John 7:43

So there was a division among the people because of him.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(43) There was a division among the people.—The word for division is our word “schism.” It is found in the earlier Gospels in one instance only, “the rent is made worse” (Matthew 9:16; Mark 2:21). This is nearer to the older meaning of the word, which is used, for example, of the hoofs of animals, and the leaves of trees. St. John uses it only to mark this rent into two parties of the Jewish multitude, here and in John 9:16; John 10:19. In St. Paul it is used of the divisions of the Church at Corinth (1Corinthians 1:10; 1Corinthians 11:18; 1Corinthians 12:25). The use of the word in its ethical sense may belong in some special way to Ephesus, for only in writings from this city do we find it in Biblical Greek. Later, both the word and the fact denoted by it passed into the history of the Church.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

7:40-53 The malice of Christ's enemies is always against reason, and sometimes the staying of it cannot be accounted for. Never any man spake with that wisdom, and power, and grace, that convincing clearness, and that sweetness, wherewith Christ spake. Alas, that many, who are for a time restrained, and who speak highly of the word of Jesus, speedily lose their convictions, and go on in their sins! People are foolishly swayed by outward motives in matters of eternal moment, are willing even to be damned for fashion's sake. As the wisdom of God often chooses things which men despise, so the folly of men commonly despises those whom God has chosen. The Lord brings forward his weak and timid disciples, and sometimes uses them to defeat the designs of his enemies.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

See the notes at Matthew 2:4-6.

Where David was - 1 Samuel 16:1-4.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

42. scripture said … of the seed of David, and out of … Bethlehem, &c.—We accept this spontaneous testimony to our David-descended, Bethlehem-born Saviour. Had those who gave it made the inquiry which the case demanded, they would have found that Jesus "came out of Galilee" (Joh 7:41) and "out of Bethlehem" both, alike in fulfilment of prophecy as in point of fact. (Mt 2:23; 4:13-16).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

A division as to their opinions about him, as was before expressed.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

So there was a division among the people concerning him. Some, though they did not go so far as to believe him to be the Messiah, yet took him to be a prophet, and a very extraordinary one; others made no difficulty to assert him to be the Christ; and others objected to it on account of the country from whence he came, and so fulfilled the words of Christ, Luke 12:51.

Geneva Study Bible

So there was a division among the people because of him.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Expositor's Greek Testament

John 7:43-44. Σχίσμα … χεῖρας. On this verse Calvin has the following pertinent remark: “quaecunque dissidia emergunt quum praedicatur Evangelium, eorum causa et semen prius in hominibus latebant; sed tunc demum quasi ex somno expergefacti se movere incipiunt, qualiter vapores aliunde quam a sole procreantur, quamvis nonnisi exoriente sole emergant”. To this divided state of opinion He owed His immunity on this occasion.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

43. a division] Schisma, whence our word ‘schism.’ It means a serious and possibly violent division: John 9:16, John 10:19; 1 Corinthians 1:10; 1 Corinthians 12:25; comp. Acts 14:4; Acts 23:7. In N.T. it is never used in the modern sense of a separation from the Church, but of parties in the Church. In the Synoptists it is used only in its original sense of physical severing; ‘a worse rent is made;’ Matthew 9:16; Mark 2:21.

among the people] In the multitude.

Bengel's Gnomen

John 7:43. Σχίσμα, a division) So ch. John 9:16, “Some of the Pharisees said, This man is not of God, because He keepeth not the Sabbath day. Others said, How can a man that is a sinner do such miracles? And there was a division among them;” John 10:19. A division is generally of a manifold character; on one dogma, or on many dogmas; and of good men from bad men, or else of the bad from the good, or of the good from the good, or of the bad from the bad.

John 7:43

Vincent's Word Studies

There was a division (σχίσμα ἐγένετο)

More correctly, as Rev., "there arose a division." See on John 1:3.