No one has ever spoken like Jesus: The Temple guards whom the Pharisees have commanded to arrest Jesus may have heard some of the great Greek philosophers, from whom the Romans had inherited so much. The most important of these were Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, all of whose works were concerned with the pursuit of wisdom. But the guards realize that these teachers were no match for Jesus and thus refuse to take him in.
They may have been familiar with their own Jewish Scriptures’ pursuit of wisdom. Five books in the Jewish Scriptures are usually classified as “wisdom literature”: Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes, Sirach, and Wisdom.
Yet the Temple guards perceive that none of these wise men, poets, and scholars have ever spoken like Jesus.
Jesus’ words call for people to live in a spirit of love and forgiveness. The guards have previously been told by the Pharisees that the way to holiness is to observe many external laws. These are both numerous and difficult to understand, and the Pharisees make a good living providing interpretations of them. The Pharisees reject Jesus because he gives people more personal control over their lives, and he reduces their many laws to two that even these guards could understand: love God truly, and honestly identify and love your neighbor.