John 5:16 - Printer Friendly

ESV: And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath.

NIV: So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him.

NASB: For this reason the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because He was doing these things on a Sabbath.

CSB: Therefore, the Jews began persecuting Jesus because he was doing these things on the Sabbath.

NLT: So the Jewish leaders began harassing Jesus for breaking the Sabbath rules.

KJV: And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the sabbath day.

NKJV: For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath.

In the prior passage (John 5:1–15), Jesus healed a man who had been crippled for nearly forty years. He tells the man to pick up his bed and walk. According to traditional interpretations of the law of Moses, this was a violation of the Sabbath. When John uses the Greek term Ioudaioi, translated as "the Jews," he is referring to the spiritual leaders of Jerusalem, particularly the Pharisees and Sadducees. These local religious leaders challenged the newly restored man (John 5:10), who indicated that he'd been healed. Rather than focusing on the miracle, everything these officials do revolves around a conflict with their traditions (John 5:10, 12, 16, 18).

Jesus often chooses to perform healing or other works on the Sabbath (Luke 13:10–17; Matthew 12:9–14). Since this is a pattern, it makes sense that He has a purpose behind it. The most likely explanation is that Jesus is deliberately provoking the Pharisees. By confronting them with their own hypocrisy, Jesus can explain His mission and reveal the cold truth behind their so-called faith in God. This verse puts that problem in stark terms: Jesus breaks their tradition, and for that reason they persecute Him.

John 5:16–29 begins Jesus' response to local religious leaders. After healing a man on the Sabbath, Jesus is attacked for violating traditions related to the Mosaic law and for claiming to be equal to God. In this passage, Jesus claims many of the attributes of God the Father. Among these are the power, judgment, love, and honor of God. Jesus also states that those who reject His message dishonor God and only those who believe Him will have eternal life. In the next passage, Jesus will support these claims by referring to various forms of evidence, all of which prove His ministry to be true.

Jesus again returns to Jerusalem, as required for the various feast days. While there, He heals a man who had been crippled for nearly forty years. Since this occurred on the Sabbath, local religious leaders are angry. In fact, they are more upset with Jesus for working on the Sabbath than amazed at His miracle. In response, Jesus offers an important perspective on evidence. Jesus refers to human testimony, scriptural testimony, and miracles as reasons to believe His declarations. Christ also lays claim to many of the attributes of God, making a clear claim to divinity.

Chapters 1 through 4 showed Jesus avoiding major publicity. Here, in chapter 5, He will begin to openly challenge the local religious leaders. This chapter is Jesus' first major answer to His critics in this gospel. The fact that Jesus is willing to heal on the Sabbath sets up a theme of His upcoming disagreements with the Pharisees. Jesus also provides an important perspective on the relationship between evidence and faith, which He will expand on in later chapters. This chapter also establishes a key point made by Jesus' critics: His claims to be God.

The disciple John wrote the gospel of John decades after the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke were written. The author assumes that a reader is already familiar with the content of these other works. So, John presents a different perspective, with a greater emphasis on meaning. John uses seven miracles—which he calls "signs"— to prove that Jesus is, in fact, God incarnate. Some of the most well-known verses in the Bible are found here. None is more famous than the one-sentence summary of the gospel found in John 3:16.