Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary John 9:29

"We know that God hath spoken unto Moses: but as for this man, we know not whence he is." — John 9:29 (ASV)

Such a response to learned rabbis on the part of an illiterate man was surely considered insulting. The Jews quickly retorted that they were abiding by the authority of Moses, whose law had been the standard of Israel’s religion. Jesus they rejected as a vagrant prophet who did not keep the law.