John 7:15

οὗτος. Contemptuous, as in John 6:32. Their question is so eminently characteristic, that it is very unlikely that a Greek writer of the second century would have been able to invent it for them; he would probably have made them too cautious to commit themselves to any expression of astonishment about Him. The substance of His doctrine excites no emotion in them, but they are astounded that He should possess learning without having got it according to ordinary routine. He had never attended the schools of the Rabbis, and yet His interpretations of Scripture shewed a large amount of biblical and other knowledge. That does excite them. Their questions and comments throughout this section are too exactly in keeping with what we know of the Jews in our Lord’s time to be the invention of a Greek a century or more later. By γράμματα is meant literature in general, not merely the Scriptures, which would be τὰ ἱερὰ γρ. (2 Timothy 3:15), or αἱ γραφαί (John 7:39; Acts 18:24; Acts 18:28, &c.). Comp. τὰ πολλά σε γράμματα εἰς μανίαν περιτρέπει, Acts 26:24.