John 5

Healing a Paralytic at the Pool of Bethesda

¹ After these [things] was the feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up into Jerusalem. ² But there is in Jerusalem near the sheepgate [a] pool, being called in Hebrew Bethzatha, having five porches. ³ In them lay multitudes of sick, blind, lame, [and] withered ¹. [⁴ For [an] angel of the lord according to occasion was coming down to the pool and was disturbing the water; so the first having gotten in after the disturbance of the water became whole in that very moment for the sickness he was having.]² ⁵ Now [a] certain man was there having thirty-eight years in his sickness. ⁶ When Jesus saw this [man] lying, and having known that he has already much time [there] he says to him: Do you want to became healthy? ⁷ The sick [man] answered him: Lord, I do not have [a] man, that when the water be disturbed he throw me into the pool; but when I come, another gets in before me. ⁸ Jesus says to him: Be arising, pick up your bed and be walking. ⁹ And immediately the man became healthy and picked up his bed and was walking. Now it was the Sabbath in that hour.

¹⁰ So the Jews were saying to the [one] having been healed: It is the Sabbath, and it is not allowed for you to pick up your bed. ¹¹ But he answered them: The [one] who made me healthy, that [one] said to me: Pick up your bed and be walking. ¹² They asked³ him, Who is the man who said to you: Pick up your bed and be walking? ¹³ Now the [one] having been healed did not know who he is, for Jesus withdrew from the crowd being in that place.

¹⁴ After these [things] Jesus finds him in the temple and said to him: See, you have become healthy; no longer be sinning, that something worse not come to pass for you. ¹⁵ The man departed and declared to the Jews that Jesus is the [one] having made him healthy.

Responding to Jewish Leaders

¹⁶ And because of this the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he did these [things] on the Sabbath. ¹⁷ But he answered them: My father works until now⁴ and I [also] work; ¹⁸ So because of this the Jews were seeking [even] more to kill [him], for he not only loosed the Sabbath, but he also was saying God [is his] own father, making himself equal to God.

¹⁹ So Jesus was answering and was saying to them: Truly truly I say to you, the son is not able to be doing anything from himself, except what he may see the father doing. For what that [one] may do, these [things] the son also likewise does.⁵ ²⁰ For the father philia-loves the son and reveals everything to him which he does, and greater works than these he reveals to him, that you marvel. ²¹ For as the father raises the dead and makes-zoe-alive⁶, likewise also the son makes zoe-alive whom he wishes. ²² For the father judges no one, but he has given all judgment to the son, ²³ that all honor⁷ the son just as they may honor⁷ the father. The [one] not honoring⁸ the son does not honor⁷ the father who sent him.

²⁴ Truly truly I say to you that the [one] hearing my word and believing the [one] having sent me has eternal zoe-life⁹ , and does not come into judgment, but is moved out of death into zoe-life⁹. ²⁵ Truly truly I say to you that [the] hour comes and now is when the dead will hear the cry of the son of God and those having heard will zoe-live. ²⁶ For as the father has zoe-life⁹ in himself, likewise also to the son he has given zoe-life⁹ to be having in himself. ²⁷ And he gave him authority to be doing judgment, because he is [a] son of man.

²⁸ Be not marveling at this, that [the] hour comes in which all those in the graves will hear his voice, ²⁹ and those having done good will come out to [the] resurrection of zoe-life⁹, [but] those having done [as a practice] worthless¹⁰ [things] will come out to [the] resurrection of judgment. ³⁰ For I am not able to be doing anything from myself; just as I hear do I judge, and my judgment is just, because I do not seek my own will but the will of the [one] having sent me.

More Testimony About Jesus

³¹ If I witness concerning myself, my witness is not true. ³² Another is witness concerning me, and I know that the witness is true that he witnessed concerning me. ³³ You sent to John, and he has witnessed to the truth; ³⁴ but I do not receive witness by man, but I say these [things] that you be saved. ³⁵ That [one] was the burning and shining lamp and you wanted to rejoice for [hour] in his light.

³⁶ But I have [a] witness greater than John; for the works that the father has given me in order that I complete¹¹ them, these works themselves which I do witness concerning me that the father has sent me. ³⁷ And the father having sent me, that [one] has witnessed concerning me. Neither his voice have you ever heard nor his visible-form have you ever seen, ³⁸ and his word you do not have abiding in you, because he whom that [one] has sent, in this [one] do you not believe. ³⁹ You search the scriptures, because you suppose in them to be having eternal zoe-life⁹, and these are those witnessing concerning me. ⁴⁰ And you do not want to come to me in order that you have zoe-life⁹. ⁴¹ I do not receive glory from men, ⁴² but I have known you that you do not have the agape-love of God in yourselves. ⁴³ I am come in the name of my father, and you do not receive me; if another come in his own name, that [one] you will receive. ⁴⁴ How are you able to believe, receiving glory from each other, and the glory of the only God¹² you do not seek?

⁴⁵ Be not supposing that I will accuse you to the father, the [one] accusing you is Moses, in whom you have hoped. ⁴⁶ For if you were believing Moses, you would have believed me; for concerning me did that [one] write. ⁴⁷ But if you do not believe the writings of that [one], how will you believe in my words?

¹add "awaiting movement of the water." KD vg; text: p^66,75,HB

²insert vs.4: K; omit vs.4: p^66,75HBDW

³EROTAO (ερωταω) "Ask", but more polite, not demanding/begging as is AITEO. Both AITEO and EROTAO occur in John.16:26.

⁴Behind Jesus� explanation may lie Jewish traditions of God's unceasing providential activities, which continue on the Sabbath—"God Himself has been working on every Sabbath" or else Creation would come to a halt. One of these activies would be presiding over birth and death (in Jewish theology judgement happened at death). Life, death and judgement all figure in Jesus' discourse which follows.

⁵This might also be understood in the sense of a son learning his father's "trade" by watching and imitating him, a common practice of that day.

⁶or "gives-zoe-life"

⁷or `value'

⁸or `valuing'

⁹from ZOE "ZOH-ay" (ζωη)—Life 'collectively', interdependent, interconnected. Although it means 'life' in the conventional sense (for example: Matt.9:18, Matt.27:63, Luke.2:36, Acts.25:24, Rom.7:2, 2Cor.1:8, 1Thes.4:17, 1Tim.5:10, Rev.19:20), Jesus uses ZOE exclusively of 'life eternal' (with the possible exceptions of Luke.15:13, Luke.16:25). The other N.T. writers use ZOE in both senses—temporal and eternal, generally clear from the context. The Father is the 'zoe-living God' (see Matt.16:16). The Septuagint (LXX) in Gen.2:7 has "...[God] breathed into his nostrils the breath of zoe-life, and the man became a zoe-living psyche-life" (and see 1Cor.15:45); and Gen.3:20 (LXX) "And Adam called his wife's name ZOE, because she was the mother of all zoe-living." Contrast PSYCHE (ψυχη): an individual manifestation of life/consciousness. See John.12:25 where both ZOE and PSYCHE occur. Greek also has the word BIOS (βιoς ) for 'life' in the sense of biological processes.

¹⁰or "trivial", "petty"

¹¹or "perfect"

¹²"God" ℵDHK vg; "[one]" p^66,75 BW