John 7:31-32

“ But of the multitude many believed on him, and they said, When the Christ shall come, will he do more miracles than those which this man has done? 32. The Pharisees heard this talk which was circulating among the multitude concerning him, and the chief priests and the Pharisees sent officers to take him. ”

While the adversaries of Jesus were becoming fixed in their hostile designs, a great part of the multitude were strengthened in faith. John 7:31 marks a decided advance on John 7:12. The partisans of Jesus are more numerous, and their profession of faith is more explicit, notwithstanding the position of dependence in which they still were in relation to the rulers. If timidity had not arrested them, they would have gone forward to the point of proclaiming Jesus the Messiah. The reading ἐποίησεν, has done, is wrongly replaced in the Sinaitic MS. by ποιεῖ, he does. The question is of His earlier miracles in Galilee and in Judea itself: John 2:23; chap. 5; John 6:2.

This impression made on the multitude exasperates the rulers, especially those of the Pharisaic party. The place of the meetings of the Sanhedrim could not have been far from that where these scenes were passing (see on John 8:20). It is therefore possible that, in going thither, some of the rulers may have heard with their own ears this talk favorable to Jesus; or also spies may have brought it to them during their meeting; the term heard allows both meanings. This is the moment when the Sanhedrim suffers itself to be impelled to a step which may be regarded as the beginning of the judicial measures of which the crucifixion of Jesus was the end. It was certainly under the influence of the Pharisaic party, whose name appears twice in this verse. The second time, however, their name is preceded, according to the true reading, by that of the chief priests; the latter are mentioned separately, because they belonged at this epoch rather to the Sadducee party, and they are placed first because, if the impulse had been given by the Pharisees, the measures in the way of execution must have started from the chief priests, who, as members of the priestly families, formed the ruling part of the Sanhedrim. The officers who were sent undoubtedly did not have orders to seize Him immediately; otherwise they could not have failed to execute this commission. They were to mingle in the crowds and, taking advantage of a favorable moment when Jesus should give them some handle against Him, and when the wind of popular opinion should happen to turn, to get possession of Him and bring Him before the Sanhedrim. There are in this story shadings and an exactness of details which show an eye-witness.