John 5:12

12 So they asked him, "Who is the man who said to you, 'Pick up [your mat] and walk?'"

John 5:12 Meaning and Commentary

John 5:12

Then asked they him
Suspecting who had made him whole, and gave him this order:

what man is that which said unto thee, take up thy bed and walk?
they take no notice of the cure, being unwilling to give any glory to Christ, and still less to spread it; but chose rather that it should be obscured, hid, and unobserved; but they laid hold on that, which they thought might be improved to his reproach and scandal; and they call him a man, as supposing him to be a mere man, and a wicked man too, for giving orders to transgress a tradition of the elders, though no mere man could work such a cure as this was. And so the Jews since, though they cannot find fault with the cure, which they put an "if" upon, yet are highly displeased with the order, to take up his bed and carry it:

``if (say they ^F1) he wrought a cure, lo, that is good, but why did he bid him take up his bed?''

the answer may be, to show that he was cured.

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FOOTNOTES:

F1 Vet. Nizzachon, p. 207.

John 5:12 In-Context

10 So the Jews were saying to the one who had been healed, "It is the Sabbath, and it is not permitted for you to pick up the mat!"

11 But he answered them, "The one who made me well--that one said to me, 'Pick up your mat and walk!'"

12 So they asked him, "Who is the man who said to you, 'Pick up [your mat] and walk?'"

13 But the one who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn [while] a crowd was in the place.

14 After these [things] Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, "Look, you have become well! Sin no longer, lest something worse happen to you."

Footnotes

• [a]. Some manuscripts have "They asked him"
• [b]. *In Greek the direct object ("[your mat]") is not in the Greek text but the repetition is implied from the previous verse