‘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 (Deuteronomy 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.