And the Jews marvelled, saying, How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?
And the Jews marveled, saying, How knoweth this man letters (or learning), having never learned? - that is, at any rabbinical school, like Paul under Gamaliel (see Acts 22:3; Acts 26:24.) These rulers knew well enough that He had never studied under any human teacher-an important admission, as Meyer remarks, against ancient and modern attempts to trace our Lord's wisdom to human sources. Probably His teaching on this occasion was expository, manifesting that unrivaled faculty and depth which in the Sermon on the Mount had excited the astonishment of all-though now, no doubt, it would be in a different strain.