Now at the festival the Jewish leaders were searching for him and kept on asking, “Where is he?”
This is what John publicly stated when the Jewish leaders sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?”
People were looking for Jesus and talking about him as they stood in the Temple. “What do you think?” they asked each other. “Isn't he coming to the festival?”
After this, Jesus spent his time going from place to place in Galilee. He did not want to do so in Judea because the Jews were out to kill him.
But no one dared to speak openly about him because they were afraid of what the Jewish leaders would do to them.
The Jewish leaders were very surprised, and asked, “How does this man have so much learning when he hasn't been educated?”
“Where is he?” they asked. “I don't know,” he replied.