John 7:46 · Clearspring

Your notes

Private to you. Anything you write on this verse, here or while reading, shows up here and in My study.

Other translations

WEBBE

The officers answered, “No man ever spoke like this man!”

BSB

“Never has anyone spoken like this man!” the officers answered.

KJV

The officers answered, Never man spake like this man.

ASV

The officers answered, Never man so spake.

BBE

The servants made answer, No man ever said things like this man.

Original Greek

Look up a word

Tap a word to see what it means and everywhere else it's used.

ἀπεκρίθησαν apekrithēsan Answered G611 οἱ hoi the G3588 ὑπηρέται hupēretai officers G5257 οὐδέποτε oudepote Never G3763 ἐλάλησεν elalēsen spoke G2980 οὕτως houtōs like this G3779 ἄνθρωπος anthrōpos a man G444 ὡς hōs as G5613 οὗτος houtos this G3778 ὁ ho (the) G3588 ἄνθρωπος anthrōpos man G444

The early church

All 6

They answered that they had never heard a man so speak: "For not any man so speaks." But He spake thus, because He was God and man.

Augustine of Hippo · d. 430Tractates on John

(Tract. xxxiii. 1) He spoke thus, because He was both God and man.

Augustine of Hippo · d. 430Catena Aurea (Aquinas, 1274)

And so they were led away; and laudably too, for they had left the evil of unbelief, and were gone over to the faith.

Alcuin of York · d. 804Catena Aurea (Aquinas, 1274)

There is nothing clearer, nothing simpler than the truth, if we deal not perversely; just as (on the other hand) if we deal perversely, nothing is more difficult. For behold, the Scribes and Pharisees, who seemed forsooth to be wiser than other men, being ever with Christ for the sake of plotting against Him, and beholding His miracles, and reading the Scriptures, were nothing profited, but were even harmed while the officers, who could not claim one of these privileges, were subdued by one single sermon, and they who had gone forth to bind Him, came back bound themselves by wonder. We must not only marvel at their understanding, that they needed not signs, but were taken by the teaching alone; (for they said not, "Never man wrought miracles thus," but, "Never man spake thus";) we must not, I say, merely marvel at their understanding, but also at their boldness, that they spake thus to those that had sent them, to the Pharisees, to His enemies, to men who were doing all with a view to gratify their enmity.

John Chrysostom · d. 407Homilies on John

"The officers," saith the Evangelist, "came, and the Pharisees said unto them, Why have ye not brought him?" To "come" was a far greater deed than to have remained, for in the latter case they would have been rid of the annoyance of these men, but now they become heralds of the wisdom of Christ, and manifested their boldness in greater degree. And they say not, "We could not become of the multitude, for they gave heed unto Him as unto a prophet"; but what? "Never man spake as this Man." Yet they might have alleged that, but they show their right feeling. For theirs was the saying not only of men admiring Him, but blaming their masters, because they had sent them to bind Him whom it behooved rather to hear.

John Chrysostom · d. 407Homilies on John

Commentary

Matthew Henry · Verses 40–53

The malice of Christ's enemies is always against reason, and sometimes the staying of it cannot be accounted for. Never any man spake with that wisdom, and power, and grace, that convincing clearness, and that sweetness, wherewith Christ spake. Alas, that many, who are for a time restrained, and who speak highly of the word of Jesus, speedily lose their convictions, and go on in their sins! People are foolishly swayed by outward motives in matters of eternal moment, are willing even to be damned for fashion's sake. As the wisdom of God often chooses things which men despise, so the folly of men commonly despises those whom God has chosen. The Lord brings forward his weak and timid disciples, and sometimes uses them to defeat the designs of his enemies.

Read Matthew Henry on John 7 →

Cross-references

3

Topics

Jesus, The Christ