have any of the rulers believed on Him?

John 7:44-51

And some of them [the temple guard] would have taken Him; but no man laid hands on Him.  

Then came the [the temple guard] officers to the chief priests and Pharisees; and they [the religious leaders] said unto them [the temple guard officers], "Why have ye not brought him?"

The officers answered, "Never man spake like this man."

Then answered them the Pharisees, "Are ye also deceived?  Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him?  But this people who knoweth not the law are cursed."

Nicodemus saith unto them, (he that came to Jesus by night, being one of them,)  "Doth our law judge any man, before it hear him, and know what he doeth?"



"Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believe on him?" - this is basically saying that "you can't think for yourself, you have to depend on us religious leaders to think for you and reveal God to you".  The Bible says that scripture is not of private interpretation (2 Peter 1:20), but the truth is spiritually discerned and available to all of us.

Notice that the one religious leader said "people who knoweth not the law are cursed".

This was followed up by Nicodemus (the one who actually did bother to try and get to know Jesus) who basically called them out in their hypocrisy.  These religious leaders were themselves breaking the law by passing judgement on Jesus without hearing Him and giving Him a trial - and by doing so they have pronounced a curse on themselves in their hypocrisy.