John 7:49

“But this people who knoweth not the law are cursed.] With great contempt they style the followers of Jesus “this people”; the common people, the dregs of them, the refuse of the earth; and whom they call, U ah µ[, “the people of the earth”, in distinction from the wise men, and r their disciples: and when they speak the best of them, their account is this f349 ; “one of the people of the earth is one that has moral excellencies, but not intellectual ones; that is, there is in him common civility, but the law is not in him;” as here, “who knoweth not the law”: they always reckon them very ignorant. Says one f350 of their writers, “they that are without knowledge are the multitude.” And…”

“But this people--literally, "multitude," meaning the ignorant rabble. (Pity these important distinctions, so marked in the original of this Gospel, should not be also in our version.) knoweth not the law--that is, by school learning, which only subverted it by human traditions. are cursed--a cursed set (a kind of swearing at them, out of mingled rage and scorn).”

“This people - The word here translated “people” is the one commonly rendered “the multitude.” It is a word expressive of contempt, or, as we would say, the rabble. It denotes the scorn which they felt that the people should presume to judge for themselves in a case pertaining to their own salvation. Who knoweth not the law - Who have not been instructed in the schools of the Pharisees, and been taught to interpret the Old Testament as they had. They supposed that any who believed on the humble and despised Jesus must be, of course, ignorant of the true doctrines of the Old Testament, as they held that a very different Messiah from him was foretold. Many instances are preserved in the…”

“But this populace, who know not the law - This ignorant rabble; are accursed - Are by that ignorance exposed to the curse of being thus seduced. John 7:50”

“7:49-51 Nicodemus was probably in the process of coming to faith (see 3:1-21; 19:38-42). Contrary to the implication of 7:48, some of the Pharisees—not just the ignorant crowd—believed in Jesus.”

“Joh 9:34, Joh 9:40; Isa 5:21, Isa 28:14, Isa 29:14-19, Isa 65:5; Co1 1:20, Co1 1:21, Co1 3:18-20; Jam 3:13-18 John 7:50”