At this they tried to seize him, but no-one laid a hand on him, because his time had not yet come.
“they” = the mob from Jerusalem. Incensed either at His accusation against them for not having known God, or His claim to be “from” God, blasphemously (they thought) indicating lineage from Him, the crowd reacts to the words of Jesus as men still do. Barclay points out, “Either what Jesus said about Himself is false, in which case He is guilty of blasphemy as no man ever dared to utter; or, what He said about Himself is true, in which case He is what He claimed to be and can be described in no other terms than the Son of God. Jesus leaves us with the definite choice — we must accept Him fully or reject Him absolutely. That is precisely why every man must decide either for or against Jesus Christ.”