NOTES for Joh 7:52

The words of the leaders of the Pharisaic movement that a prophet "does not come from Galilee" have their historical grounds. On the one hand, Galilee is part of the land God promised His people. It lies within the borders of this land determined by God, and being part of it, Galilee is of course no worse than any other part.

But historically it happened that in the Second Temple period, when traditional Jewish theology was being formed and theological schools were taking shape, Galilee ended up on the periphery of the Jewish world. There were no major schools or academies there like those, for example, in Jerusalem, Babylon, or Alexandria. This land knew no teachers known to the whole Jewish world, and none of the later prophets was a native of Galilee or preached there.

From a theological and spiritual point of view, Galilee was looked upon as a deep province. There were, of course, Jewish communities there, but in Gospel times Galilee was a half-pagan region, where the influence of unorthodox Jewish currents such as the Essene one was also quite strong. It is not surprising that learned experts and teachers of the Torah, as well as the spiritual leaders of the Pharisaic movement, expected nothing interesting from Galilee. No prophet and no Messiah could appear from there.

And in general, the very people lived there who, in the words of the learned rabbis, were "ignorant of the Torah" and therefore "cursed." Of course, the issue was not that the believing Jews living in Galilee did not read the Torah; such a thing was simply impossible. The issue was these simple believers' ignorance of that learned, theological tradition whose bearers the leaders of the Pharisaic movement considered themselves to be.

These leaders were absolutely sure that both prophets and even the Messiah Himself could now be connected only with their own environment, that God looked at them the same way they looked at themselves, seeing in them the spiritual elite of the Jewish people, the very messianic remnant that the Pharisees proudly proclaimed themselves to be. They could not even allow the thought that God looked at the matter differently.

That is why they so easily refuse to take seriously the altogether reasonable arguments of a man so respected and authoritative in the Sanhedrin and in the Pharisaic brotherhood as Nicodemus: for them there is no question here and nothing to discuss. It is not surprising that such a position makes the figure of Jesus of Nazareth as Messiah completely unacceptable to them: such a thing simply cannot be, because it "can never be." And the way into the Kingdom turns out to be closed for them. Not because they were defenders and guardians of tradition, but because at the center of this tradition they saw not God, but themselves.