{Marvelled} (ethaumazon). Picturesque imperfect active of
	haumaz(935c), "were wondering." After all the bluster of the rulers
(verse  13 ) here was Jesus teaching without interruption.
{Knoweth letters} (grammata oiden). Second perfect active
indicative used as present. Grammata, old word from graph(935c),
to write, is originally the letters formed ( Ga 6:11 ), then a
letter or epistle ( Ac 28:21 ), then the sacred Scriptures ( Joh
5:47  2Ti 3:15 ), then learning like Latin _litterae_ and English
letters ( Ac 26:24  Joh 7:15 ). "The marvel was that Jesus showed
Himself familiar with the literary methods of the time, which
were supposed to be confined to the scholars of the popular
teachers" (Westcott). {Having never learned} (m(8820)memath(886b)(9373)).
Perfect active participle of manthan(935c) with m(885c), the usual
negative (subjective) with the participle. It is not the wisdom
of Jesus that disconcerted the Jewish leaders, but his learning
(Marcus Dods). And yet Jesus had not attended either of the
rabbinical theological schools in Jerusalem (Hillel, Shammai). He
was not a rabbi in the technical sense, only a carpenter, and yet
he surpassed the professional rabbis in the use of their own
methods of debate. It is sometimes true today that unschooled men
in various walks of life forge ahead of men of lesser gifts with
school training. See the like puzzle of the Sanhedrin concerning
Peter and John ( Ac 4:13 ). This is not an argument against
education, but it takes more than education to make a real man.
Probably this sneer at Jesus came from some of the teachers in
the Jerusalem seminaries. "Christ was in the eyes of the Jews a
merely self-taught enthusiast" (Westcott).