John 7:40-46 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Many of the people therefore,— Our Lord appears to have been discoursing as above, when the officerssent by the council to apprehend him, John 7:32 came up: but as it was an uncommon topic, and he seemed to be speaking with great fervency, their curiosity made them willing to hear him a little before they laid hands on him, John 7:44-45. The eloquence and power with which he spoke, struck them; every word that he had uttered being well chosen, aptly placed, and gracefully pronounced. There was not only a sweetness in his sermons which enchanted the ear, but a plainness, perspicuity, and weight, which made the beauties of truth shine before the understanding with that lustre which is peculiar to themselves. Even these his enemies, who were come with an intent to lay violent hands on him, were deeply smitten: the greatness of his subject made visible, as it were, by the divine speaker, filled their understandings: the warmth and tenderness withwhich he delivered himself, penetrated their hearts: they felt new and uncommon emotions. In a word, being overwhelmed with the greatness of their admiration, they silently stood astonished, condemning themselves for having come on the errand, and after a while returned without accomplishing it. Plutarch mentions it as a memorable proof of the extraordinaryeloquence of Mark Anthony, when Marius sent soldiers to kill him, that when he began παραιτεισθαι τον θανατον, to plead for his life, he disarmed their resolution, and melted them into tears. But these officers are thus vanquished merely by hearing Christ's gracious discourses to the people; which is a circumstance infinitely more remarkable. They return in a kind of amaze, and, instead of seizing him as their prisoner, or making a laboured apology for their failure, only break out into a pathetic exclamation, that no man in the world ever spake like him. This is a reflection which I hope we often make, as we read his discourses. The officers were not the only persons on whom this sermon made a deep impression: our Lord's hearers in general were greatly affected with it; for many of them gave it as their opinion, that he was certainly one of the ancient prophets risen from the dead, to usher in the Messiah, John 7:40. Others declared, that they believed he was the Messiah himself, John 7:41. Nevertheless, some of them, led away with the common mistake that he was born in Nazareth, asked with disdain if the Messiah was to come out of Galilee? So there was a division among them, σχισμα, a dissention and warm disagreement among them.