“round him” = they hemmed Him in. This was an act of intimidation to get the answers they wanted from Jesus. They were actually blaming Jesus for their unbelief. This is what sinners have done from the beginning and are still doing today. When faced with his sin, Adam blamed Eve and God (Gen 3:12). Sinners do not want to take responsibility for their own sin. If they did, they could do something about it by turning to Jesus and accepting the cleansing washing by His blood.

Genesis 3:12  The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

This is the basic question: Is Jesus the Christ? The purpose of the book of John is to show this .

John 20:31  But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

It is significant that Jesus had not openly declared to them His Messiahship. He had done so to His disciples (John 1:49, Mat 16:17-18), to the Samaritans (John 4:25-26), and to the blind beggar (John 9:37) because they had already arrived at the point of believing in Him, but He had not done so to the multitudes or to the religious leaders. There are two reasons for this. First, it kept from them the evidence necessary to arrest Him before His time, and second, it did not deny them the responsibility they had as leaders of God’s people to recognize Messiah when He came.

John 1:49  Then Nathanael declared, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.”

Matthew 16:17-18  Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.  And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.

John 4:25-26  The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”  Then Jesus declared, “I who speak to you am he.”

John 9:37  Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.”

God works in much the same way today. He could send bands of angels to announce His saving grace, or He could do incredible signs and wonders to verify His word, instead He chooses to use common, unschooled people like me and you to tell people and common, everyday miracles like the air we breathe, the design of our bodies, or the complex interdependency of everything in the universe to attest to His loving Presence. Man is without excuse, just as were these religious leaders attacking Jesus.