Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - John 5:5
An infirmity - A weakness. We know not what his disease was. We know only that it disabled him from walking, and that it was of very long standing. It was doubtless regarded as incurable. read more
约翰福音 5:5 Cuvs
Albert Barnes
Joseph Benson
Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - John 5:5-6
John 5:5-6. A certain man was there Among the crowds which now lay in the porticoes of Bethesda, was one who had an infirmity A weakness, as the word ασθενεια means; thirty and eight years He had probably lost the use of his limbs, at least, on one side, by a paralytic stroke. It is a great affliction to have the body so disabled, that instead of being the soul’s instrument, it is become, even in the affairs of this life, its burden. What reason many of us have to thank God for bodily... read more
Donald C. Fleming
Bridgeway Bible Commentary - John 5:1-29
IN JERUSALEM AGAIN46. Healing at Bethesda and its outcome (John 5:1-29)Jesus came from Galilee to Jerusalem for a Jewish religious festival. While there he visited a pool where many blind and crippled people hoped to find healing (John 5:1-5). One of the men asked Jesus for help, not to heal him (for he did not know who Jesus was) but to assist him into the pool. Jesus responded by healing him instantly (John 5:6-9). As the healing took place on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders were anxious to... read more
E.W. Bullinger
E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes - John 5:5
And, &c. See App-176 . man. Greek anthropos. App-123 . thirty and eight years . The period of the wanderings. Compare "from birth", John 9:1 . read more
James Burton Coffman
Coffman Commentaries on the Bible - John 5:5
And a certain man was there, who had been thirty and eight years in his infirmity.The text does not say that he had been at the pool so long, but that his disease was of such lengthy duration. The Lord's attribution of his condition to the man's sin suggests that he had acquired the malady in his youth. read more
Thomas Coke
Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible - John 5:5
John 5:5. And a certain man was there,— Among the crowds who lay in the porticos of Bethesda, there was one, who had an infirmity,— ασθενεια,— most probably a paralytic disorder, which hardly ever gives way to medicine, though recently contracted: how much less curable must it have been, after having continued 38 years! The inveteracy of this man's disorder must have been known to many in the course of so long a time; and the reality of his indisposition, which was even prior to the birth of... read more
Robert Jamieson; A. R. Fausset; David Brown
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - John 5:5
5-9. thirty and eight years—but not all that time at the pool. This was probably the most pitiable of all the cases, and therefore selected. read more
Thomas Constable
Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - John 5:1-9
1. The third sign: healing the paralytic 5:1-9This third sign in John’s Gospel signaled Jesus’ identity and created controversy that followed. Particularly it testified to Jesus’ authority over time. [Note: Tenney, John: The Gospel. . ., p. 312.] read more
Thomas Constable
Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - John 5:5
This man’s sickness appears to have been paralysis resulting in inability to walk at least (John 5:7) that seems to have been a result of sin (John 5:14). Perhaps a severe arthritic condition complicated his ailment. John’s reference to the length of his illness seems to be just to document its seriousness and the man’s hopeless condition. Some commentators tried to find symbolic significance in the 38 years, but that seems unwarranted to me. For example, 38 years recalls the period during... read more
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The Pulpit Commentary - John 5:5
And a certain man was there, who had been thirty and eight years in his infirmity. He had not lost all his powers—he crawled probably from some near home to the healing well; but for thirty-eight years be had been dragging out his impotent existence. The length implies the inveteracy of the disease. Hengstenberg, Wordsworth, Westcott (in part), imply a marked correspondence between these thirty-eight years and the similar period of time during which Israel was compelled to wander in the... read more