John 7:47

But their apology only rouses the indignation of those who had sent them, μὴ καὶ ὑμεῖς πεπλάνησθε; Are ye also, of whom better things might have been expected, deluded? μή τις … φαρισαίων; What right have subordinates to have a mind of their own? Wait till some of the constituted authorities or of the recognised leaders of religious opinion give you the cue. Here the secret of their hostility is out. Jesus appealed to the people and did not depend for recognition on the influential classes. Power was slipping through their fingers. ἀλλʼ ὁ ὄχλος … εἰσι. “But this mob [these masses] that knows not the law are cursed.” This Pharisaic scorn of the mob [or “am-haarets,” which is here represented by ὄχλος] appears in Rabbinic literature. Dr. Taylor [Sayings of the Jewish Fathers, p. 44] quotes Hillel as saying: “No boor is a sin-fearer; nor is the vulgar pious”. To the Am-haarets are opposed the disciples of the learned in the law; and Schoettgen defines the Am-haarets as “omnes illi qui studio sacrarum literarum operam non dederunt”. The designation, therefore, ὁ μὴ γινώσκων τὸν νόμον, was usual. That it was prompted here by the popular recognition as Messiah of one who came out of Galilee, in apparent contradiction of the law and of the opinion of the Pharisees, is also probable. People so ignorant as thus to blunder ἐπικατάρατοί εἰσι.