John 7:32

The Pharisees (oi Parisaioi). This group of the Jewish rulers ( Jo 7:11 Jo 7:15 Jo 7:25 ) was particularly hostile to Christ, though already the Sadducees had become critical ( Matthew 16:6 ) and they join here (oi arcierei, the chief priests being Sadducees) in determining to silence Jesus by bringing him before the Sanhedrin. They had heard the whispered talk about Jesus before he arrived ( Matthew 7:12 ) and still more now. Heard the multitude murmuring (hkousan tou oclou gogguzonto). First aorist active indicative of akouw with the genitive case and the descriptive participle of the vivid onomatopoetic verb gogguzw (verse Matthew 12 ) now grown louder like the hum of bees. It was the defence of Jesus by a portion of the crowd ( Matthew 7:31 ) that irritated the Pharisees. Here the Pharisees take the initiative and enlist the Sadducees in the Sanhedrin (for this combination see Matthew 7:45 ; Matthew 11:47 Matthew 11:57 ; Matthew 21:45 ; Matthew 27:62 , the organized court) to send "officers" (uphreta) "to take him" (ina piaswsin auton, final clause with ina and first aorist active subjunctive of piazw for which verb see verse Matthew 30 ). For uphreta (temple police here) see verse Matthew 45 ; Matthew 18:3 Matthew 18:12 Matthew 18:22 ; Matthew 19:6 ; Acts 5:22 Acts 5:26 . For the word see Matthew 5:25 ; Luke 1:2 , "an under rower" (upo, ereth), any assistant.