John 7:52 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

They answered—art thou also of Galilee?— Finding Nicodemus thus condemning their conduct, and speaking favourably of Jesus, they asked him with an air of disdain and surprize, mixed with fierceness, Art thou also of Galilee? "Art thou one of the ignorant low faction, which has leagued to support a Galilean Messiah, in opposition to the law, which has determined the Messiah's nativity to Bethlehem? Search and look; for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet." They meant no Messiah, the prophet foretold by Moses in their law; for they could not but know that Jonah was of Gath-hepher in Galilee, Exodus 14:25 that Nahum also was probably a Galilean; and that Tishbe, the town of Elijah the Tishbite, was likewise in Galilee; unless they were as ignorant of the scriptures as they said the common people were, John 7:48. Be this as it may, such blind judges were these masters of law and learning, that an argument which had no force against Jesus, who was actually born at Bethlehem, weighed a great deal more with them, than all the solid proofs by which he so fully established his divine mission.