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

The texts below are quoted verbatim from public-domain English translations; nothing is paraphrased.

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St. Cyril of Alexandria (c. 376–444)read the full homily ›

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.

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St. John Chrysostom (c. 347–407)read the full homily ›

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.

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Blessed Augustine of Hippo (354–430)read the full homily ›

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?

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St. Bede the Venerable (c. 673–735)read the full homily ›

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.