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The man at the pool of Bethesda

John 5:1–15 · Early ministry in Galilee

Scripture

John 5:1–15

fter this there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches. 3In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. 4For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. 5And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. 6When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole? 7The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me. 8Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk. 9And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked: and on the same day was the sabbath. 10The Jews therefore said unto him that was cured, It is the sabbath day: it is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed. 11He answered them, He that made me whole, the same said unto me, Take up thy bed, and walk. 12Then asked they him, What man is that which said unto thee, Take up thy bed, and walk? 13And he that was healed wist not who it was: for Jesus had conveyed himself away, a multitude being in that place. 14Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee. 15The man departed, and told the Jews that it was Jesus, which had made him whole.

King James Version · public domain

Joani 5:1–15

as këtyreve ishte një e-kremte e Judhenjet; edhe Jisuj hipi ndë Jerusalim. 2Edhe ndë Jerusalim afërë derës’ së dhënet është një pellk uji që quhetë Ebraisht Vithesda, edhe ka pesë kamare. 3Ndër këto dirgjej shumë shumicë të-sëmurësh, të-verbërësh, të-çalësh, të-thatësh që pritninë të-luajturit’ e ujit. 4Sepse kohë mbë kohë sbriste një ëngjëll ndë pellkt, edhe trazonte ujëtë; cili pra të hynte më përpara, pas të-trazuarit t’ujit, bënej i-shëndoshë prej çdo farë smundjeje që të kishte. 5Edhe atje ishte një njeri, që ishte i-sëmurë tri-dhjet’ e tetë vjet. 6Jisuj kur e pa këtë se po dirgjej, edhe mori vesh se prej shumë kohe ndashti ishte i-sëmurë, i thotë. A do të bënesh i-shëndoshë? 7I sëmuri i upërgjeq, Zot, s’kam njeri të më vërë ndë pellkt, kur trazonet’ ujëtë; sepse tek po vinj unë, tjetërë sbret përpara meje. 8Jisuj i thotë, Çohu, ngri shtratinë t’ënt, edhe ecë. 9Edhe për-një-here njeriu ubë i-shëndoshë, edhe ngriti shtratin’ e ti, edhe ecënte. Edhe atë ditë ishte e-shëtunë. 10Judhenjtë pra i thoshin’ ati që ushërua Esht’ e-shëtunë; nuk’ ësht’ e udhësë të ngresh shtratinë. 11Ay u upërgjeq atyre, Ay që më shëroj më tha, Ngri shtratinë t’ënt, edhe ecë. 12E pyetnë pra, Cili është ay njeri që të tha, Ngri shtratinë t’ënt’ edhe ecë? 13Po ay që ushërua nukë dinte cili është; Sepse Jisuj ushtëmenk, sepse kishte shumë gjindje nd’atë vent. 14Pastaj Jisuj e gjen atë ndë hieroret, edhe i tha, Na tek ubëre i-shëndoshë; mos bëj më faj, që të mos të bënetë ndonjë gjë m’e keqe. 15Njeriu pra shkoj, edhe u dha zë Judhenjet, se ay që e bëri të-shëndoshë është Jisuj.

Kristoforidhi, Dhiata e Re Toskërisht 1879 · zotërim publik

Summary

Chrysostom and Cyril dwell on the thirty-eight years of helplessness and on the man's having no one to carry him down into the water; into that long abandonment Christ Himself comes as the one Helper. He proves greater than the angel-troubled pool, which healed only one, only at intervals, and only the swiftest; Christ heals by His word, at will, and in an instant. Chrysostom marks too the man's patience, that he kept his place so many years without despairing, and reads his return to the temple as gratitude that completes the cure. Cyril sees in the troubled water a foreshadowing of Baptism, where the healing is not for one but for all, and not bodily but unto life.

The Sabbath setting opens the long Johannine controversy: the Jews accuse the healed man for carrying his bed, and Christ for working on the Sabbath. The Fathers answer that the true Lord of the Sabbath works the works of His Father, and that bodily rest was given as a sign of a deeper rest to come.

Blessed Augustine, cited in the Byzantine catenae, reads the scene allegorically: the five porches are the five books of the Law, which sheltered the sick but could not heal them, for the Law convicts and does not cure. The number thirty-eight, two short of forty, he takes as a defect in love, since love fulfills the Law in its two commandments; what is lacking Christ supplies. The command "take up thy bed, and walk" he hears as bearing one's neighbor in charity and walking toward God.

Christ's later word, "Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee," the Fathers handle with care. Not every affliction is punishment for sin, as the Lord teaches of the man born blind (John 9); yet here a real link is drawn, and the warning sets the soul's health above the body's.

In their own words

He raised not up the man at once, but first maketh him familiar by questioning, making way for the coming faith

St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Gospel of St. John, Homily XXXVII (on John v. 6-8) (NPNF1 Vol. 14)

The Healing at the Pool of Bethesda (John 5:1–15)

Public-Domain Patristic Commentary

Recorded only by John: a man infirm thirty-eight years lies among a multitude of the sick at the pool called Bethesda, with its five porches. Christ asks, "Wilt thou be made whole?", and with the word "Rise, take up thy bed, and walk," heals him on the Sabbath; later He finds him in the temple and says, "Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee." (This is the paralytic whom Chrysostom, in the homily quoted below, is at pains to distinguish from the man healed at Capernaum.) The texts below are quoted verbatim from public-domain English translations, each Father from his own work, together with passages preserved in the Catena Aurea on John (St. Thomas Aquinas, trans. J. H. Newman, 1841). Nothing is paraphrased.

St. Cyril of Alexandria (c. 376–444)

Commentary on the Gospel of John (on John 5) Source: trans. in the Library of Fathers (P. E. Pusey), 1874. Public domain. Full text: https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/cyril_on_john_02_book2.htm

On the season of the healing, and the thirty-eight years as a number short of the Law's fullness:

The Jews having celebrated their feast of unleavened bread, in which it is their custom to kill the sheep, to wit, at the time of the Passover, Christ departeth from Jerusalem, and mingleth with the Samaritans and aliens, and teacheth among them, being grieved at the stubbornness of the Jews. And having barely returned at the holy Pentecost (for this was the next solemnity in Jerusalem and at no great interval), He heals at the waters of the pool the paralytic, who had passed long time in sickness (for it was even his thirty-eighth year): but who had not yet attained unto the perfect number of the Law, I speak of four times ten or forty.

St. John Chrysostom (c. 347–407)

Homily on the Paralytic Let Down Through the Roof Source: trans. in the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 9. Public domain. Full text: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1911.htm

On the treasure of patience hidden in the man, infirm thirty-eight years:

He had been thirty and eight years struggling with an incurable infirmity and was perpetually plagued by it, yet he did not repine, he did not utter a blasphemous word, he did not accuse his Maker, but endured his calamity bravely and with much meekness.

On his meek answer when Christ asked, "Wilt thou be made whole?":

For when Jesus said to him "Will you be made whole?" he did not make the natural reply, you see me who have been this long time lying sick of the palsy, and do you ask me if I wish to be made whole? Have you come to insult my distress, to reproach me and laugh me to scorn? ... He did not say or conceive anything of this kind but meekly replied "Yea Lord."

On affliction as a refining fire:

For as a gold refiner having cast a piece of gold into the furnace suffers it to be proved by the fire until such time as he sees it has become purer: even so God permits the souls of men to be tested by troubles until they become pure and transparent and have reaped much profit from this process of sifting.

On the gentleness of the rebuke, "sin no more," spoken privately:

For He did not make a public exposure of his sins, but yet He told him that he suffered what he did suffer on account of his sins, but what those sins were He did not disclose; nor did He say "you have sinned" or "you have transgressed," but He indicated the fact by one simple utterance "sin no more." ... For just as we ourselves desire to draw a veil over our sins even so does God much more than we: on this account He wrought the cure in the presence of all, but He gives the exhortation or the advice privately.

Blessed Augustine of Hippo (354–430)

Tractates on the Gospel of John, Tractate 17 (on John 5:1–18) Source: trans. in the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 7. Public domain. Full text: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1701017.htm

On the healing of the soul as the greater work, and the one healed as a sign of unity:

It is of greater importance to our salvation what He was made for men, than what He did among men: it is more important that He healed the faults of souls, than that He healed the weaknesses of mortal bodies ... He entered a place where lay a great multitude of sick folk, of blind, lame, withered; and being the physician both of souls and bodies, and having come to heal all the souls of them that should believe, of those sick folk He chose one for healing, thereby to signify unity.

On the five porches as the five books of the Law, which shelter but cannot heal:

That pool and that water seem to me to have signified the Jewish people ... That water, then, namely, that people, was shut in by the five books of Moses, as by five porches. But those books brought forth the sick, not healed them. For the law convicted, not acquitted sinners ... The five porches are the law. Why did not the five porches heal the sick folk? Because, "if there had been a law given that could have given life, certainly righteousness should have been by the law."

On the troubling of the water as the Lord's death:

What, then, is meant by this, unless it be that there came one, even Christ, to the Jewish people; and by doing great things, by teaching profitable things, troubled sinners, troubled the water by His presence, and roused it towards His own death? ... Wherefore, to go down into the troubled water means to believe in the Lord's death. There only one was healed, signifying unity: whoever came thereafter was not healed, because whoever shall be outside unity cannot be healed.

On the thirty-eight years as a number of weakness, short of forty by the two precepts of love:

Now, as I was saying, love fulfills the law. The number forty belongs to the perfecting of the law in all works; but in love two precepts are committed to our keeping ... If, therefore, the number forty possesses the perfecting of the law, and the law is fulfilled only in the twin precepts of love, why do you wonder that he was weak and sick, who was short of forty by two?

On "Take up thy bed, and walk" as the very love the man had lacked:

"Arise," says He; "take up your bed, and walk." He said three things: "Arise, Take up your bed, and Walk." But that "Arise" was not a command to do a work, but the operation of healing. And the man, on being made whole, received two commands: "Take up your bed, and Walk." ... My impression is, that He who found the man lacking two things, gave him these two precepts: for, by ordering him to do two things, it is as if He filled up that which was lacking.

When you were weak your neighbor bore you: you are made whole, bear your neighbor. So will you fill up, O man, that which was lacking to you. "Take up your bed, then." But when you have taken it up, stay not in the place; "walk." By loving your neighbor, by caring for your neighbor, do you perform your going. Where are you going, but to the Lord God, whom we ought to love with the whole heart?

St. Bede the Venerable (c. 673–735)

As preserved in the Catena Aurea on John. Public domain.

On the difference between Christ's word and a physician's craft:

There is a wide difference between our Lord's mode of healing, and a physician's. He acts by His word, and acts immediately: the other's requires a long time for its completion.

On why it is fitly named the sheep pool:

It is fitly described as a sheep pool. By sheep are meant people, according to the passage, We are your people, and the sheep of your pasture.

On the kinds of infirmity gathered at the pool, read spiritually:

Lastly, many kinds of impotent folk lay near the pool: the blind, i.e. those who are without the light of knowledge; the lame, i.e. those who have not strength to do what they are commanded; the withered, i.e. those who have not the marrow of heavenly love.

On "Arise, and walk," and bearing one's neighbor:

What mean the words, Arise, and walk; except that you should raise yourself from your torpor and indolence, and study to advance in good works. Take up your bed, i.e. your neighbor by which you are carried, and bear him patiently thyself.

Note on other Fathers

A striking convergence: both Cyril and Augustine read the thirty-eight years against the number forty, the fullness of the Law, the man falling short of it (for Augustine, by the two precepts of love). Chrysostom's homily, quoted here for the Bethesda man's patience and the gentleness of "sin no more," is itself chiefly concerned to prove that this paralytic is not the same man as the one healed at Capernaum and let down through the roof. Bede's notes, drawn from the Catena Aurea on John, draw out the spiritual sense of the sheep pool, of the blind, lame, and withered, and of bearing one's neighbor. The Catena Aurea also preserves further passages of Chrysostom and Augustine on this healing beyond those quoted above, alongside the Western glosses of Alcuin which are not reproduced here. For verbatim public-domain English, the works above are the principal sources.

Patristic sources

Read the sources: Chrysostom on John (CCEL) · Augustine, Tractates on John (New Advent)