John 7:41 - Exposition

Others said, This is the Christ. These must have pressed the argument further. The Lord must have seemed to them to combine the yet more explicit signs, not only of the Prophet that should come into the world, but of the anointed King and Priest—the Christ of their current expectation. But some £ said , Both the Christ come out of Galilee? Here criticism was at once at work upon obvious appearances, but misunderstood facts. Was he not called "Jesus of Nazareth"? His life had been spent there, his ministry in the main restricted to the northern province. These questions give a vivid scene and portray a great emotion. The people are resting on the letter of prophecy ( Micah 5:2 ), where the Messiah, as understood by their own teachers (see Matthew 2:5 ), was to proceed from Bethlehem; but they overlook the remarkable prediction in Isaiah 9:1 , where Galilee is spoken of as the scene of extraordinary illumination.