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John 5

1After these things there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2In Jerusalem, near the Sheep Gate, there is a pool called Bethesda in Hebrew, with five colonnades. 3In these lay a multitude of sick people: blind, lame, and withered.

5A man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. 6Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been ill for a long time. He said to him, “Do you want to become well?” 7The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me in the pool when the water is stirred up. While I am coming, someone else goes down before me.” 8Jesus said to him, “Get up, pick up your mat, and walk.” 9Immediately the man became well, picked up his mat, and walked.

Now that day was a Sabbath. 10So the Jews told the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and you are not permitted to carry your mat.” 11But he answered them, “The one who made me well told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’” 12They asked him, “Who is the man who told you, ‘Pick it up and walk’?” 13The man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away, with a crowd present. 14After these things Jesus found him in the temple and told him, “Look, you have become well. Sin no more, so that something worse does not happen to you.” 15The man went away and told the Jews that Jesus was the one who made him well. 16For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. 17But he answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I too am working.” 18For this reason the Jews sought all the more to kill him, because he was not only breaking the Sabbath but also calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

19Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I tell you: the Son can do nothing from himself, except what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise. 20For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he himself does. He will show him greater works than these, so that you may marvel. 21For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so the Son gives life to whomever he wishes. 22The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, 23so that everyone may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.

24“Truly, truly, I tell you: whoever hears my word and believes the one who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment but has passed from death into life. 25Truly, truly, I tell you: an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. 26For just as the Father has life in himself, so he has also granted the Son to have life in himself. 27He has given him authority to carry out judgment, because he is the Son of Man. 28Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice 29and come out: those who have done good to a resurrection of life, and those who have done wicked things to a resurrection of judgment.

30“I can do nothing from myself. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of the one who sent me. 31If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true. 32There is another who testifies about me, and I know that the testimony he gives about me is true. 33You have sent to John, and he has testified to the truth. 34But I do not receive testimony from a human being; I say these things so that you may be saved. 35He was the lamp that burned and shone, and you were willing to rejoice for a time in his light.

36“But I have testimony greater than John's. For the works the Father has given me to complete—the very works I do—testify about me that the Father has sent me. 37And the Father who sent me has himself testified about me. You have never heard his voice or seen his form, 38and you do not have his word remaining in you, because you do not believe the one he sent. 39You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life, and these are the very ones that testify about me. 40Yet you are unwilling to come to me so that you may have life.

41“I do not receive glory from people. 42But I know you: you do not have the love of God in yourselves. 43I have come in my Father's name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. 44How can you believe, receiving glory from one another and not seeking the glory that comes from the only God? 45Do not think I will accuse you before the Father. The one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have set your hope. 46For if you believed Moses, you would believe me, because he wrote about me. 47But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”

Translation notes 3

5:2 — Bethesda. This spelling follows SBLGNT. “Bethzatha” and other forms occur in the textual tradition. “Gate” is supplied after “Sheep.” John's term “Hebrew” can include what modern linguistic terminology calls Aramaic; the same issue recurs with place names and speech later in the Gospel.

5:3–4 — The missing verse. The Greek base omits the explanation of the pool's stirring, so the numbering passes from 3 to 5. The longer wording, represented in the edition apparatus, reads: “…waiting for the movement of the water. For an angel would go down into the pool from time to time and stir the water. Then the first person to step in after the stirring of the water would become well, whatever disease held him.” This variant is supplied here rather than inserted into the reading text. Verse 7 itself still mentions the water's stirring. “Withered” in verse 3 describes bodily impairment, commonly rendered “paralyzed.”

5:14, 18, 31, 39 — Consequential readings. Jesus warns this man about sin and something worse; 9:3 prevents making that a rule that every disability results from an individual's sin. Verse 18 retains the narrator's wording about breaking the Sabbath and equality with God, without adding “they thought.” “Not true” in verse 31 concerns the standing of testimony in this argument, not an admission of lying; compare 8:13–18. “You search” in verse 39 could grammatically be the command “Search.” The surrounding criticism favors the statement here.