One of the basic Jewish doctrines was that God had spoken directly to Moses. John here uses a bit of satire. The Pharisees now admit that they do not know where Jesus comes from, even though in 7.27 they claimed to know his origin. Jesus has come from God, as the healing of the blind man ought to indicate, but the Pharisees are blind to this truth.

We know that God spoke to Moses is equivalent in some languages to “we are sure that God spoke to Moses.”

For the phrase as for that fellow, it may be necessary to introduce the name of Jesus, for example, “as for that man Jesus.” As in verse 28, that fellow is most probably derogatory.

Where he comes from must be related to the hometown of Jesus; for example, “we do not even know where his hometown is” or “we are not even sure of the town where he was born.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1980. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .