John 5 Footnotes

5:2 Until the 1890s, critics doubted this detail. Then the pool of Bethesda was excavated in Jerusalem and it turned out to have had five covered colonnades—four around the perimeter and one dividing the water into two compartments down the middle.

5:16-30 Throughout this passage it seems as if Jesus went back and forth between claiming he was equal to God and saying he was subordinate to his Father. Actually, both were true. There was essential equality with functional subordination. All three persons of the Trinity are fully divine and united as one God in three persons, but they have distinct as well as overlapping roles. The Son never commands the Father; he only obeys him.