John 5
Christian Standard Bible
The Third Sign: Healing the Sick
5 After this, a Jewish festival took place, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.(A) 2 By the Sheep Gate(B) in Jerusalem there is a pool, called Bethesda[a] in Aramaic, which has five colonnades. 3 Within these lay a large number of the disabled—blind, lame, and paralyzed.[b]
5 One man was there who had been disabled for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and realized he had already been there a long time,(C) he said to him, “Do you want to get well?”
7 “Sir,”(D) the disabled man answered, “I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I’m coming, someone goes down ahead of me.”
8 “Get up,” Jesus told him, “pick up your mat and walk.” 9 Instantly the man got well, picked up his mat, and started to walk.
Now that day was the Sabbath,(E) 10 and so the Jews(F) said to the man who had been healed, “This is the Sabbath.(G) The law prohibits you from picking up your mat.”
11 He replied, “The man who made me well(H) told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’”
12 “Who is this man who told you, ‘Pick up your mat and walk’?” they asked. 13 But the man who was healed did not know who it was,(I) because Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.[c]
14 After this, Jesus found him in the temple(J) and said to him, “See, you are well. Do not sin anymore, so that something worse doesn’t happen to you.” 15 The man went and reported to the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.(K) 16 Therefore, the Jews began persecuting(L) Jesus[d] because he was doing these things on the Sabbath.(M)
Honoring the Father and the Son
17 Jesus responded to them, “My Father(N) is still working, and I am working also.” 18 This is why the Jews began trying all the more to kill him:(O) Not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal to God.
19 Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, the Son is not able to do anything on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father[e] does, the Son likewise does these things.(P) 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he is doing, and he will show him greater works(Q) than these so that you will be amazed. 21 And just as the Father raises(R) the dead and gives them life, so the Son also gives life to whom he wants.(S) 22 The Father,(T) in fact, judges no one but has given all judgment to the Son, 23 so that all people may honor the Son just as they honor the Father.(U) Anyone who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.(V)
Life and Judgment
24 “Truly I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life(W) and will not come under judgment but has passed from death to life.
25 “Truly I tell you, an hour is coming, and is now here,(X) when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.(Y) 26 For just as the Father has life in himself, so also he has granted to the Son(Z) to have life in himself. 27 And he has granted him the right to pass judgment,(AA) because he is the Son of Man.(AB) 28 Do not be amazed at this, because a time is coming when all who are in the graves will hear his voice 29 and come out—those who have done good things, to the resurrection of life, but those who have done wicked things, to the resurrection of condemnation.
30 “I can do nothing on my own. I judge only as I hear, and my judgment(AC) is just,(AD) because I do not seek my own will, but the will of him who sent me.(AE)
Witnesses to Jesus
31 “If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true. 32 There is another who testifies about me, and I know that the testimony he gives about me is true.(AF) 33 You sent messengers to John, and he testified to the truth.(AG) 34 I don’t receive human testimony, but I say these things so that you may be saved. 35 John[f](AH) was a burning and shining lamp,(AI) and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.(AJ)
36 “But I have a greater testimony than John’s because of the works that the Father has given me to accomplish.(AK) These very works I am doing testify about me that the Father has sent(AL) me. 37 The Father who sent me has himself testified(AM) about me. You have not heard his voice at any time, and you haven’t seen his form.(AN) 38 You don’t have his word residing in you, because you don’t believe the one he sent. 39 You pore over the Scriptures(AO) because you think you have eternal life in them, and yet they testify about me.(AP) 40 But you are not willing(AQ) to come to me(AR) so that you may have life.
41 “I do not accept glory(AS) from people, 42 but I know you—that you have no love for God(AT) within you. 43 I have come in my Father’s name,(AU) and yet you don’t accept me.(AV) If someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him. 44 How can you believe, since you accept glory from one another but don’t seek the glory that comes from the only(AW) God?(AX) 45 Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. Your accuser is Moses,(AY) on whom you have set your hope. 46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe me, because he wrote about me. 47 But if you don’t believe what he wrote,(AZ) how will you believe my words?”(BA)
Footnotes
- 5:2 Some mss read Bethzatha; other mss read Bethsaida
- 5:3 Some mss include vv. 3b-4:—waiting for the moving of the water, 4 because an angel would go down into the pool from time to time and stir up the water. Then the first one who got in after the water was stirred up recovered from whatever ailment he had.
- 5:13 Lit slipped away, there being a crowd in that place
- 5:16 Other mss add and trying to kill him
- 5:19 Lit whatever that one
- 5:35 Lit That man
John 5
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Chapter 5[a]
Cure on a Sabbath. 1 After this, there was a feast[b] of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.(A) 2 Now there is in Jerusalem at the Sheep [Gate][c] a pool called in Hebrew Bethesda, with five porticoes.(B) 3 In these lay a large number of ill, blind, lame, and crippled.[d] [4 ][e] 5 One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been ill for a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be well?” 7 The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; while I am on my way, someone else gets down there before me.” 8 Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your mat, and walk.”(C) 9 Immediately the man became well, took up his mat, and walked.(D)
Now that day was a sabbath. 10 So the Jews said to the man who was cured, “It is the sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.”(E) 11 He answered them, “The man who made me well told me, ‘Take up your mat and walk.’” 12 They asked him, “Who is the man who told you, ‘Take it up and walk’?” 13 The man who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away, since there was a crowd there.(F) 14 [f]After this Jesus found him in the temple area and said to him,(G) “Look, you are well; do not sin any more, so that nothing worse may happen to you.” 15 The man went and told the Jews that Jesus was the one who had made him well. 16 Therefore, the Jews began to persecute Jesus because he did this on a sabbath.(H) 17 [g]But Jesus answered them,(I) “My Father is at work until now, so I am at work.” 18 For this reason the Jews tried all the more to kill him, because he not only broke the sabbath but he also called God his own father, making himself equal to God.(J)
The Work of the Son. 19 [h]Jesus answered and said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, a son cannot do anything on his own, but only what he sees his father doing;(K) for what he does, his son will do also. 20 For the Father loves his Son and shows him everything that he himself does, and he will show him greater works than these, so that you may be amazed.(L) 21 For just as the Father raises the dead and gives life,[i] so also does the Son give life to whomever he wishes.(M) 22 Nor does the Father judge anyone, but he has given all judgment[j] to his Son,(N) 23 so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. 24 Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life and will not come to condemnation, but has passed from death to life.(O) 25 Amen, amen, I say to you, the hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.(P) 26 For just as the Father has life in himself, so also he gave to his Son the possession of life in himself.(Q) 27 And he gave him power to exercise judgment, because he is the Son of Man.(R) 28 [k]Do not be amazed at this, because the hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice(S) 29 and will come out, those who have done good deeds to the resurrection of life, but those who have done wicked deeds to the resurrection of condemnation.(T)
30 “I cannot do anything on my own; I judge as I hear, and my judgment is just, because I do not seek my own will but the will of the one who sent me.(U)
Witnesses to Jesus. 31 (V)“If I testify on my own behalf, my testimony cannot be verified. 32 But there is another[l] who testifies on my behalf, and I know that the testimony he gives on my behalf is true. 33 You sent emissaries to John, and he testified to the truth.(W) 34 I do not accept testimony from a human being, but I say this so that you may be saved.(X) 35 He was a burning and shining lamp,[m] and for a while you were content to rejoice in his light.(Y) 36 But I have testimony greater than John’s. The works that the Father gave me to accomplish, these works that I perform testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me.(Z) 37 Moreover, the Father who sent me has testified on my behalf. But you have never heard his voice nor seen his form,(AA) 38 and you do not have his word remaining in you, because you do not believe in the one whom he has sent.(AB) 39 You search[n] the scriptures, because you think you have eternal life through them; even they testify on my behalf.(AC) 40 But you do not want to come to me to have life.
Unbelief of Jesus’ Hearers. 41 “I do not accept human praise;[o] 42 moreover, I know that you do not have the love of God in you.(AD) 43 I came in the name of my Father, but you do not accept me; yet if another comes in his own name, you will accept him.(AE) 44 How can you believe, when you accept praise from one another and do not seek the praise that comes from the only God?(AF) 45 Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father: the one who will accuse you is Moses, in whom you have placed your hope.(AG) 46 For if you had believed Moses, you would have believed me, because he wrote about me.(AH) 47 But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”
Footnotes
- 5:1–47 The self-revelation of Jesus continues in Jerusalem at a feast. The third sign (cf. Jn 2:11; 4:54) is performed, the cure of a paralytic by Jesus’ life-giving word. The water of the pool fails to bring life; Jesus’ word does.
- 5:1 The reference in Jn 5:45–46 to Moses suggests that the feast was Pentecost. The connection of that feast with the giving of the law to Moses on Sinai, attested in later Judaism, may already have been made in the first century. The feast could also be Passover (cf. Jn 6:4). John stresses that the day was a sabbath (Jn 5:9).
- 5:2 There is no noun with Sheep. “Gate” is supplied on the grounds that there must have been a gate in the NE wall of the temple area where animals for sacrifice were brought in; cf. Neh 3:1, 32; 12:39. Hebrew: more precisely, Aramaic. Bethesda: preferred to variants “Be(th)zatha” and “Bethsaida”; bêt-’ešdatayīn is given as the name of a double pool northeast of the temple area in the Qumran Copper Roll. Five porticoes: a pool excavated in Jerusalem actually has five porticoes.
- 5:3 The Caesarean and Western recensions, followed by the Vulgate, add “waiting for the movement of the water.” Apparently an intermittent spring in the pool bubbled up occasionally (see Jn 5:7). This turbulence was believed to cure.
- 5:4 Toward the end of the second century in the West and among the fourth-century Greek Fathers, an additional verse was known: “For [from time to time] an angel of the Lord used to come down into the pool; and the water was stirred up, so the first one to get in [after the stirring of the water] was healed of whatever disease afflicted him.” The angel was a popular explanation of the turbulence and the healing powers attributed to it. This verse is missing from all early Greek manuscripts and the earliest versions, including the original Vulgate. Its vocabulary is markedly non-Johannine.
- 5:14 While the cure of the paralytic in Mk 2:1–12 is associated with the forgiveness of sins, Jesus never drew a one-to-one connection between sin and suffering (cf. Jn 9:3; Lk 12:1–5), as did Ez 18:20.
- 5:17 Sabbath observance (Jn 5:10) was based on God’s resting on the seventh day (cf. Gn 2:2–3; Ex 20:11). Philo and some rabbis insisted that God’s providence remains active on the sabbath, keeping all things in existence, giving life in birth and taking it away in death. Other rabbis taught that God rested from creating, but not from judging (= ruling, governing). Jesus here claims the same authority to work as the Father, and, in the discourse that follows, the same divine prerogatives: power over life and death (Jn 5:21, 24–26) and judgment (Jn 5:22, 27).
- 5:19 This proverb or parable is taken from apprenticeship in a trade: the activity of a son is modeled on that of his father. Jesus’ dependence on the Father is justification for doing what the Father does.
- 5:21 Gives life: in the Old Testament, a divine prerogative (Dt 32:39; 1 Sm 2:6; 2 Kgs 5:7; Tb 13:2; Is 26:19; Dn 12:2).
- 5:22 Judgment: another divine prerogative, often expressed as acquittal or condemnation (Dt 32:36; Ps 43:1).
- 5:28–29 While Jn 5:19–27 present realized eschatology, Jn 5:28–29 are future eschatology; cf. Dn 12:2.
- 5:32 Another: likely the Father, who in four different ways gives testimony to Jesus, as indicated in the verse groupings Jn 5:33–34, 36, 37–38, 39–40.
- 5:35 Lamp: cf. Ps 132:17—“I will place a lamp for my anointed (= David),” and possibly the description of Elijah in Sir 48:1. But only for a while, indicating the temporary and subordinate nature of John’s mission.
- 5:39 You search: this may be an imperative: “Search the scriptures, because you think that you have eternal life through them.”
- 5:41 Praise: the same Greek word means “praise” or “honor” (from others) and “glory” (from God). There is a play on this in Jn 5:44.
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