Nicodemus, who had gone to him before, and who was one of them, said to them,
50. Nicodemus said to them. The Evangelist describes Nicodemus as a neutral man, who does not venture to undertake in good earnest the defense of sound doctrine, and yet cannot endure to have the truth oppressed. He who came to Jesus by night. This circumstance is mentioned by the Evangelist, partly to the praise, and partly to the disgrace, of Nicodemus.
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
And every man went unto his own house. The officers not bringing Jesus with them, and the sanhedrim being posed with Nicodemus, broke up without doing any business, and every member of it went home: this we may suppose was about the time of the evening sacrifice: for "the great sanhedrim sat from the time of the morning daily sacrifice, to the time of the...