³² The Pharisees heard the crowd whispering such things about him. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees sent temple guards to arrest him.

²⁶ At that, the captain went with his officers and brought the apostles. They did not use force, because they feared that the people^(A) would stone them.

³ So Judas came to the garden, guiding^(A) a detachment of soldiers and some officials from the chief priests and the Pharisees.^(B) They were carrying torches, lanterns and weapons.

¹⁹ So the Pharisees said to one another, “See, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him!”^(A)

⁴⁷ Then the chief priests and the Pharisees^(A) called a meeting^(B) of the Sanhedrin.^(C)

“What are we accomplishing?” they asked. “Here is this man performing many signs.^{(D) 48} If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation.”

Unbelief of the Jewish Leaders

⁴⁵ Finally the temple guards went back to the chief priests and the Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him in?”

⁴⁶ “No one ever spoke the way this man does,”^(A) the guards replied.

⁴⁷ “You mean he has deceived you also?”^(B) the Pharisees retorted. ⁴⁸ “Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him?^{(C) 49} No! But this mob that knows nothing of the law—there is a curse on them.”

⁵⁰ Nicodemus,^(D) who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked, ⁵¹ “Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he has been doing?”

⁵² They replied, “Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.”^(E)

[The earliest manuscripts and many other ancient witnesses do not have John 7:53—8:11. A few manuscripts include these verses, wholly or in part, after John 7:36, John 21:25, Luke 21:38 or Luke 24:53.]

⁵³ Then they all went home,

⁵² Then Jesus said to the chief priests, the officers of the temple guard,^(A) and the elders, who had come for him, “Am I leading a rebellion, that you have come with swords and clubs? ⁵³ Every day I was with you in the temple courts,^(B) and you did not lay a hand on me. But this is your hour^(C)—when darkness reigns.”^(D)

²³ All the people were astonished and said, “Could this be the Son of David?”^(A)

²⁴ But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, “It is only by Beelzebul,^(B) the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons.”^(C)

Seven Woes on the Teachers of the Law and the Pharisees

¹³ “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!^(A) You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.^(B)