John 5:16

16 For this cause the Yehudim persecuted Yeshua, and sought to kill him, because he did these things on the Shabbat.

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 Afterward Yeshua found him in the temple, and said to him, "Behold, you are made well. Sin no more, so that nothing worse happens to you."

15 The man went away, and told the Yehudim that it was Yeshua who had made him well.

16 For this cause the Yehudim persecuted Yeshua, and sought to kill him, because he did these things on the Shabbat.

17 But Yeshua answered them, "My Father is still working, so I am working, too."

18 For this cause therefore the Yehudim sought the more to kill him, because he not only broke the Shabbat, but also called God his own Father, making himself equal with God.