John 7:40-53

40After some of the crowd heard Jesus say these words, they said, “This man is certainly the prophet.”

41Other people said, “This man is the Messiah.” Still other people asked, “How can the Messiah come from Galilee?

42Doesn’t Scripture say that the Messiah will come from the descendants of David and from the village of Bethlehem, where David lived?”

43So the people were divided because of Jesus.

44Some of them wanted to arrest him, but they couldn’t.

45When the temple guards returned, the chief priests and Pharisees asked them, “Why didn’t you bring Jesus?”

46The temple guards answered, “No human has ever spoken like this man.”

47The Pharisees asked the temple guards, “Have you been deceived too?

48Has any ruler or any Pharisee believed in him?

49This crowd is cursed because it doesn’t know Moses’ Teachings.”

50One of those Pharisees was Nicodemus, who had previously visited Jesus. Nicodemus asked them,

51“Do Moses’ Teachings enable us to judge a person without first hearing that person’s side of the story? We can’t judge a person without finding out what that person has done.”

52They asked Nicodemus, “Are you saying this because you’re from Galilee? Study ⌞the Scriptures⌟, and you’ll see that no prophet comes from Galilee.”

53Then each of them went home.