Some in the crowd who heard these words said, "This is truly the Prophet." Others said, "This is the Messiah." But others said, "The Messiah will not come from Galilee, will he? Does not scripture say that the Messiah will be of David's family and come from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?" So a division occurred in the crowd because of him. Some of them even wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him. So the guards went to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, "Why did you not bring him?" The guards answered, "Never before has anyone spoken like this one." So the Pharisees answered them, "Have you also been deceived? Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd, which does not know the law, is accursed." Nicodemus, one of their members who had come to him earlier, said to them, "Does our law condemn a person before it first hears him and finds out what he is doing?" They answered and said to him, "You are not from Galilee also, are you? Look and see that no prophet arises from Galilee." (Jn7:40-53)
People longed for confirmation regarding Jesus and his identity. They saw his activities and some believed that he was a prophet and others considered him to be a messiah. Yet there was confirming detail about him. They sought confirmation from his place of origin or form the lineage of David. They sent guards to look check out and they also came back believing him but not with facts and figures.
Nicodemus told the Pharisees that the individual ought to be listened to. Any confirmation had to be first from the place of origin then from the point of view of lineage and when these were confirmed then the individual had to be challenged for verification. The procedure seemed to be fool proof.
But Jesus came out with verification from above. His proofs and his confirmations and verification were from God. God had sent him. He did everything according to the plan of God. The people needed no proofs but faith. If they had true faith in God then they would have accepted Jesus.
