A Study of John's Gospel

John 5:1-3,5-9: Jesus Heals a Disabled Man

-Get Up (Arise): "Ἔγειρε", "Egeire"; verb, present, active, imperative, second person, singular - raise up, lift up, get up; of one 'down' with disease, lying sick: arise and recover.

-The Sabbath: "σάββατον", "Sabbaton"; noun, nominative, singular, neuter - the Sabbath day; the seventh day of each week which was a sacred festival on which the Israelites were required to abstain from all work.

Observation/Summary (short explanation of what the passage says in your own words):

After healing the royal official's son, and spending some time in Cana in Galilee, Jesus returned to Jerusalem during a certain "feast of the Jews." In Jerusalem, by the sheep gate, there was a pool with 5 covered walkways, which most English translations render as "Bethesda." This same place is also referred to as "Bethsaida" and "Bethzatha" in various manuscripts. Many sick and disabled people would gather there, and on this day there was a particular man there who had been an invalid for 38 years. When Jesus saw this man and knew he had been there a long time, He asked the man if he wanted to be healed. The man's response was that he had no one to put him in the water whenever it was stirred up, and others would get to the pool before him. Jesus did not respond to this statement but instead said, "Get up, take up your bed, and walk." The man was immediately healed, and the final note John leaves us with for this section is, "Now that day was the Sabbath."

Implication (what does this mean to us):

"After this" in verse one refers to the events at the close of chapter 4 where Jesus healed a royal official's son, and spent time with His disciples, presumably performing more miracles and teaching in His home region of Galilee. We are not told how long Jesus spent in Galilee at this time, but we know from the story so far that He had previously returned to Galilee with His disciples from Jerusalem and the region of Judea where they had been for the celebration of Passover. We also do not know which "feast" this was, because John does not tell us. John often ties events in the narrative to various Jewish festivals, and the fact that he does not specify which one this is indicates that it is not thematically relevant to what he will write about in this chapter. It is merely meant to explain why Jesus was in Jerusalem again.

There is of course debate and uncertainty over which feast this was. There were a few pilgrimage festivals that would be cause for most Jews to travel to Jerusalem. Besides Passover, there was the Feast of Weeks that took place only 50 days after Passover. There was also the Feast of Tabernacles that took place six months after Passover. And there is also the possibility that this was another Passover celebration that took place a year after the last one. The fact of the matter is we simply do not know which feast this was, and John did not tell us because it is not important for the point he will communicate in the ensuing narrative. The main point of conflict we will see as we read further in chapter 5 is that Jesus is about to heal a man on the Sabbath.

In verse 2 we read that by the sheep gate there was a pool called Bethesda in Aramaic. The Greek word translated as Aramaic here is "Hebraisti" and it simply refers to the Hebrew and Aramaic language spoken in Israel at this time. Greek was the language of trade spoken throughout the Greco-Roman Empire, and that is why the NT was primarily written in Greek. But each of the nations within the empire also retained their own regional languages. We can liken this to the way English or Mandarin are trade languages today that many people learn in addition to their local language. The Greek word "probatike" is translated as 'sheep gate' here, and it is an adjective that literally means "having to do with sheep." It refers to a small gate in the northern wall of the city. And it was part of the wall rebuilt by Nehemiah. The pool is referenced by a few different names in various manuscripts which include: Bethesda, Bethzatha, Belzetha and Bethsaida. These all refer to the same pool, but Bethesda is likely the name that was used at this time as it is well attested to by the "Copper Scroll" from Qumran. In addition to manuscript evidence, archaeological evidence has confirmed the existence of this pool with five covered colonnades in Jerusalem by the northern sheep gate. The five roofed colonnades can best be understood as covered walkways/areas to provide people with shade from the sun.