John 5:16

16 and on this account the Jews began to persecute Jesus--because He did these things on the Sabbath.

John 5:16 Meaning and Commentary

John 5:16

And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus
With their tongues, reproaching and reviling him, as a sabbath breaker, a destroyer of the law, and a sinful wicked man:

and sought to slay him;
either in a violent way, by setting the zealots, a sort of ruffians under the pretence of religion, upon him; or rather in a judicial way, summoning him before the sanhedrim, in order to condemn him to death for the breach of the sabbath, which by the law of Moses was punishable with death:

because he had done these things on the sabbath day;
because he had cured the man of his disease, under which he had laboured eight and thirty years, and had ordered him to take up his bed, and walk home with it on his back on the sabbath day. This drew upon him their resentment to such a degree, that they not only persecuted him with their tongues, but sought to take away his life. Nothing would satisfy them but his blood.

John 5:16 In-Context

14 Afterwards Jesus found him in the Temple and said to him, "You are now restored to health. Do not sin any more, or a worse thing may befall you."

15 The man went and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had restored him to health;

16 and on this account the Jews began to persecute Jesus--because He did these things on the Sabbath.

17 His reply to their accusation was, "My Father works unceasingly, and so do I."

18 On this account then the Jews were all the more eager to put Him to death--because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also spoke of God as being in a special sense His Father, thus putting Himself on a level with God.