John 5:5 - Printer Friendly

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

NIV: One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.

NASB: Now a man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years.

CSB: One man was there who had been disabled for thirty-eight years.

NLT: One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years.

KJV: And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years.

NKJV: Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years.

The Pool of Bethesda is described as a gathering place. With five roofed porches—colonnades—it would have been a popular place to escape the sun. It was also very close to the temple, making it an ideal place for beggars to sit, hoping for charity. Verse 3 described the number of people with disabilities in this area as "a multitude."

According to this verse, the man Jesus is about to heal has been suffering for nearly forty years with his infirmity. Considering that average life expectancy then was shorter than it is today, this was literally a lifetime of suffering. The Bible doesn't give any specific explanation of the man's injury. Based on what Jesus says to the man later in the chapter (John 5:14), some speculate that his disability was the result of some personal sin. This might have been an injury, or a disease. However, this is only speculation.

Upcoming verses will paint a puzzling picture of this man. Rather than asking to be healed, or saying he wants to be healed, the man will simply complain that he has no helpers. Later, he will quickly shift blame for his actions onto Jesus. Details are scarce in this passage, but there are reasons to think this man might not have wanted to be healed. This makes Jesus' choice of him—among all of the many people there—an even more interesting one.

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.