3 In these lay a great multi-ever then first after the troubling tude of impotent folk, of blind, of the water stepped in, was made halt, withered, waiting for the whole of whatsoever disease he moving of the water. had.

4 For an angel went down 5 And a certain man was at a certain season into the pool, there, which had an infirmity and troubled the water: whoso-thirty and eight years.

is shown by its being printed in Italics. The word gate is preferable; because we learn from Neh. 3: 1, 32. 12: 39, that there was a gate so called; while no mention occurs of a sheep market. A pool; a bathing pool suitable for diseased and infirm persons. Hebrew tongue; the language spoken in Judea by the Jews in the time of our Lord. It was not the pure Hebrew of the Old Testament, but a dialect founded on it, and mingled with other languages. || Bethesda. The meaning of this word is house of mercy; the conveniences connected with the bath having been erected for charitable purposes, and the bath itself being an instance of God's kindness. Porches; porticoes, open probably at the sides, and covered with a roof, so as to afford defence to those who should repair to

the bath.

3. Impotent folk; infirm, diseased people. Blind; by disease, not from birth. See 9: 32. || Halt; crippled. Withered. See on Matt. 12: 10.

4. An angel. The operations of divine providence, particularly those of a striking character, whether according to the ordinary course of events or otherwise, are sometimes ascribed in the Bible to the agency of angels; they being regarded as God's ministers, and an acknowledgment of God's agency being thus made. See Ps. 34: 7. 91: 11, 12. Compare Matt. 1: 20. || At a certain season; not at any regular times; but, as we say, at times.

of our Saviour. 1. There is no allusion in the New Testament to this pool as a place where miraculous cures were performed. 2. There is no intimation in any Jewish writer, that there was in Jerusalem a pool endowed with miraculous powers. If the pool had been thus regarded, there could hardly fail to have been mention of it. 3. Real miracles are mentioned by our Lord as belonging expressly to him and his disciples, as attestations of his divine mission. See Matt. 11: 5. John 15: 24. Our Saviour's healing power would not have been so important as bearing testimony to his divine mission, if the Jews could have appealed to a pool, where miracles were wrought in behalf of the sick among them.

On the other hand, the idea of a miraculous agency seems to be conveyed by the statement, that "whosoever first after the troubling [the agitating] of the water stepped in, was made whole of whatsoever disease he had." Perhaps, however, this statement was meant to express the great variety of complaints which were included under the three sorts of infirmity mentioned in the third verse.

It is stated as probable, by some writers, that there was at this place a mineral spring, which had been proved to possess medicinal qualities, when, through the influence of subterranean heat, or other causes, there was a bubbling up of the water from the bottom. During this agitation, occurring in the kind providence of Whether the cures performed at God, the mineral and medicinal qualithis bath were miraculous, or not, is ties of the water spread through the made a question. Without under- mass, and a person who should intaking to decide, it may be observed, stantly bathe himself, experienced that there are some reasons which relief. At the subsiding of the water, favor the belief that they were not the healing quality was exhausted. considered as miraculous in the time | Mineral waters have been known to

11. He that made me whole, the same said unto me, &c. The man had no doubt, that he, who could miraculously cure diseases, had also authority to permit him to carry his 15. Told the Jews, &c. He gave bed on the Sabbath; and he thought | information, not with an ill design,

16 And therefore did the Jews | My Father worketh hitherto, persecute Jesus, and sought to and I work.

slay him, because he had done 18 Therefore the Jews sought these things on the Sabbath- the more to kill him, because he day.

17 But Jesus answered them,

not only had broken the Sabbath, but said also, that God was

but, it may be, for the purpose of still || Making himself equal with God. further defending himself against the That is, claiming to himself an authoraccusation of having violated the Sab-ity equal to that of God, and thus, in bath, and for the sake of showing his their judgment, setting up himself as gratitude to his benefactor. How a God, with designs and interests of naturally, too, might he think it de- his own, diverse from those of Jesirable to spread abroad a knowledge hovah. of such a person as Jesus, that others might receive benefit from him!

16. Therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus; not the Jews in private life, but the men of distinction, and probably members of the Sanhedrim, who would feel themselves charged with the execution of the laws which they pretended had been violated, and who would gladly have found a good pretext for opposing Jesus, and even for taking away his life. Sought to slay him. Sabbath-breakers were to be punished with death. See Ex. 35: 2. Num. 15: 32-36. However willing the rulers of the Jews might have been to relax either the law or any specific penalties whenever it suited their convenience, they were very willing to proceed against Jesus to any extremities for which they could have the slightest pretext.

The assertion which our Lord had made in the 17th verse was indeed a very remarkable one; such as no mere man could justly make, and such as could be vindicated only on the ground, that he was not a mere man, but that he was the Word who was in the beginning with God, and was God, and who had been made flesh. See 1: 1, 2, 14. But the Jews before whom he was now standing, did not know him in this exalted character; they recognized in him only what was obvious to their own sight and minds, namely, a human being; and, withal, a human being against whom they were prejudiced, whom they wished to injure, and whose language they were disposed to pervert. Hence they regarded him in the light of an enthusiast, who had advanced a very extravagant 17. My Father worketh hitherto. claim, professing, in short, to be equal That is, up to this time, without any to God; and if a man, like him, intermission, my Father has been con- should thus claim to be God, they stantly occupied in sustaining the would naturally represent him as world, and carrying on the work of claiming an independence of God, as providence. The Sabbath does not acting on a plan of his own, without occasion any interruption of his work-reference to God, and as claiming ining. And I work. That is, I, like terests of his own, distinct from those him, carry on my work without be- of God. They probably affected to ing interrupted by the Sabbath. Be regard Jesus, as we should now reit the Sabbath, or be it any other gard a man who should, in self-vindiday, I carry on my work as God car-cation, use language that might seem

ries on his.

18. That God was his Father; literally, that God was his own Father; his Father in a peculiar sense, quite different from that in which pious men speak of God as their Father.

to us as claiming a divine authority dwelling in himself. We should think such a man highly presumptuous, and we might say to him, You make yourself equal with God; you make yourself a God; you set up a

his Father, making himself equal | things that himself doeth and with God. he will show him greater works than these, that ye may marvel.

19 Then answered Jesus, and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.

20 For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all

21 For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will.

22 For the Father judgeth no man; but hath committed all judgment unto the Son :

plete agreement in all their works, so that the works of the Father are also the works of the Son.

claim that is in opposition to God. Such is the thought in reference to which our Saviour made his subsequent address; in which address he 20. Showeth him all things, &c. vindicated himself from the charge The Son is a partaker of the counsels of claiming to be independent of, and and purposes of the Father as to all distinct from, God in his plans and things. There is nothing in the Fapursuits. In this address, he did not ther's mind that is not also comdirectly touch the question, whether, municated to the Son's. | Greater or not, he was a partaker of the di- works than these, &c. Jesus had alvine nature; he replied to the ques-ready wrought miracles, besides the tion, whether he was disregarding healing of the infirm man at BethesGod, and cherishing interests and da. The admiration of the beholders pursuing plans diverse from those of God. He strongly assured the Jews, that, so far from there being such a disregard and such a diversity as they represented, there was the most intimate union between him and the Father in design and in operation.

His language is indeed such, as finds its full explanation only in the fact that he was a partaker of the divine nature as well as of the human. But this he did not state distinctly; he left them to draw inferences from statements which would naturally lead to such a conclusion. Thus, by his manner of speaking, he prepared the way for the more direct declarations which would afterwards be made respecting his exalted nature. 19. Of himself. That is, of his own will and authority as distinct from those of the Father. || Seeth. This word is used with reference to the mind, as well as to the bodily eyes, and indicates a full knowledge. The idea is explained by the next words, which show that between the Father and the Son there is a com

had often been excited. But he assured them that far more remarkable things were yet to be performed by him. What those things would be, he proceeded to explain. || That ye may marvel. Not that those greater operations were designed merely to excite astonishment, but that one of the consequences resulting from such displays of divine power and knowledge would be, astonishment on the part of the beholders. So great would those works be, that they would command a far deeper admiration than had yet been expressed.

21. Quickeneth them; imparteth life. This is one of the greater works to which the Saviour alluded; namely, the resurrection of the dead, not so much to life in this world, as to the unending life in eternity. This power of imparting life to the dead resided in the Saviour, as in God. There is evidence that the Jews had some vague expectation that there would be a resurrection of the dead when the Messiah should appear.

22. Hath committed all judgment

23 That all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth not the Son, honoreth not the Father which hath sent him.

25 Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.

26 For as the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; 27 And hath given him au

24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemna-thority to execute judgment altion; but is passed from death so, because he is the Son of unto life.

unto the Son. This is the other of those greater works; namely, the performing of the general judgment at the end of the world. Compare Matt. 25: 31-46. Acts 17: 31.2 Cor. 5: 10. These two, the resurrection of the dead and the general judgment, are to be performed by the. Son. Such is the arrangement which the Father has made; and such is the honor that is conferred on the Son.

23. That all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. The official dignity which pertains to the Son, as the final judge and awarder of men's destiny, and as performing this office perfectly in accordance with the mind of the Father, presents a just claim for the same respect to be paid to the Son as is due to the Father. He will act perfectly according to the Father's will, and by the Father's arrangement.

man.

cally used in the Scriptures to denote spiritual misery; life, on the contrary, denotes spiritual happiness. The idea here conveyed by our Lord is, that a true follower of the Messiah is delivered from the condemnation and misery connected with sin, and becomes a partaker of spiritual and eternal bliss.

25. The Saviour again referred to those greater things which were yet to be performed by him, as manifestations of his power and of his official dignity. The hour is coming, and now is, &c. The Saviour's life-giving power, which is to be so fully displayed at the general resurrection, was also soon, to some extent, to be manifested. Some of the dead were to be recalled to life speedily. The time was just at hand. According to the common arrangement of the events related in the Gospels, Jesus had not yet restored to life any dead persons. But shortly after this, he restored the daughter of Jairus (Matt. 9: 23-26), the young man of Nain (Luke 7: 11-17), and Lazarus (John 11: 43, 44).

24. Having brought to view two great classes of operations to be performed by him in his official capacity, Jesus next solemnly pronounced himself to be the Saviour, by obeying whom eternal life would be secured. Heareth my word; receiveth and obeyeth my instructions. || Hath. This may be regarded as the present tense used for the future, indicating the certainty of everlasting bliss to those who should become disciples of Jesus Christ; or, the actual commencement on earth of the bliss which the Messiah bestows may be intimated. From death unto life. 27. Compare v. 22. The Son of The word death is often metaphori-man; the Messiah. The final judg

26. Life in himself; a life-giving power in himself. || So hath he given to the Son, &c. Compare verse 21, which shows that, while there is mentioned an official designation of the Son by the Father to the work of raising the dead, there are also in the Son his own personal will and ability for this work.