John 5:1

Like practically all of John, this chapter is a narrative of proof that Jesus is equal to God. Here, the proof is that of the healing of a long-time cripple at the pool of Bethesda on a sabbath day; following which, Jesus gave an organized testimony of his oneness with God and of his being the Messiah. Discounting his own witness to that effect, for the moment only, he appealed to the witness of the Father himself, the witness of his mighty works, and the testimony of the sacred Scriptures. This sign is the third in the great series of seven.

THE THIRD SIGN

After these things there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. (John 5:1)

So much depends upon the meaning of "a feast of the Jews" in this verse that controversy has raged over it for centuries, the importance of it lying in this, that if the Passover is meant, then the ministry of Christ would be calculated at about three and one-half years; but if some lesser feast was meant then his ministry could be calculated as much shorter.

The feast of the Jews ... is the reading of many ancient manuscripts (English Revised Version, margin), which, if allowed, would make this almost certainly the Passover. Without further attention to the extensive arguments of scholars on this, we shall construe it as a reference to the Passover, primarily because this would favor the longer ministry of Christ, and because it was the only feast of the Jews having sufficient importance to have demanded the presence of Jesus so soon after he had left Judaea. It is considered no great difficulty that John would have called so important a feast "a feast," since, writing so long afterward, he might quite accurately have so described it. The most convincing argument to this writer is by Trench:

If this feast of the Jews was a Passover, then St. John will make mention of four Passovers, namely, this one, and in John 2:13; 6:4, and the last. Thus, we shall arrive at the three and one half years, the half of a "week of years" for the length of Christ's ministry, which many, not altogether unreasonably, have thought they found designated beforehand for it in the prophecies (Daniel 9:27).[1]

There are many things in the New Testament which cannot be determined except in the light of the Old Testament, as in the case of the piercing of Jesus' feet. Certainly, light from the Old Testament on the question before us is more dependable than fallible human opinion.