Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

John 7:27

ὁ δὲ Χρ. ὅταν ἔρχ. But when the Christ cometh; see on John 1:20. οὐδεὶς γινώσκει. No one cometh to know (John 7:26) or perceiveth. Note the change from οἴδαμεν to γινώσκει and comp. John 8:55; John 13:7; John 14:7; John 21:17. Πόθεν does not refer to the Messiah’s birthplace, which was known (John 7:41-42); nor to His remote descent, for He was to be the Son of David (ibid.); but to His parentage (John 6:42), immediate and actual. This text is the strongest, if not the only evidence that we have of the belief that the immediate parents of the Messiah would be unknown: but the precision and vivacity of this passage carry conviction with them, and shew how familiar the ideas current among the Jews at that time were to S. John. It never occurs to him to explain. The belief might easily grow out of Isaiah 53:8, ‘Who shall declare His generation?’ Justin Martyr tells us of a kindred belief, that the Messiahship of the Messiah would be unknown, even to Himself, until He was anointed by Elijah (Trypho, pp. 226, 336).

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Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

John 7:27

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