The Meditations of the Evangelist in the Gospel of John

Leon Morris: In the first century, there were no devices such as inverted commas to show the precise limits of quoted speech. The result is that we are often left with the probabilities and we must work out for ourselves where a speech or a quotation ends. I like Bryce's interpretation verse 16 and 17, Jesus speaking, but it could also be the meditations of John. Nicodemus in the middle of this contention over who is Jesus says, doth our law judge any man before it hear him? And he sees this as lesson learned, turning to God and saying "I am letting go of my need for your approval"