Charles Ellicott Commentary John 7:27

"Howbeit we know this man whence he is: but when the Christ cometh, no one knoweth whence he is." — John 7:27 (ASV)

Howbeit we know this man.—They immediately supply a corrective answer to their own question. They know this Man from where He is. He is the carpenter’s son, and His mother, and brothers, and sisters, are well known (Matthew 13:55–56). His brothers, indeed, are part of that multitude (John 7:10). They know that the Messiah will be of the seed and town of David (John 7:42); but they have no knowledge of an earthly home and earthly relations, and all their ideas are of a Being who will not be subject to the ordinary conditions of life, and whose immediate origin no man can know.

God’s Anointed living among them as a man, with mother, and brothers, and sisters! This cannot be. What did the coming in the clouds of heaven of Daniel’s vision (Daniel 7:13) mean, or the coming suddenly to the Temple of Malachi’s prophecy (Malachi 3:1)? Why did Isaiah tell of His being Wonderful, Counsellor, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace? (Isaiah 9:6)? In such thoughts they fulfilled another prophecy of the same Isaiah, which their own Rabbis interpreted of the Messiah, He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him (Isaiah 53:2).