The officers answered, Never man spoke like this man.
All Commentaries on John 7:46 Go To John 7
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
The officers answered, &c. Because He was God- Prayer of Manasseh , and therefore He teaches not with human but Divine grace, power efficacy and majesty. Notice here the force of Christ"s words, His authority and dignity, which astounded these officers, who, though willing, were not able to take Him, nay were obliged to love, reverence and honour Him; and to profess as much to their masters though most hostile to Christ. "Proving," says Cyril, "how rash and weak it is to fight against Christ." "They might certainly have excused themselves (says S. Chrysostom) "by saying we dared not take Him, lest we should rouse to sedition against ourselves the multitude who favoured Him." For they seemed not so much to admire Him, as to blame those who had sent them to seize Him, whom they ought rather to have listened to. Why sent ye us to seize so great a teacher? We have been captivated by the power of His words, and ye, if ye had heard Him yourselves, would have been captivated also. They spake not to please their masters, but to witness to the truth. Such is the power of truth. It is therefore probable that many of them were afterwards fully converted to Christ at Pentecost. For God seems to have rewarded in this way their sincere and noble testimony to Christ. "They were laudably led astray," says the Gloss, "in passing over to the faith from the evil of unbelief." S. Cyril supposes that they suspected Him to be God. "How then could we take Him, who is as far above us as God is above man?"
