John 5:3 - Printer Friendly

ESV: In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed.

NIV: Here a great number of disabled people used to lie--the blind, the lame, the paralyzed.

NASB: In these porticoes lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, limping, or paralyzed.

CSB: Within these lay a large number of the disabled--blind, lame, and paralyzed.

NLT: Crowds of sick people — blind, lame, or paralyzed — lay on the porches.

KJV: In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water.

NKJV: In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water.

North of the temple, in the northeast corner of Jerusalem, was a two-section pool covered by five roofed porches (John 5:2). Whether because of the shade, nearness to the temple, or some healing property of the water, this area was filled with people suffering from various disabilities. Jesus has come to the city in order to attend one of the required festivals (John 5:1), and is about to perform the third of His seven "signs" recorded in the Gospel of John.

Part of Jesus' complaint against the people of Israel, in His day, was their spiritual coldness. Jesus drove greedy merchants out of the temple; these men had replaced ministry with money (John 2:13–22). In this story, we see "a multitude" of people in need of support, within close range to the temple. This, also, is a sad reflection on Jerusalem's unwillingness to love their neighbors.

It should be noted that this verse refers to the number of people seeking healing here as "a multitude." And yet, Jesus will only be healing one of them at this time. This underscores an important truth about the Christian life: it's not primarily about miracles. God uses supernatural events to send a message, or further His will. True miracles, like the "signs" John records, are not common. They are not expected. This was as true for the people of Jesus' day as it is today. The gospel is not about physical health—it is a matter of eternal life.

This verse leads into an interesting textual debate. Older, more reliable manuscripts do not contain the words of John 5:4. The text usually associated with that verse explains the reason for the crowd of invalids: miraculous healing. According to the disputed words, an angel would occasionally stir up the water, and the first person into the water would be healed. Some have raised theological objections to this. For instance, this seems to contradict the normal biblical approach to miracles. And, it seems unfair for God to make a contest out of healing.

By and large, however, it seems that the words of John 5:4 were not part of the original manuscript. Most likely, a marginal note, put in as an explanation of the pool, was inadvertently moved into the main body and became part of future copies.

Ultimately, this is a minor point, theologically. It is, however, an excellent example of a typical "variant" in the Bible manuscripts: noncontroversial, relatively unimportant, and well-understood.

John 5:1–15 shows Jesus healing a man who had been crippled for thirty-eight years. This is the third of John's seven ''signs'' of Christ. Interestingly, the crippled man expresses no prior knowledge of Jesus, nor any overwhelming desire to be healed. Jesus restores the man, then tells him to walk. For carrying his mat—working—the man is then confronted by local religious leaders, but doesn't know who Jesus is. Jesus meets the man in the temple and warns him about the dangers of sin. Once the city's leaders find out that Jesus was responsible for the healing, they will confront Him for violating the Sabbath, and for claiming to be equal with God.

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—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 more or less avoiding 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 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 gospel of John was written by the disciple John, decades later than the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. 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”—in order to prove that Jesus is, in fact, God incarnate. Some of the most well-known verses in all of the Bible are found here. None is more famous than the one-sentence summary of the gospel found in John 3:16.