“Have any of the rulers or Pharisees believed in Him?
48. Has any of the rulers, or of the Pharisees, believed in him? “He has none on his side,” they say, “but low and ignorant men; the rulers, and every person of distinction, are opposed to him.” They expressly name the Pharisees, because they had a reputation above others, both for knowledge and holiness, so that they might be said to be the princes of the people.
The chief priests and Pharisees are here in a close cabal, contriving how to suppress Christ; though this was the great day of the feast, they attended not the religious services of the day, but left them to the vulgar, to whom it was common for those great ecclesiastics to consign and turn over the business of devotion, while they thought themselves better employed in the affairs of church-policy.
Commenting on John 7:45-53
Doth our law judge any man,.... Or condemn any man; or can any man be lawfully condemned: before it hear him: what he has to say for himself; is this the usual process in our courts? or is this a legal one to condemn a man unheard? and know what he doth? what his crimes are.