John 5

John 5:1–9 ESV

After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath.

John 5:1–9 (ESV)

John 5:1. After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

5:1.

John repeatedly ties his narrative to various Jewish feasts: cf. 2:13 (Passover); 6:4 (Passover); 7:2 (Tabernacles); 10:22 (Dedication); 11:55 (Passover). This is the only one that is not identified more precisely.

John does not specify which Jewish feast is the occasion for Jesus’ trip to Jerusalem, although some manuscripts have “the feast,” which would mean the Feast of Tabernacles, as in Jewish tradition (not Passover). But the real issue for this narrative is that the day on which Jesus heals is a sabbath (5:9b).

John 5:2. Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades

5:2. Although scholars do not agree on the site of Bethesda (or its exact spelling), the site most scholars currently favor is under St. Anne’s Monastery in Jerusalem. This site had two twin pools, surrounded by four porches, or porticoes, and one porch down the middle separating the pools. Although John writes after Jerusalem was destroyed in 70, his recollection of the site is accurate.

The Gospel according to John 1. The Healing at the Pool of Bethesda (5:1–15)

‘Bethesda’ is the Greek transliteration of the Hebrew bêṯ ’ešdâ, ‘house of outpouring’;

John 5:3. In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed.

5:3. This site was later used as a pagan healing shrine; given the ancient tendency to reuse older shrines, the Jewish community in Jesus’ day probably viewed this pool as a place of healing. The temple authorities undoubtedly did not approve—after all, sacred pools at healing shrines characterized Greek cults like that of Asclepius—but popular religion often ignores religious contradictions that are clearer to the official religious leaders.

John 5:4. One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.

5:4. This verse may not be original (see notes in most translations) but was probably added early by a scribe familiar with the tradition of healing at Bethesda; it explains the otherwise enigmatic verse 7.

John 5:5. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?”

5:5. The man had been sick there longer than many people in antiquity lived—for about as many years as Israel had wandered in the wilderness. Ancient reports of healings often specified how long the person had been sick to emphasize the greatness of the healer’s cure. Obviously nothing else, including this pool, had succeeded in restoring him.

“Do you want to get well?”

John 5:6-9. The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath.

5:6–9a. In 2:6 and 3:5, Jesus replaces the water of ceremonial purification; in 4:13–14, he replaces the “holy water” of a Samaritan holy site. Here he, not the supposedly healing waters, restores the man.

The Gospel according to John (1. The Healing at the Pool of Bethesda (5:1–15))

5:7. The invalid apparently held to a popular belief that the first person into the pool after the waters had been disturbed, and only the first person, would be miraculously healed.

The Gospel according to John 1. The Healing at the Pool of Bethesda (5:1–15)

He tries to avoid difficulties with the authorities by blaming the one who has healed him (v. 11); he is so dull he has not even discovered his benefactor’s name (v. 13); once he finds out he reports Jesus to the authorities (v. 15). In this light, v. 7 reads less as an apt and subtle response to Jesus’ question than as the crotchety grumblings of an old and not very perceptive man who thinks he is answering a stupid question. As in 4:11, 15, kyrie means no more than a civil ‘Sir’. In terms of initiative, quick-wittedness, eager faith and a questing mind, this invalid is the painful opposite of everything that characterizes the wonderful character in John 9.

John 5:9–18 ESV

And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.” But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’ ” They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.” The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.” This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

John 5:9–18 (ESV)

John 5:9-10. And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.”

The Gospel according to John 1. The Healing at the Pool of Bethesda (5:1–15)

5:9a. ‘Just as the thirty-eight years prove the gravity of the disease, so the carrying of the bed and the walking prove the completeness of the cure’ (Barrett, p. 254).

5:9b–10. Biblical rules forbade work on the sabbath, even so much as gathering wood for a fire (Num 16:32). By Jesus’ day, Jewish law explicitly forbade carrying things on the sabbath, viewing this as a form of work.

John 5:11-13. But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’ ” They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place.

The Gospel according to John 1. The Healing at the Pool of Bethesda (5:1–15)

5:11–13. The man defends himself by blaming the one who told him to do it.

5:11–13. Many teachers also forbade minor cures—physicians’ cures not necessary to save a life—on the sabbath. That Jesus acts in God’s name with a miracle rather than a physician’s cure should make that discussion irrelevant; but law is often argued by analogy, and these particular authorities reason that Jesus’ cure is just like a physician’s cure.

John 5:14. Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.”

5:14. The man may have been in the temple for worship. In the Bible sufferings were sometimes (not always—cf. 9:2–3; e.g., 2 Sam 4:4; 1 Kings 14:4; 2 Kings 13:14) judgment for sin (e.g., 1 Kings 13:4; 2 Kings 1:4; 2 Chron 16:12). Jesus warns of greater judgment here—the resurrection for judgment (cf. 5:29).

The Gospel according to John (1. The Healing at the Pool of Bethesda (5:1–15))

Syntactically, the two clauses, ‘Stop sinning’ and ‘something worse may happen to you’, cannot be interpreted independently. They are tied together: the meaning is ‘Stop sinning lest something worse happen to you’. The unavoidable implication is that the bad thing that has already happened was occasioned by the sin which the person must not repeat.

The Gospel according to John 1. The Healing at the Pool of Bethesda (5:1–15)

(4) It is a commonplace in many strands of Jewish and Christian theology that suffering and tragedy are the effluent of the fall, the corollary of life lived in a fallen and rebellious universe. In that sense, all sickness is the result of sin, but not necessarily of some specific, individual sin.

John 5:15-16. The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath.

5:15–16. This man does just the opposite of the faithful healed man in 9:30–34, with whom John contrasts him. His behavior is like those who left the churches of John’s readers and sided with their opponents, betraying them to persecution (see introduction to 1 John in this commentary).

John 5:17. But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”

New Testament 5:9b–18—Betrayal on the Sabbath

5:17. Everyone recognized that God had continued to work since creation, sustaining the world even on the sabbath. Jesus reasons by analogy that what is right for God in sustaining his creation is also right for himself.

John 5:18. This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

New Testament (5:9b–18—Betrayal on the Sabbath)

5:18. Because Jesus appears to usurp prerogatives solely attributed to God (5:17—the right to work on the sabbath), his hearers think that he thereby claims a position equal to that of God, a claim that naturally sounds blasphemous to them. Second-century rabbis accused many Jewish Christians of believing in two gods. One could “annul” a biblical law by disregarding it, so they feel that Jesus is (literally) “destroying” the sabbath.

Jesus’ Relation to the Father

Jesus seeks to qualify their understanding of his relationship to the Father; far from usurping God’s honor (5:18), Jesus acts only on the Father’s authority and in conjunction with his will.

John 5:19-29. So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.

John 5:19–29 (ESV)

John 5:19-20. So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel.

5:19–20. Jesus qualifies their understanding by applying another analogy: it was common wisdom that sons imitated their fathers. But the offense remains in that Jesus claims to be God’s Son in a unique way that does not include them.

John 5:21-22. For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son,

John 5:23. that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.

5:23. God sometimes gave others honor as his representatives (Ps 2:11–12), but no one was ever to be honored to the same degree as God (Is 42:8; 48:11; cf. Ex 20:5). Jesus’ hearers could easily construe Jesus’ statement here as a claim to deity.

John 24-25. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.

5:24–25. Eternal life, the life of the world to come, was supposed to be available only when the dead would be raised; but Jesus provides new life already for those who trust in him.

John 5:26. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.

5:26. Non-Palestinian Jewish texts held God to be the only one with life “of himself” (“uncreated,” “self-begotten,” etc.); as in some Greek writings, they described the supreme God as existing without any source outside himself. Although John can also use the phrase more generally in other contexts (6:53), this passage compares Jesus’ prerogatives with those of the Father, suggesting that, as in Diaspora Jewish sources, the term here refers to Jesus’ uncreated eternality.

John 5:27. And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man.

5:27. The Son of Man in Daniel 7:13–14 was to rule for God in the future kingdom; ruling included executing judgment.

John 5:28-29. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.

5:28–29. The Old Testament (Dan 12:2) and much of ancient Judaism taught a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous, which would take place at the last day. (Some circles in ancient Judaism taught only a resurrection of the righteous; others taught that the wicked would be resurrected only temporarily for judgment and then destroyed; still others held that the wicked would be resurrected to eternal judgment.)

Jesus’ Witnesses

John 5:30–38 ESV

“I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me. If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true. There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true. You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. Not that the testimony that I receive is from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved. He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent.

John 5:30–38 (ESV)

John 5:30. “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.

5:30. Jesus is thus a faithful shaliach, or agent; Jewish law taught that the man’s agent was as a man himself (backed by his full authority), to the extent that the agent faithfully represented him. Moses and the Old Testament prophets were sometimes viewed as God’s agents.

John 5:31.If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true.

New Testament 5:30–47—Jesus’ Witnesses

5:31. Here Jesus cites the Old Testament principle, central to later Jewish law (both that of the rabbis and that of the Dead Sea Scrolls), that two witnesses are necessary to prove a (capital) case (Deut 17:6; 19:15).

John 5:32. There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true.

5:32. Jewish teachers sometimes spoke of God in roundabout terms (here, “another”).

John 5:33-35. You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. Not that the testimony that I receive is from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved. He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.

5:33–35. On John the Baptist as a witness, see comment on 1:6–8. The hand-held oil lamps of the Herodian period were too small to give forth much light (they normally produced as much as a candle), and thus one would symbolize only a small reflection of “the light.”

John 5:36-38. But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent.

New Testament 5:30–47—Jesus’ Witnesses

5:36–38. The witness of the Father should be all that is necessary. Israel at Sinai supposedly saw his form and heard his voice, and accepted his word through his agent Moses; Jesus says that his own generation rejects the fuller revelation of God sent to them (cf. 1:11, 14–18).

Jesus’ witnesses 2

John 5:39–47 ESV

You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. I do not receive glory from people. But I know that you do not have the love of God within you. I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”

John 5:39–47 (ESV)

John 5:39-40. You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.

5:39–40. Scripture said, “Do this and you will live,” which Jewish teachers read as: “Do this and you will have life in the world to come.” Thus they believed that one had eternal life through the Scriptures; but Jesus says that the Scriptures witness to him, hence to reject him is to disobey the Scriptures.

John 5:41-44. I do not receive glory from people. But I know that you do not have the love of God within you. I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?

New Testament 5:30–47—Jesus’ Witnesses

5:41–44. The Father’s agent comes in the Father’s name, not in his own; to reject a person’s agent was to reject the authority of that person himself.

John 5:45-47. Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”

5:45–47. Moses witnesses to Jesus in his writings (the first five books of the Old Testament were attributed to him). Ancient Judaism viewed Moses as an intercessor for Israel (e.g., Josephus, rabbis, the Testament of Moses); but Jesus says that Moses will instead be their prosecutor. Jewish teachers regarded Moses as the central prophetic figure of their history, and even many pagans knew of Moses as Israel’s lawgiver.