Are you all also deceived, deluded, or hoodwinked?” led astray, as we believe all His followers to be? Little did they know how self-deceived they were themselves, Jer 17:9. This same rabid band of self-righteous, proud, arrogant Pharisees had called Jesus this deceiver,” Mat 27:63.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
47. And are you also seduced? While they reprove their officers, they endeavor, at the same time, to keep them in subjection. For by these words they mean, that it would be unreasonable and unbecoming that they should not remain steady, though the whole people should revolt. But we must see on what argument they rest, when they so haughtily insult Christ.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(47) Are ye also deceived?The emphasis is upon the ye. Ye whose duty it is simply to obey, who were sent to bring Him captive before usdo ye also yield to His power? It is the Pharisees who ask this, and their spirit is shown in the matter of their question. They make no inquiry as to what He had said, though it must have struck them as a phenomenon demanding explanation that their own officials had been convinced by His teaching. It is at once assumed that they, too, had been deceived. It is this sect of the Pharisees who speak of Him as that deceiver (Mat. 27:63).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
‘The Pharisees answered them, “Are you also led astray? Have any of the leading authorities believed in him, or the Pharisees? But this crowd who do not know the Law are accursed”.’
The Pharisees, of course, had not had to face the huge crowds and could therefore afford to be brave, and they responded with disdain. Could they really not see the truth about Jesus? The leading authorities included the Chief Priests, the more important Pharisees, and many aristocrats. The separate reference to the Pharisees occurred because the speakers were Pharisees and were appealing to their fellow-Pharisees. Their comment about the crowds not knowing the Law was typical of their arrogance. And some did look on the common people as accursed (Deu 28:15) in as far as they failed to keep to the Pharisaic traditions (‘the Law’ as interpreted by the Pharisees). They had, however, not been so brave when Jesus had earlier challenged them about their own failure with regard to the law of Moses (v. 19).
The contempt shown here for the ordinary people was typical of a certain type of Pharisee. Indeed later Rabbinic tradition would state, “Six things are laid down about the people of the land (the ordinary people): entrust no testimony to them, take no testimony from them, trust them with no secret, do not appoint them guardians of an orphan, do not make them custodians of charitable funds, do not accompany them on a journey.” It was not only Jesus that they held in contempt.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Joh 7:47-49. Are ye also deceived? &c. “Ye who have the advantage of knowing our sentiments, and are acquainted with the idea which we entertain concerning this person; surely you cannot be so weak as to be thus infatuated. Pray consider the conduct of those who are most capable of judging on this point. Have any of the rulers, or any of the Pharisees of a more private station, believed on him as the Messiah? Yet you know, these are most eminent for their acquaintance with religion, and the most authentic interpreters of the sacred writings, in which it is contained. But this wretched herd of people, Joh 7:49. , this rabble,(so they affected to call Christ’s friends) who know nothing of the true meaning of the law, are cursed with a judicial blindness, and given up to the most absurd and fatal mistake.” This was downright railing. The force of the 49th verse, will appear more evident, when we reflect, that the rabbies and rulers among the Jews piqued themselves very highly upon the knowledge of the law, and very much despised the inferior people. The Jews were generally divided, first, into scribes, or teachers of the law; secondly, into disciples or students, who were scholars of their wise men, but neither rabbies nor teachers; and thirdly, into those whom they were pleased to call the people of the earth; here meant by the word , the rabble, the very scum of the earth, despised by these proud doctors on account of their being illiterate. The reader may find instances of their contempt of the common people in Lightfoot’s Hor. Heb.on the place, and Vitringa, Observat. Sacr. lib. 3: 100: 2.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Joh 7:47-49 . The answer comes from the Pharisees in the Sanhedrim, as from that section of the council who were most zealous in watching over the interests of orthodoxy and the hierarchy.
] are ye also officers of sacred justice, who should act only in strict loyalty to your superiors. Hence the following questions: “ Have any of the Sanhedrim believed in him, or of the Pharisees ?” The latter are specially named as the class of orthodox and most respected theologians , who were supposed to be patterns of orthodoxy, apart from the fact that some of them were members of the Sanhedrim.
] at , breaking off and leading on hastily to the antithetical statement that follows; Baeumlein, Partik . p. 15; Ellendt, Lex. Soph . I. p. 78.
] those people there , uttered with the greatest scorn. The people hanging upon Jesus, “this mob ,” as they regard them, are there before their eyes. It is self-evident, further, that the speakers do not include their own official servants in the , but, on the other hand, prudently separate them with their knowledge from the .
. . ] because they regarded such a transgressor of the law as the Prophet, or the Messiah, Joh 7:40-41 .
] they are cursed , the divine wrath is upon them! The plural is justified by the collective , comp. Joh 7:44 . The exclamation is to be regarded merely as a blindly passionate statement [273] (Ewald); as a haughty outbreak of the rabies theological , and by no means a decree (Kuinoel and others), as if the Sanhedrim had now come to a resolution , or at least had immediately, in keeping with the informal words, put in regular form (Luthardt) what is mentioned in Joh 9:22 . Such an excommunication of the en masse would have been preposterous . Upon the unbounded scorn entertained by Jewish pride of learning towards the unlettered multitude ( ), see Wetstein and Lampe in loc .; Gfrrer in the Tb. Zeitschr . 1838, I. p. 130, and Jahrb. d. Heils, I. p. 240 f.
] (see the critical notes), not elsewhere in the N. T., nor in the LXX and Apocrypha; it is, however, classical.
[273] Not of an argumentative character, as if they had inferred their disobedience from their unacquaintance with the law (Ewald). Their frame of mind was not so reflective.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
47 Then answered them the Pharisees, Are ye also deceived?
Ver. 47. Are ye also deceived? ] As the rude rabble are? we looked that you should have stuck to us. How ill taken was England’s defection from the pope’s devotion! England was the first that took upon it the pope’s yoke, and the first that shook it off again. What wondering was there at Luther, Vergerius, Caracciolus, and other stiff Papists, when they made escape out of Babylon! Apostates they were called for so doing, and Luther confesseth the action; but withal addeth, that they were holy apostates, and had made defection only from the devil, who therefore set up his bristles at them, and pursued them with so much spite. Prorsus Satan est Lutherus, Satan is entirely Lutheran, saith he in a certain epistle, sed Christus vivit et regnat, Amen, but Christ lives and reigns, Amen. (Ep. ad Spalat.)
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Joh 7:47 . But their apology only rouses the indignation of those who had sent them, ; Are ye also, of whom better things might have been expected, deluded? ; What right have subordinates to have a mind of their own? Wait till some of the constituted authorities or of the recognised leaders of religious opinion give you the cue. Here the secret of their hostility is out. Jesus appealed to the people and did not depend for recognition on the influential classes. Power was slipping through their fingers. . “But this mob [these masses] that knows not the law are cursed.” This Pharisaic scorn of the mob [or “am-haarets,” which is here represented by ] appears in Rabbinic literature. Dr. Taylor [ Sayings of the Jewish Fathers , p. 44] quotes Hillel as saying: “No boor is a sin-fearer; nor is the vulgar pious”. To the Am-haarets are opposed the disciples of the learned in the law; and Schoettgen defines the Am-haarets as “omnes illi qui studio sacrarum literarum operam non dederunt”. The designation, therefore, , was usual. That it was prompted here by the popular recognition as Messiah of one who came out of Galilee, in apparent contradiction of the law and of the opinion of the Pharisees, is also probable. People so ignorant as thus to blunder .
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Are ye, &c. ? = Have ye also been led astray (Joh 7:12)? Referring to action rather than to thought.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Joh 7:47-48
Joh 7:47-48
The Pharisees therefore answered them, Are ye also led astray? Hath any of the rulers believed on him, or of the Pharisees?-The Pharisees seemed to think if no Pharisee or officer was carried away with the preaching none should. These subordinates ought to defer their faith to those of the honored classes. This spirit prevails largely among religious teachers in this age. [Have any of the rulers believed? By rulers are meant the Sanhedrin. In the matter of deciding on the claims of the Messiah they hold that the judgment of the rulers must be decisive.]
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Are: Joh 7:12, Joh 9:27-34, 2Ki 18:29, 2Ki 18:32, 2Ch 32:15, Mat 27:63, 2Co 6:8
Reciprocal: 2Sa 3:25 – that he came Psa 22:6 – a reproach Pro 16:25 – General Ecc 9:16 – the poor Isa 42:19 – Who is blind Jer 18:18 – for the Zec 12:7 – save Luk 7:39 – This man Luk 11:52 – for Luk 14:21 – Go Luk 18:9 – and despised Joh 1:24 – were of Joh 3:1 – General Joh 7:32 – Pharisees heard Joh 9:28 – they Joh 9:40 – Are 1Co 1:26 – that 1Pe 4:14 – reproached
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
7
The Pharisees concluded their officers had been captured by the teaching of Jesus, instead of capturing him as they were sent to do.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
The Pharisaic leaders implied that the officers were ignorant, that none of the real thinkers and leaders in the nation had accepted Jesus. The rulers were the Sanhedrin members, and the Pharisees were the official teachers. They implied that all the leaders without exception believed that Jesus was a deceiver, but that was not true. Already Nicodemus had privately voiced his belief that Jesus was a teacher who had come from God (Joh 3:2), and many others of the leaders believed in Jesus (cf. Joh 12:42). This was a clear case of intimidation. Again John’s irony is apparent. The proudly wise were clearly the fools (cf. 1Co 1:26-31).