Yochanan 5:12

12 They asked him, Who is haIsh (the man) telling you to take up your mat and walk?

Yochanan 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.


FOOTNOTES:

F1 Vet. Nizzachon, p. 207.

Yochanan 5:12 In-Context

10 So those of Yehudah were saying to the one having been granted refu’ah (healing), It is Shabbos, so it is asur (prohibited), it is chillul Shabbos [desecration of Shabbat] for you to carry your mat. [NECHEMYAH 13:1522; YIRMEYAH 17:21]
11 But the man in reply said to them, The one having given me refu’ah, that one said to me, Take up your mat and walk!
12 They asked him, Who is haIsh (the man) telling you to take up your mat and walk?
13 But the one having been granted refu’ah (healing) did not have da’as who it is, for Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach slipped away, there being a multitude in the place.
14 After these things Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach finds him in the Beis Hamikdash, and said to him, Hinei, you have received your refu’ah. No longer commit averos, for fear that something worse happen to you.
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