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Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - John 5:1-16

This miraculous cure is not recorded by any other of the evangelists, who confine themselves mostly to the miracles wrought in Galilee, but John relates those wrought at Jerusalem. Concerning this observe, I. The time when this cure was wrought: it was at a feast of the Jews, that is, the passover, for that was the most celebrated feast. Christ, though residing in Galilee, yet went up to Jerusalem at the feast, John 5:1. 1. Because it was an ordinance of God, which, as a subject, he would... read more

William Barclay

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - John 5:1-9

5:1-9 After this there was a Feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In Jerusalem, near the sheepgate, there is a bathing-pool with five porches, which was called in Hebrew, Bethzatha. In these porches there lay a crowd of people who were ill and blind and lame and whose limbs were withered [waiting expectantly for the moving of the water. For an angel of the Lord came down into the pool every now and then and disturbed the water; so the first person to go in after the disturbing... read more

William Barclay

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - John 5:1-9

Certain scholars think this passage is an allegory. The man stands for the people of Israel. The five porches stand for the five books of the law. In the porches the people lay ill. The law could show a man his sin, but could never mend it; the law could uncover a man's weakness, but could never cure it. The law, like the porches, sheltered the sick soul but could never heal it. The thirty-eight years stand for the thirty-eight years in which the Jews wandered in the desert before they... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - John 5:4

For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool ,.... This angel is not to be understood of a messenger sent from the sanhedrim, or by the priests, as Dr. Hammond thinks; who has a strange conceit, that this pool was used for the washing of the entrails of the sacrifices; and which at the passover being very numerous, the water in it mixed with the blood of the entrails, was possessed of an healing virtue; and which being stirred by a messenger sent from the sanhedrim for that... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - John 5:5

And a certain man was there ,.... At Bethesda's pool, in one of the five porches, or cloisters, that belonged to it: which had an infirmity thirty and eight years ; what his infirmity was, is not said; he was one of the weak, or impotent folk, for so he is called, John 5:7 . Some think his distemper was the palsy, and though he had had this infirmity so many years, it is not certain that he had waited so long in this place for a cure; though it may be, for that he had attended some... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - John 5:4

Angel - "Of the Lord," is added by AKL, about 20 others, the Ethiopic, Armenian, Slavonic, Vulgate, Anglo-Saxon, and six copies of the Itala: Cyril and Ambrose have also this reading. If this reading be genuine, and the authorities which support it are both ancient and respectable, it destroys Dr. Hammond's conjecture, that, by the angel, a messenger only, sent from the Sanhedrin, is meant, and that these cures were all performed in a natural way. Those who feel little or none of the work... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - John 5:5

Had an infirmity thirty and eight years - St. Chrysostom conjectured that blindness was the infirmity of this person: what it was, the inspired writer does not say - probably it was a palsy: his case was deplorable - he was not able to go into the pool himself, and he had no one to help him; so that poverty and disease were here connected. The length of the time he had been afflicted makes the miracle of his cure the greater. There could have been no collusion in this case: as his affliction... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - John 5:4

Verse 4 4.For an angel went down. It was, no doubt, a work peculiar to God to cure the sick; but, as He was accustomed to employ the ministration and agency of angels, so He commanded an angel to perform this duty. For this reason the angels are called principalities or powers, (Colossians 1:16;) not that God gives up his power to them, and remains unemployed in heaven, but because, by acting powerfully in them, he magnificently shows and displays his power. It is, therefore, wicked and... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - John 5:5

Verse 5 5.And there was a man there. The Evangelist collects various circumstances, which prove that the miracle may be relied on as certain. The long duration of the disease had taken away all hope of its being cured. This man complains that he is deprived of the remedy of the water. He had frequently attempted to throw himself into the water, but without success; there was no man to assist him, and this causes the power of Christ to be more strikingly displayed. Such, too, was the import of... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - John 5:1-9

(1) A sign on a paralyzed body and an unsusceptible soul. read more

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