The council could not answer Nicodemus, so they attacked him. Gill says they spoke "Being displeased with him, and as reproaching him, though they could not deny, or refute what he said." Barnes calls the question "another expression of contempt" and explains that "To be a Galilean was a term of the highest reproach." To ask whether Nicodemus was "also of Galilee" was to lump him with Jesus and His despised followers. Their next words, "Search, and look," tried to back the insult with Scripture: "out of Galilee ariseth no prophet."

The text records no reply from Nicodemus. The meeting simply ends: "And every man went unto his own house" (John 7:53). Barnes calls their words "a gibe," not a real argument against Jesus. The rest of the text answers them. Some in the crowd had already pointed out that Christ would come "out of the town of Bethlehem, where David was" (John 7:42), and Matthew records that Jesus "was born in Bethlehem of Judaea" (Matthew 2:1). Nicodemus himself reappears at Jesus' burial (John 19:39).

Galilee was the northern region where Jesus grew up and did much of His work; the crowds called Him "Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee" (Matthew 21:11). Barnes says being called a Galilean was a deep insult.

Gill shows that the council's claim was not even true. The prophet Jonah, son of Amittai, was "of Gath-hepher" (2 Kings 14:25), a town Gill places in Zebulun, in Galilee. Gill adds that Jewish writings themselves spoke of the Messiah being revealed in Galilee. The leaders told Nicodemus to "search, and look," but they had not searched carefully themselves.

The leaders thought where Jesus came from settled who He was. They judged by region and reputation, the very thing Jesus warned against: "Judge not according to the appearance" (John 7:24). Their own command, "Search, and look," turns back on them. Those who searched would have found that Jesus was of David's line and born in Bethlehem (John 7:42; Matthew 1:1; Matthew 2:1).

Matthew Henry sees the council's whole effort as futile: "They met to take counsel together against the Lord and his Anointed, but they imagined a vain thing," words drawn from Psalm 2:1-2. God's purposes were not stopped by their scorn. The meeting broke up, Jesus went free that day, and the man they mocked would later honor Jesus openly (John 19:39).