John 7:35,36

Then said the Jews.

They could not comprehend. Did he mean that he was going also to the Jews dispersed among the Gentiles? Would he teach them and the Gentiles, as well as the Jews of Judea and the Galileans? Their perplexity was genuine, but as the Jews of Jerusalem looked with scorn on those dispersed abroad, the insinuation is designed for. taunt. The question indicates the scorn in which "the Jews" held all whose religious privileges were less than their own. There was only. less degree of contempt for foreign Jews and Galileans than for Gentiles. In verse 52 the contempt of Galilee is indicated in the rebuke of Nicodemus. This contempt did not arise so much from pride of blood, as from pride of superior sanctity and religious learning. Jerusalem was then the great center of Rabbinical learning, while the outlying districts were regarded unlettered and scorned as the homes of ignorance. "If any one wishes to be rich, let him go north; if he wishes to be wise, let him come south," was. saying of the Rabbins. When Nathanael asked, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" he only spoke in the spirit of the times. Puffed up with the pride of Rabbinical learning, "the Jews" exhibited an offensive contempt for all who could not be measured by their standard.