John 7:25

Some therefore of them of Jerusalem said, Is not this he whom they seek to kill? And lo, he speaketh openly, and they say nothing to him. Can it be that the rulers indeed know that this is the Christ?

And they say nothing to him ... means that they were not attempting to interrupt or forbid his teaching. They were indeed saying something to him, as the conversation here recorded proves. Jesus' strategy was accomplishing its purpose. The Pharisees could not stand before Jesus in open debate and hold their ground; he won every argument, as in the case of the sabbath discussions; and the multitude came slowly to realize that the rulers did know that Jesus was actually the Christ. Any insinuation that those evil rulers did not know whom they crucified should be rejected. Jesus said publicly of them in a parable: "The husbandmen, when they saw the son, said among themselves, This is the heir; come let us kill him, and take his inheritance!" (Matthew 21:23). They knew he was the Christ; but, because he was not the kind of Christ they wanted, they murdered him. True, they did not know that Jesus was God in the flesh; and it was of that ignorance which Paul spoke when he declared, "Had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory" (1 Corinthians 2:8).