ST. JOHN
Verse 1. A feast— This is generally supposed, by the best critics, to have been the feast of the passover, which was the most eminent feast among
CHAPTER 5.
The man who had been diseased thirty-eight years healed on the Sabbath day, 1-9. The Jews cavil, persecute Christ, and seek to kill him, because he had done this cure on the Sabbath, 10-16. Our Lord vindicates his conduct, and shows, from the testimony of the Father, the Scriptures, John the Baptist, and his own works, that he came from God, to be the light and salvation of the world, 17-39. He reproves the Jews for their obstinacy, 40; hatred to God, 41, 42; pride, 43, 44; and disbelief of their own law, 45-47.
NOTES ON CHAP. 5.
Verse 1. A feast— This is generally supposed, by the best critics, to have
them all. The first he speaks of, John 2:13; the third, John 6:4; the fourth, John 13:1; and the second in this place: for although he does not call it the passover, but a feast in general, yet the circumstances agree best with this feast; and our Lord’s words, John 4:35, seem to cast light on this subject.
See the note there.
Verse 2. There IS— This is thought by some to be a proof that John wrote his Gospel before the destruction of Jerusalem; and that the pool and its porticoes were still remaining. Though there can be little doubt that Jerusalem was destroyed many years before John wrote, yet this does not necessarily imply that the pool and its porticoes must have been
destroyed too. It, or something in its place, is shown to travelers to the present day. See Maundrell’s Jour. p. 108. But instead of esti, IS, both the Syriac, all the Arabic, Persic, Armenian, and Nonnus, read hn, WAS; which is to me some proof that it did not exist when these versions were made, and that the pool which is shown now is not the original.
By the sheep market— Rather, gate: see Nehemiah 3:1, 32; 12:39. This was in all probability the gate through which the sheep were brought which were offered in sacrifice in the temple.
A pool— Bp. Pearce thinks the word kolumbhqra should be translated bath, and that this place was built for the purpose of bathing and
swimming in. He observes that kolumban signifies to swim, in Acts 27:43. In proof of this, he cites three of the old Itala, which have natatoria, a bathing or swimming place.
Bethesda— This word is variously written in the MSS. and versions:
Bezatha-Bethzatha-Betzetha-Belzetha-Belzatha-Berzeta; and many have Bethsaida. But the former reading is the genuine one. Bethesda, or
according to the Hebrew hdojtyb Bethchasdah, signifies literally, the house of mercy. It got this name probably from the cures which God mercifully performed there. It is likely the porticoes were built for the more convenient reception of the poor and distressed, who came hither to be healed. It does not appear that any person was obliged to pay man for what the mercy of God freely gave. Wicked as the Jewish people were, they never thought of levying a tax on the poor and afflicted, for the cures they received in these healing waters. How is it that a well-regulated state, such as that of Great Britain, can ever permit individuals or corporations
to enrich themselves at the expense of God’s mercy, manifested in the sanative waters of Bristol, Bath, Buxton, etc.? Should not the
accommodations be raised at the expense of the public, that the poor might enjoy without cost, which they are incapable of defraying, the great
blessing which the God of nature has bestowed on such waters? In most of those places there is a profession that the poor may drink and bathe gratis;
but it is little better than a pretense, and the regulations relative to this point render the whole nearly inefficient. However, some good is done.
Verse 3. Blind, halt, withered— To these the Codex Bezae, three copies of the Itala, and both the Persic, add paralutikwn, paralytic; but they are probably included among the withered.
Waiting for the moving of the water.— This clause, with the whole of the fourth verse, is wanting in some MSS. and versions; but I think there is no sufficient evidence against their authenticity. Griesbach seems to be of the same opinion; for though he has marked the whole passage with the notes of doubtfulness, yet he has left it in the text. Some have imagined that the sanative virtue was communicated to the waters by washing in them the entrails of the beasts which were offered in sacrifice; and that the angel meant no more than merely a man sent to stir up from the bottom this corrupt sediment, which, being distributed through the water, the pores of the person who bathed in it were penetrated by this matter, and his disorder repelled! But this is a miserable shift to get rid of the power and goodness of God, built on the merest conjectures, self-contradictory, and every way as unlikely as it is insupportable. It has never yet been
satisfactorily proved that the sacrifices were ever washed; and, could even this be proved, who can show that they were washed in the pool of Bethesda? These waters healed a man in a moment of whatsoever disease he had. Now, there is no one cause under heaven that can do this. Had only one kind of disorders been cured here, there might have been some
countenance for this deistical conjecture-but this is not the case; and we are obliged to believe the relation just as it stands, and thus acknowledge the sovereign power and mercy of God, or take the desperate flight of an infidel, and thus get rid of the passage altogether.
Verse 4. Angel— “Of the Lord,” is added by AKL, about 20 others, the AEthiopic, Armenian, Slavonic, Vulgate, Anglo-Saxon, and six copies of
the Itala: Cyril and Ambrose have also this reading. If this reading be genuine, and the authorities which support it are both ancient and respectable, it destroys Dr. Hammond’s conjecture, that, by the angel, a messenger only, sent from the Sanhedrin, is meant, and that these cures were all performed in a natural way.
Those who feel little or none of the work of God in their own hearts are not willing to allow that he works in others. Many deny the influences of God’s Spirit, merely because they never felt them. This is to make any man’s experience the rule by which the whole word of God is to be
interpreted; and consequently to leave no more divinity in the Bible than is found in the heart of him who professes to explain it.
Went down— katebainen, descended. The word seems to imply that the angel had ceased to descend when John wrote. In the second verse, he spoke of the pool as being still in existence; and in this verse he intimates that the Divine influence ceased from these waters. When it began, we know not; but it is likely that it continued no longer than till the crucifixion of our Lord. Some think that this never took place before nor after this time. Neither Josephus, Philo, nor any of the Jewish authors mention this pool; so that it is very likely that it had not been long celebrated for its healing virtue, and that nothing of it remained when those authors wrote.
Certain season— This probably refers to the time of the feast, during which only this miraculous virtue lasted. It is not likely that the angel appeared to the people-his descent might be only known by the ebullition caused in the waters. Was not the whole a type Of Christ? See Zechariah 13:1. He is the true Bethesda, or house of mercy, the fountain opened to the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness; unto which all the diseased may come, and find health and life eternal.
Verse 5. Had an infirmity thirty and eight years.— St. Chrysostom conjectured that blindness was the infirmity of this person: what it was, the inspired writer does not say-probably it was a palsy: his case was deplorable-he was not able to go into the pool himself, and he had no one to help him; so that poverty and disease were here connected. The length of the time he had been afflicted makes the miracle of his cure the greater.
There could have been no collusion in this case: as his affliction had lasted
thirty-eight years, it must have been known to multitudes; therefore he could not be a person prepared for the occasion. All Christ’s miracles have been wrought in such a way, and on such persons and occasions, as
absolutely to preclude all possibility of the suspicion of imposture.
Verse 6. Wilt thou be made whole?— Christ, by asking this question,