Then said the Jews among themselves
That is, the unbelieving, scoffing Jews; it may be the officers, at least some of them, that were sent to take him:
whither will he go that we shall not find him?
what distant, or obscure part of the world will he betake himself to, and there hide himself, that so he cannot be found?
will he go unto the dispersed among the Gentiles?
or Greeks; and so may design the Jews, who were scattered abroad in the times of the Grecian monarchy, under the successors of Alexander, and particularly Antiochus, in distinction from the Babylonish dispersion; or the strangers scattered through Pontus Galatia to whom Peter writes, ( 1 Peter 1:1 ) . The Arabic version renders it, "the sect of the Greeks" by which the Hellenistic Jews seem to be meant: or the Jews in general, wherever, and by whomsoever scattered, who might be thought to be more ignorant than the Jews in Judea, and therefore more easily to be imposed upon: hence, in a flouting manner, they inquire, whether he will go to those when he is rejected by them. The Syriac and Ethiopic versions read, "will he go into the countries, or country of the Gentiles"; into Heathen countries, not to the Jews there, but to the Gentiles themselves:
and teach the Gentiles?
suggesting, that he was more fit to be a teacher of them, than of the Jews, and might meet with more encouragement and success among them, who would not be able to detect him.