John 5

Listen to John 5

The Healing at the Pool on the Sabbath

1 After this there was a 1feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
2 Now there is in Jerusalem by 2the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic[a] called Bethesda,[b] which has five roofed colonnades.
3 In these lay a multitude of invalids--blind, lame, and 3paralyzed.[c]
5 One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.
6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, "Do you want to be healed?"
7 The sick man answered him, "Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me."
8 Jesus said to him, 4"Get up, take up your bed, and walk."
9 5And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. 6Now that day was the Sabbath.
10 So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, "It is the Sabbath, and 7it is not lawful for you to take up your bed."
11 But he answered them, "The man who healed me, that man said to me, 'Take up your bed, and walk.'"
12 They asked him, "Who is the man who said to you, 'Take up your bed and walk'?"
13 Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for 8Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place.
14 Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, "See, you are well! 9Sin no more, 10that nothing worse may happen to you."
15 The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him.
16 And this was why the Jews 11were persecuting Jesus, 12because he was doing these things on the Sabbath.
17 But Jesus answered them, "My Father is working until now, and I am working."

Jesus Is Equal with God

18 This was why the Jews 13were seeking all the more to kill him, 14because not only was he 15breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God 16his own Father, 17making himself equal with God.

The Authority of the Son

19 So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, 18the Son 19can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father[d] does, that the Son does likewise.
20 For 20the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And 21greater works than these will he show him, so that 22you may marvel.
21 For as the Father 23raises the dead and 24gives them life, so 25also the Son gives life 26to whom he will.
22 27The Father judges no one, but 28has given all judgment to the Son,
23 that all may honor the Son, just as they 29honor the Father. 30Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.
24 Truly, truly, I say to you, 31whoever hears my word and 32believes him who sent me has eternal life. He 33does not come into judgment, but 34has passed from death to life.
25 "Truly, truly, I say to you, 35an hour is coming, and is now here, when 36the dead will hear 37the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear 38will live.
26 39For as the Father has life in himself, 40so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.
27 And he 41has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man.
28 Do not marvel at this, for 42an hour is coming when 43all who are in the tombs will hear his voice
29 and come out, 44those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.

Witnesses to Jesus

30 45"I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and 46my judgment is just, because 47I seek not my own will 48but the will of him who sent me.
31 49If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not deemed true.
32 There is 50another who bears witness about me, and 51I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true.
33 52You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth.
34 Not that 53the testimony that I receive is from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved.
35 He was a burning and 54shining lamp, and 55you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.
36 But 56the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. For 57the works that the Father has given me 58to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, 59bear witness about me that 60the Father has sent me.
37 And the Father who sent me 61has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, 62his form you have never seen,
38 and 63you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent.
39 64You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and 65it is they that bear witness about me,
40 yet 66you refuse to come to me that you may have life.
41 67I do not receive glory from people.
42 But 68I know that you do not have 69the love of God within you.
43 I have come 70in my Father's name, and 71you do not receive me. 72If another comes in his own name, you will receive him.
44 How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and 73do not seek the glory that comes from 74the only God?
45 Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, 75on whom you have set your hope.
46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for 76he wrote of me.
47 But 77if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?"

Cross References 77

  • 1. See John 6:4
  • 2. Nehemiah 3:1, 32; Nehemiah 12:39
  • 3. Matthew 12:10
  • 4. Matthew 9:6, 7; Mark 2:9, 11, 12; Luke 5:24, 25
  • 5. [See ver. 8 above]
  • 6. John 9:14
  • 7. Exodus 20:10; Nehemiah 13:19; Jeremiah 17:21, 22; [John 7:23; John 9:16; Matthew 12:2; Mark 2:24; Mark 3:4; Luke 6:2; Luke 13:14]
  • 8. [John 6:15]
  • 9. [John 8:11]
  • 10. [Ezra 9:14]
  • 11. John 15:20; [Acts 9:4, 5]
  • 12. John 7:23; John 9:16
  • 13. See John 7:1
  • 14. See John 10:33
  • 15. ver. 16
  • 16. [Romans 8:32]
  • 17. Philippians 2:6
  • 18. See ver. 30
  • 19. [John 16:13]
  • 20. John 3:35; John 10:17; John 15:9, 10; John 17:23-26; [Matthew 3:17]
  • 21. [John 14:12]
  • 22. John 7:21
  • 23. [Deuteronomy 32:39; 2 Corinthians 1:9]
  • 24. Romans 4:17; Romans 8:11
  • 25. [John 6:33; John 11:25]; See 1 Corinthians 15:45
  • 26. [Romans 9:18]
  • 27. [Acts 17:31]
  • 28. ver. 27; John 9:39; Acts 10:42; [John 3:17]; See John 17:2
  • 29. John 8:49
  • 30. Luke 10:16; [John 15:23; 1 John 2:23]
  • 31. [John 8:51]
  • 32. John 20:31; 1 John 5:9-13; [John 3:15, 36; John 12:44]
  • 33. John 3:18; [ver. 29]
  • 34. 1 John 3:14
  • 35. See John 4:21, 23
  • 36. See Ephesians 2:1, 5
  • 37. [John 11:43]
  • 38. See Ephesians 2:1, 5
  • 39. [John 6:57]
  • 40. See John 1:4; John 17:2
  • 41. ver. 22
  • 42. [See ver. 25 above]
  • 43. John 11:24; 1 Corinthians 15:52; [John 11:44, 45]
  • 44. See Daniel 12:2
  • 45. ver. 19; John 8:28; John 14:10
  • 46. John 8:16
  • 47. John 4:34; John 6:38; [John 7:18; Romans 15:3]
  • 48. See Matthew 26:39
  • 49. [John 8:13, 14, 18, 54; John 18:21]
  • 50. ver. 37
  • 51. John 7:28, 29
  • 52. See John 1:7, 19
  • 53. 1 John 5:9
  • 54. 2 Peter 1:19
  • 55. [Matthew 13:20; Matthew 21:26]
  • 56. [See ver. 34 above]
  • 57. John 10:25, 38; John 14:11; John 15:24; [John 2:23; Matthew 11:4]
  • 58. See John 4:34
  • 59. [John 3:2]
  • 60. See John 3:17
  • 61. John 8:18; [Matthew 3:17]
  • 62. See John 1:18
  • 63. [1 John 2:14; 1 John 4:13, 14; 1 John 5:10]
  • 64. [Acts 17:11; 2 Timothy 3:15]
  • 65. See Luke 24:27
  • 66. ver. 43; John 3:19; John 7:17; [Matthew 23:37; Luke 13:34]
  • 67. ver. 34; [Matthew 6:1, 2; 1 Thessalonians 2:6]
  • 68. See John 2:24, 25
  • 69. Luke 11:42; See Jude 21
  • 70. John 10:25; John 12:13; John 17:12
  • 71. John 1:11; John 3:11, 32
  • 72. [Matthew 24:5]
  • 73. Romans 2:29
  • 74. John 17:3
  • 75. [John 9:28, 29; Romans 2:17]
  • 76. ver. 47; Numbers 21:9; Deuteronomy 18:15; Luke 24:27; [John 12:41]
  • 77. [Luke 16:31]

Footnotes 4

  • [a]. Or Hebrew
  • [b]. Some manuscripts Bethsaida
  • [c]. Some manuscripts insert, wholly or in part, waiting for the moving of the water; 4for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool, and stirred the water: whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was healed of whatever disease he had
  • [d]. Greek he

John 5 Commentaries

The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.