John 7:27

Howbeit we know this man whence he is: but when Christ cometh, no man knoweth whence he is.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(27) Howbeit we know this man.—They at once supply a corrective answer to their own question. They know this Man whence He is. He is the carpenter’s son, and His mother, and brethren, and sisters, are well known (Matthew 13:55-56). His brothers, indeed, are part of that multitude (John 7:10). They know that the Messiah will be of the seed and town of David (John 7:42); but they have no knowledge of an earthly home and earthly relations, and all their ideas are of a Being who will not be subject to the ordinary conditions of life, and whose immediate origin no man can know. God’s Anointed living among them as a man, with mother, and brothers, and sisters! This cannot be. What meant the coming in the clouds of heaven of Daniel’s vision (Daniel 7:13), or the coming suddenly to the Temple of Malachi’s prophecy? (Malachi 3:1.) Why did Isaiah tell of His being “Wonderful, Counsellor, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace?” (Isaiah 9:6.) In such thoughts they fulfilled another prophecy of the same Isaiah, which their own Rabbis interpreted of the Messiah, “He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him” (Isaiah 53:2).

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

7:25-30 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.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Howbeit - But. They proceeded to state a reason why they supposed that he could not be the Messiah, whatever the rulers might think.

We know this man whence he is - We know the place of his birth and residence.

No man knoweth whence he is - From Matthew 2:5, it appears that the common expectation of the Jews was that the Messiah would be born at Bethlehem; but they had also feigned that after his birth he would be hidden or taken away in some mysterious manner, and appear again from some unexpected quarter. We find allusions to this expectation in the New Testament, where our Saviour corrects their common notions, Matthew 24:23; "Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there, believe it not." And again John 7:26, "If they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert, go not forth; behold, he is in the secret chambers, believe it not." The following extracts from Jewish writings show that this was the common expectation: "The Redeemer shall manifest himself, and afterward be hid. So it was in the redemption from Egypt. Moses showed himself and then was hidden." So on the passage, Sol 2:9 - "My beloved is like a roe or a young hart" - they say: "A roe appears and then is hid; so the Redeemer shall first appear and then be concealed, and then again be concealed and then again appear." "So the Redeemer shall first appear and then be hid, and then, at the end of 45 days, shall reappear, and cause manna to descend." See Lightfoot. Whatever may have been the source of this opinion, it explains this passage, and shows that the writer of this gospel was well acquainted with the opinions of the Jews, however improbable those opinions were.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

27. Howbeit we know this man, &c.—This seems to refer to some current opinion that Messiah's origin would be mysterious (not altogether wrong), from which they concluded that Jesus could not be He, since they knew all about His family at Nazareth.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

We know this man whence he is; we know he is of Nazareth, and that Joseph is his reputed father. They also knew whence the Messias was to come, that he was to be of the family of David, of the tribe of Judah, of the town of Bethlehem: the chief priests and scribes answered Herod to that purpose, without the least hesitation, Matthew 2:5,6, but they had no revelation to guide them to know of what particular family he should be: thus this verse is easily reconciled to John 7:42. Others think that they spake of the second manifestation of Christ. They had a tradition, which was bottomed on holy writ, That he was to come out of Bethlehem: but then they had another tradition, that he should be taken away from thence, and hidden for some years, and then again appear as a person unknown whence he came. Which opinion, say some, was bottomed on the revelations of the Old Testament concerning a double regeneration of Christ, Isaiah 53:8, Who shall declare his generation? and Micah 5:2; the one of which is to be understood of his eternal generation, which none can declare; the other, as to the generation of his human nature. But the Jews not understanding that the Messiah was to be God man, understood both of his human nature; which made them fancy, that though he was to be born at Bethlehem, according to Micah 5:2, yet he was to be carried away for some years some where; so as when he came to appear to the world, none should know whence he came, but he should appear as a man dropped down from heaven. Now Christ having been offered in the temple at his mother’s purification, went back again with his parents, Luke 2:39, came to Nazareth, and ordinarily went up to Jerusalem; there he was found disputing with the doctors, John 7:46; and at last we find him resting with his parents at Nazareth, and being subject to them; after which we read no more of him, till he came to John to be baptized: so as the Jews had known and observed the whole course of Christ’s life.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Howbeit, we know this man whence he is,.... They signify, that if the rulers had altered their minds, and had gone into the belief of Jesus of Nazareth being the Messiah, they should not follow them in it, for this reason; because they knew from whence he came; meaning not so much the place of his birth, which they supposed was Galilee, and Nazareth in Galilee, in which they were mistaken, as the manner of his birth, which they could account for: they pretended to know his extract, that he was the son of Joseph and Mary, that he was begotten in wedlock, and was born as other persons are; there was no difficulty with them in accounting for his coming into the world, no more than any other ordinary person; his descent from Joseph and Mary was well known to them, and to be accounted for in a rational way, and therefore concluded he could not be the Messiah:

but when Christ cometh, no man knoweth whence he is; they knew the place from whence he was to come; so the chief priests and Scribes did, Matthew 2:4; and so did these Jews, John 7:42. They knew he would come from Bethlehem, and they knew that he would come out of the seed of David; but then he was to be born of a virgin, according to Isaiah 7:14, and such a coming into the world was not to be known, reasoned upon, and accounted for: wherefore since Jesus, according to the notion of these men, came into the world in the common and ordinary way, they thought they had an invincible argument against his being the Messiah; and therefore, let their rulers do what they would, for their parts, they were determined to reject him: and because it could not be known from whence the Messiah should come; hence the ancient Jews used to call him the seed which comes from another place; not from the place from whence seed ordinarily comes, from the loins of men, but from some other place they knew not where: their words are very remarkable on that passage in Genesis 4:25, "and she called his name Seth, for God hath appointed me another seed", &c. This observation is made by R. Tanchuma, in the name of R. Samuel (d); says he,

"she has respect to that seed, which is he that comes, , "from another place", and what is this? this is the King Messiah.''

And elsewhere (e), the same Rabbi observes on those words in Genesis 19:32, "that we may preserve seed of our father": it is not written, "that we may preserve a son of our father", but "that we may preserve seed of our father"; that seed which is he that comes from "another place"; and what is this? this is the King Messiah. The modern Jews (f) endeavour to explain away the sense of this phrase, "another seed", as if it regarded strange seed; and that the sense of the expression is only, that the Messiah should spring from the family of Moab, and from Ruth the Moabitess: nor is their sense what Aquinas (g) at tributes to the Jewish Rabbins,

"that the more noble part of that mass, of which Adam was made, remained untouched (by sin), and was afterwards transfused into Seth; and so through all descending from him, unto Joakim, or Eliakim, or Heli, the father of the virgin, out of which the body of the blessed Virgin was made:''

which is no other than a Popish device, fathered upon the Jews, and made for the sake of the, Virgin Mary, rather than for the sake of Christ. But their meaning is, that Christ should not be gotten of man, or come into the world in the ordinary way of generation, but should be born of a virgin; and so it could not be known, and accounted for from whence he was, or from whence that seed was of which he was made. The angel gives the best account of this in Luke 1:35, a body was prepared for Christ by the Lord; it was conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost; his birth of a virgin was miraculous; it is beyond the comprehension of men, and cannot explained by any mortal; from whence he is it cannot be said; no man can be pointed to as his father; all that can be said is, he was made of a woman, a virgin.

(d) Bereshit Rabba, sect. 23. fol. 20. 4. Midrash Ruth, fol. 36. 1.((e) Bereshit Rabba, sect. 51. fol. 46. 1. Midrash Ruth, fol. 35. 4. (f) Mattanot Cehunah & Jade Moseh in ib. (g) In 3 sent distinct. 3. art. 2.

Geneva Study Bible

{11} Howbeit we know this man whence he is: but when Christ cometh, no man knoweth whence he is.

(11) Men are very wise to have checks and balances for their own thoughts.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

27. when Christ cometh] Better, when the Christ cometh: see on John 1:20.

no man knoweth whence he is] Literally, no man comes to know (see on John 7:26 and John 8:55) whence He is. ‘Whence’ does not refer to the Messiah’s birthplace, which was known (John 7:41-42); nor to His remote descent, for He was to be the Son of David (ibid.); but to His parentage (John 6:42), immediate and actual. This text is the strongest, if not the only evidence that we have of the belief that the immediate parents of the Messiah would be unknown: but the precision and vivacity of this passage carries conviction with it, and shews how familiar the ideas current among the Jews at that time were to S. John. It never occurs to him to explain. The belief might easily grow out of Isaiah 53:8, ‘Who shall declare His generation?’ Justin Martyr tells us of a kindred belief, that the Messiahship of the Messiah would be unknown, even to Himself, until He was anointed by Elijah. (Trypho, pp. 226, 336.)

Bengel's Gnomen

John 7:27. Ἀλλά, [howbeit], but) They believed in human authority, in rejecting Christ: they notwithstanding do not believe in human authority, in acknowledging Christ. Here may be observed the Jewish prejudices. The reasoning of the Jews was to this effect; the Christ has an unknown parentage; Jesus has not an unknown parentage: therefore Jesus is not the Christ. The Lord answers at John 7:28, “Ye both know Me, and ye know whence I am; and I am not come of Myself,” etc.—τοῦτον οἴδαμεν, we know this man) ch. John 6:42, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know.”—οὐδείς, no man) That really happened in the case of this, the true Messiah. Foll, v., “He that sent Me is true, whom ye know not.” Ch. John 9:29, “We know that God spake unto Moses, but as for this fellow, we know not from whence He is.” For not even now did they know His country. John 7:42, “Hath not the Scripture said, That Christ cometh of the seed of David, and out of the town of Bethlehem?” when in fact Jesus was born at Bethlehem.[194] [Some one may fancy, that it is an idle question, whether the circumstances of the birth of Christ be known or unknown; but a false opinion on a very slight point was in fact sufficient to prove the greatest obstacle to faith. One may observe the same result in the case of various unsound maxims, by which the world suffers itself to be held in bondage.—V. g.]

[194] And not in Galilee as they supposed.—E. and T.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 27. - Howbeit we know this Man whence he is; that is, they knew his parentage, the place of his early life, the father, mother, brothers, and sisters (Matthew 13:55, 58). There was none of the mystery about him which they anticipated for their Messiah. It is even intimated that it was known where he was born (vers. 41, 42), and that the Christ would be born in Bethlehem, so that the mere fact of birthplace is not the difficulty that occurred to them. A tradition had gathered, which was perhaps originated by Daniel 7:13 or Malachi 3:1, that he would make a sudden descent on the temple - a dazzling appearance at his Messianic enthronization, coming in the clouds of heaven, and that none would "declare his generation." So, according to 'Sanh.,' 97, a, "three things are wholly unexpected - Messiah, a god-send, and a scorpion" (cf. 'Mid. on Cantic. 2:9'). Justin Martyr puts into the lips of Trypho, 'Dial.,' 8, "But Christ - if he has indeed been born, and exists anywhere - is unknown, and does not even know himself, and has no power until Elias come to anoint him and make him manifest to all." So these Jerusalemites said, When the Christ cometh (ἔρχηται makes his Christwise manifestation - is in act of coming), no one knoweth whence he is. This Messianic manifestation has been tardy and gradual, if it be one at all We know the home, the daily upbringing of Jesus - we know whence he is, or think we do; and so the whole affair clashes with a current expectation. We know enough, too much, of this Jesus for it to be possible for him to fill up this portion of the Messianic programme. This may have been the outcome of the general criticism. Other defects, according to their idea, may have been urged. The many-sidedness of the hope, the vagueness of the dream, as it shaped itself in current Jewish thought, suffered almost any amount of doubt as to the exact form of the approaching manifestation. That to which our Lord especially replied revealed the practical and ethical claim he advanced to their acceptance from himself of the word of the Lord. John 7:27

Vincent's Word Studies

Howbeit (ἀλλὰ)

But, it cannot be that the rulers have made such a discovery, for we know whence this man is.

We know (οἴδαμεν)

The knowing of the rulers is expressed by ἔγνωσαν; have they ascertained by searching and watching. The people's knowledge, οἴδαμεν, is that of settled conviction.

Whence (πόθεν)

Referring to His parentage and family.

No one knoweth whence He is

Opinions differ as to the precise reference of these words. Some explain by a popular idea that the Messiah would not be known until anointed by Elias, when he would suddenly appear. Others refer to Isaiah 53:8; or to Daniel 7:13. Meyer says that while the popular belief that the immediate ancestry of the Messiah would be unknown when He came cannot further be historically proved, it is credible, partly from the belief in His divine origin, and partly from the obscurity into which the Davidic family had sunk.