Chief priests and Pharisees send officers to seize Jesus, but the men return empty-handed and explain, 'Never man spake like this man.' Their superiors answer by asking whether the officers too have been deceived.
The exchange reveals a conflict not only over theology but over authority and social standing.
The Temple possessed personnel who could perform policing and security functions under the authority of Jerusalem's priestly leadership. Their role was not identical to that of Roman legionaries. The leaders' reply appeals to status: have any rulers or Pharisees believed? They then disparage the crowd as ignorant of the law and 'accursed.'
These statements belong to particular hostile speakers in John's narrative and should not be generalized as the attitude of all Pharisees or Jewish leaders.
The institutional setting makes the officers' failure striking. Men sent to enforce an order become impressed by the speech of the man they were to arrest.
John also exposes an appeal to elite consensus: Jesus is rejected partly because recognized authorities have not endorsed him. Nicodemus will immediately complicate that claim from within their own circle.