John Calvin Commentary John 5

There was a feast of the Jews. Though the Evangelist does not expressly state what feast this was, the probable conjecture is that he means Pentecost, at least if what is related here took place immediately after Christ came into Galilee. For immediately after the Passover, He set out from Jerusalem, and as He was passing through Samaria, He reckoned four months to the harvest; having entered Galilee, He cured the courtier’s son.

The Evangelist adds that the feast came afterwards; and, therefore, the order of time leads us to conclude that we should understand it to be Pentecost, though I do not dispute that matter. Now Christ came to Jerusalem to the feast, partly because at that time, due to the great multitude of people assembled, He had the opportunity to proclaim His doctrine more widely, and partly because it was necessary for Him to be subject to the Law, so that He might redeem us from the bondage of the Law, as we have previously explained.

There was in Jerusalem, at the sheep-market, a pool. The circumstance of the place is added, from which we learn that the miracle was not concealed or known to only a few persons; for the five porches show that the place was well-known for the great number of persons who resorted to it, and this was also implied by its proximity to the temple.

Besides, the Evangelist expressly says that many diseased persons lay there. Regarding the meaning of the name, scholars rightly reject the fanciful opinion of Jerome, who, instead of Bethesda, renders it as Betheder and interprets it to mean the house of the flock; for here, mention is made of a pool that was near the sheep-market. Those who read Bethesda as meaning a place of fishing also have no valid reason for their view.

There is greater probability in the opinion of those who explain it to be a place of pouring out. For the Hebrew word (אשך) (Eshed) signifies flowing out; but the Evangelist, as was the common way of speaking then, pronounced it Esda. I think that the water was conveyed into it by conduits so that the priests might draw from it, unless, perhaps, the place received its name from the circumstance that the water was poured into it by means of tubes.

In my opinion, it was called the sheep-market because the animals that were to be offered in sacrifice were taken there.

In these lay a great multitude. It is possible that diseased persons lay in the porches to ask for alms when the people who were going into the temple to worship were passing by; and there, too, it was customary to purchase the animals that were to be offered in sacrifice.

Yet at each feast God cured a certain number, so that, in this way, He might commend the worship prescribed in the Law and the holiness of the temple. But might it not seem foolish to believe that the power and grace of God were displayed with more than ordinary luster when the affairs of the nation were so decayed and almost in ruins, especially when we read of nothing like this happening when religion was in its most flourishing condition, and even since, in the age of the Prophets, miracles were performed only on extraordinary occasions?

I reply, there were, in my opinion, two reasons. First, since the Holy Spirit, dwelling in the Prophets, was a sufficient witness of the divine presence, religion at that time needed no other confirmation. The Law had been sanctioned by abundantly sufficient miracles, and God did not cease to express, through innumerable testimonies, His approval of the worship He had commanded.

But around the time of Christ’s coming, since they were deprived of the Prophets, their condition was very wretched, and various temptations pressed upon them from every side, they needed this extraordinary aid. This was so that they might not think God had entirely left them, and thus become discouraged and fall away. For we know that Malachi was the last of the Prophets; therefore, he closes his teaching with this admonition: that the Jews may remember the Law delivered by Moses (Malachi 4:4), until Christ appear.

God considered it advantageous to deprive them of the Prophets and to keep them in suspense for a time, so that they might be inflamed with a stronger desire for Christ and receive Him with greater reverence when He would be manifested to them.

Yet, so that testimonies would not be lacking for the temple, the sacrifices, and the whole of that worship by which salvation was to be made known to the world, the Lord retained this gift of healing among the Jews. This was so that they might know there was a good reason why God separated them from the other nations. For God, by curing the diseased, showed plainly—as by an arm stretched out from heaven—that He approved of this kind of worship, which they derived from the command of the Law.

Secondly, I have no doubt that God intended by these signs to remind them that the time of redemption was approaching and that Christ, the Author of salvation, was already near, so that the minds of all might be better stirred.

Indeed, I think that signs in that age served this twofold purpose: first, that the Jews might know that God was present with them and thus remain steady in their obedience to the Law; and secondly, that they might earnestly hope for a new and unprecedented condition.

Of lame, blind, withered. To inform us that the diseases our Lord cured were not ordinary, the Evangelist enumerates some categories of them; for human remedies could be of no help to the lame, blind, and withered. It was indeed a sorrowful sight to see so many kinds of deformities in the limbs among such a large group of people; yet the glory of God shone more brightly there than it would have in the sight of the most numerous and best-disciplined army.

For nothing is more magnificent than when an extraordinary power of God corrects and restores the defects of nature; and nothing is more beautiful or more delightful than when, through His boundless goodness, He relieves the distresses of people. For this reason, the Lord intended this to be a splendid theater, where not only the inhabitants of the country but also strangers might perceive and contemplate His majesty. And, as I have already suggested, it was no small ornament and glory to the temple when God, by stretching out His hand, clearly showed that He was present.

For an angel went down. It was, no doubt, a work unique to God to cure the sick; but, as He was accustomed to employ the ministry and agency of angels, so He commanded an angel to perform this duty. For this reason, the angels are called principalities or powers (Colossians 1:16), not that God gives up his power to them and remains idle in heaven, but because, by acting powerfully in them, he magnificently shows and displays his power.

It is, therefore, wicked and shameful to imagine anything as belonging to the angels, or to establish them as the medium of communication between us and God, so as to obscure the glory of God, as if it were at a great distance from us, while, on the contrary, he employs them as the manifestations of his presence.

We ought to guard against the foolish speculations of Plato, for the distance between us and God is too great to allow us to go to the angels, that they may obtain favor for us; but, on the contrary, we ought to come directly to Christ, that, by his guidance, protection, and command, we may have the angels as assistants and ministers of our salvation.

At intervals. God might have at once, in a single moment, cured them all; but, as his miracles have their design, so they also ought to have their limit. As Christ also reminds them that, though many died in the time of Elisha, not more than one child was raised from the dead (2 Kings 4:32); and that, though many widows were famished during the time of drought, there was but one whose poverty was relieved by Elijah (1 Kings 17:9; Luke 4:25). Thus the Lord considered it enough to give a demonstration of his presence in the case of a few diseased persons.

But the manner of curing, which is here described, shows plainly enough that nothing is more unreasonable than for people to subject the works of God to their own judgment. For what assistance or relief could be expected from troubled water? But in this manner, by depriving us of our own senses, the Lord accustoms us to the obedience of faith.

We too eagerly follow what pleases our reason, though contrary to the word of God; and, therefore, in order to render us more obedient to him, he often presents to us those things which contradict our reason. Only then do we show our submissive obedience, when we shut our eyes and follow the plain word, even though our own opinion is that what we are doing will be of no avail.

We have an instance of this kind in Naaman the Syrian, whom the prophet sends to Jordan, that he may be cured of his leprosy (2 Kings 5:10). At first, no doubt, he despises it as a mockery, but afterwards he comes to perceive that, while God acts contrary to human reason, he never mocks or disappoints us.

And troubled the water. Yet the troubling of the water was a manifest proof that God freely uses the elements according to his own pleasure, and that He claims for himself the result of the work. For it is an exceedingly common fault to ascribe to creatures what belongs to God alone; but it would be the height of folly to seek, in the troubled water, the cause of the cure. He therefore holds out the outward symbol in such a manner that, by looking at the symbol, the diseased persons may be constrained to raise their eyes to Him who alone is the Author of grace.

And there was a man there. The Evangelist collects various circumstances, which prove that the miracle can be relied on as certain. The long duration of the disease had taken away all hope of his being cured. This man complains that he is deprived of the water's remedy. He had frequently attempted to throw himself into the water, but without success; there was no one to assist him, and this causes Christ's power to be more strikingly displayed.

This was also the significance of the command to carry his bed, so that all might plainly see that he was cured in no other way than by Christ's agency. For when he suddenly rises up healthy and strong in all the limbs where he was formerly powerless, such a sudden change is all the more suited to arouse and strike the minds of all who saw it.