The Pharisees wanted to stop the officers from respecting Jesus. They had just asked, "Are ye also deceived?" (John 7:47), and this second question gives their reason: the people who matter have not believed. Barnes explains "the rulers" as the members of the Sanhedrin, the council that oversaw the nation's religious life. Matthew Henry puts their argument plainly: the officers "ought to be bound up by their judgment" and should not try to be "wiser than they." Gill observes that very few of the learned and great did follow Christ, and that most of His followers were "poor and illiterate." The question was meant to settle the matter by rank, not by evidence.

The officers give no recorded reply. The Pharisees answer their own question by dismissing Jesus' followers: "But this people who knoweth not the law are cursed" (John 7:49). Yet the very next voice belongs to Nicodemus, "being one of them" (John 7:50), a Pharisee and "a ruler of the Jews" (John 3:1), who asks for Jesus to be heard fairly (John 7:51). The text quietly answers the question: a ruler and Pharisee was already listening to Jesus. Later John records that "among the chief rulers also many believed on him," though they did not confess Him for fear of the Pharisees (John 12:42).

The Greek word behind "rulers" is archontes, leaders or officials. Barnes identifies them as the members of the Sanhedrin, the ruling council in Jerusalem. Earlier at this feast the people had wondered aloud, "Do the rulers know indeed that this is the very Christ?" (John 7:26), so the Pharisees were answering a question already in the air.

The word for "people" in John 7:49 is, Barnes says, the one usually rendered "the multitude," and he calls it "a word expressive of contempt." He notes that some suppose "cursed" means they were worthy to be cut off, or "worthy to be put out of the synagogue," the very penalty later threatened against anyone who confessed Jesus (John 9:22), though he thinks it seems to be only an expression of contempt.

Truth about Jesus does not wait for the approval of the powerful. In this scene the ordinary officers are moved by what they heard, while the leaders appeal to who agrees with them. Gill sees God's design here: the gospel is often hidden from "the wise and prudent, the rich and noble" and made known to the humble, words that echo Jesus' prayer in Matthew 11:25.

God was also at work among the rulers themselves. Nicodemus spoke up in this very meeting (John 7:50-51), and Gill names him and Joseph of Arimathaea as rulers who followed Jesus, though not openly until after His death. Both appear at His burial (John 19:38-39). Meanwhile, no one could lay hands on Jesus, "because his hour was not yet come" (John 7:30, 44).