The Pharisees £ heard the multitude (generally) murmuring these things concerning him; repeating the language of those who believed, comparing their expectations with the reality. They seem to have occasioned a hasty and informal session of the Sanhedrin, and we read that the chief priests and the Pharisees £ sent officers—servants "clothed with legal authority," and therefore intimating a decision already come to in the supreme council (cf.
John 11:53; John 18:3, John 18:12; John 19:6; Acts 5:22, Acts 5:26)—to seize him (cf. this description of the Sanhedrin in Matthew 21:45; Matthew 27:62). The "chief priests"—a phrase often occurring in the writings of Luke, and here for the first time in this Gospel—cannot be confined to the official "high priest," but may include the ex-high priests, perhaps the heads of the twenty-four courses of priests and the chiefs of the priestly party, though there is no proof of it.
The Pharisees and priests were often at enmity, but there were several occasions during our Lord's ministry when they combined against a common foe. The Pharisees had been his most steady opponents in Galilee.
The eighth and ninth chapters of Matthew, with parallel passages, reveal the growing animosity of their demeanour, and their disposition to misunderstand, to oppose, and to crush every great self-revelation made by him.
Their chiefs were in Jerusalem, and doubtless formed a powerful element in the great council. The formality of this session of the council may be reasonably questioned. There had been orders then for the arrest, which they had only to put at any time, if they dared, into immediate operation.