John 5:6

Joh 5:6. Κατακείμενον, lying) He seems by this time to have habitually given up the attempt to get before others.—γνούς, knowing) though no one informed Him.—λέγει, He saith) of His own accord. Christ gives both a handle for His seeking aid, and the help itself.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joh_5:6-7. Τοῦτον … ἔχει] two points which excited the compassion of Jesus, where γνούς, however (as in Joh_4:1), does not denote a supernatural knowledge of this external (otherwise in Joh_5:14) and easily known or ascertained fact (against Godet and the early expositors).

ἔχει] i.e. ἐν ἀσθενείᾳ, Joh_5:5.

θέλεις, κ.τ.λ.] Wilt thou become whole? The self-evident nature of this desire made the question an appropriate one to rouse the sufferers attention and expectation, and this was the object Jesus had in view in order to the commencement of His miraculous work. This question was inappropriate for the purpose (de Wette thinks) of merely beginning a conversation upon the subject. Paulus falsely supposes that the man might have been a dishonest beggar, feigning sickness, and that Jesus asks him with reproving emphasis, Wilt thou be made whole? art thou in earnest? So, too, Ammon; while Lange regards him as simply languid in will, and that Christ again roused his dormant will; but there is nothing of this in the text, and just as little of Luthardts notion, that the question was meant for all the people of whom the sick man is supposed to be the type. This miracle alone furnishes an example of an unsolicited interrogation upon Christs part (a feature which Weisse urges against it); but in the case of the man born blind, chap. 9, we have also an unsolicited healing.

ἄνθρωπον οὐκ ἔχω] ad morbum accedebat inopia, Grotius; ἄνθρ. emphatically takes the lead; the ἔρχομαι ἐγώ follows answers to it.

ὅταν ταραχθῇ τὸ ὕδωρ] The occasional and intermittent disturbance of the water is not to be understood as a regular occurrence, but as something sudden and quickly passing away. Hence the mans waiting and complaint.

βάλῃ] throw, denoting a hasty conveyance before the momentary bubbling was over.

ἔρχομαι] he therefore was obliged to help himself along, but slowly.

ἄλλος πρὸ ἐμοῦ] so that the place where the bubbling appeared was occupied by another. Observe the sing.; the short bubbling is to be regarded as occurring only in one fixed springing-point in the pool, so that one person only could let it exert its influence upon him. The apocryphal Joh_5:4 has perverted this circumstance, in conformity with a popular superstition, which probably reaches as far back as the time of Christ.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joh 5:6 . Jesus when He saw the man lying and had ascertained ( γνοὺς , having learned from the man or his friends) that already he had passed a long time (in that infirmity) says: θέλεις ὑγιὴς γενέσθαι ; “Do you wish to become whole (healthy)?” This question was put to attract the man’s attention and awaken hope. But the man is hopeless: it is not a question of will, he says, but of opportunity. His very weakness enabled others to anticipate him; ἐν ᾧ ἔρχομαι ἐγὼ , “while I am coming,” he could, then, move a little, but not quickly enough. At each bubbling up of the water, apparently only one could be healed. The ἄλλος πρὸ ἐμοῦ καταβαίνει was a great aggravation of his case.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

saw him lie, and knew, &c.--As He doubtless visited the spot just to perform this cure, so He knows where to find His patient, and the whole previous history of his case (Joh 2:25).

Wilt thou be made whole?--Could anyone doubt that a sick man would like to be made whole, or that the patients came thither, and this man had returned again and again, just in hope of a cure? But our Lord asked the question. (1) To fasten attention upon Himself; (2) By making him detail his case to deepen in him the feeling of entire helplessness; (3) By so singular a question to beget in his desponding heart the hope of a cure. (Compare Mar 10:51).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 6. Wilt thou be made whole?] Christ, by asking this question, designed to excite in this person faith, hope, and a greater desire of being healed. He wished him to reflect on his miserable state, that he might be the better prepared to receive a cure, and to value it when it came. Addresses of this kind are always proper from the preachers of the Gospel, that the hearts, as well of hardened as of desponding sinners, may be stirred up to desire and expect salvation. Do you wish to be healed? Do you know that you are under the power of a most inveterate and dangerous disease? If so, there is a remedy - have immediate recourse to the physician. Questions of this kind are frequently asked in the secret of our souls, by the inspirations of God's Spirit. Happy those who pay attention to them, and give right answers.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

6. Wilt thou be made whole? He does not inquire about it, as if it were a doubtful matter, but partly in order to kindle in the man a desire of the favor which was offered to him, and partly to quicken the attention of the witnesses who were present, and who, if they had been thinking of something else, might not have perceived the miracle, as frequently happens in sudden occurrences. For these two reasons, therefore, this preparation was necessary.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(6) And now Jesus sees him lying there among the throng of sufferers, and every ache of every limb, and. every sorrow of every heart told of the perfection of life marred by the curse of sin; but this man’s own sin had left its mark upon him, which men may read and condemn, though within the whited fairness of their own outer deeds, the soul’s life was by sin palsied to its very core. But he hears, in tones that went to the heart as he listened to them, the strange question, stranger indeed than “Wilt thou. . . .,” “Wiliest thou to be made whole?”

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

6. knew] Or, perceived, perhaps supernaturally (see on Joh_16:19), but He might learn it from the bystanders: the fact was very likely notorious.

Wilt thou?] Or, more strongly, Dost thou will? Note that the man does not ask first. Here and in the case of the man born blind (9), as also of Malchus’ ear (Luk_22:51), Christ heals without being asked to do so. Excepting the healing of the royal official’s son all Christ’s miracles in the Fourth Gospel are spontaneous. On no other occasion does Christ ask a question without being addressed first: why does He now ask a question of which the answer was so obvious? Probably in order to rouse the sick man out of his lethargy and despondency. It was the first step towards the man’s having sufficient faith: he must be inspired with some expectation of being cured. The question has nothing to do with religious scruples; ‘Art thou willing to be made whole, although it is the Sabbath?’

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

When Jesus saw him lie,.... In such a helpless condition:

and knew that he had been now a long time, in that case, or "in his disease", as the Ethiopic version supplies; even seven years before Christ was born; which is a proof of his omniscience: the words may be literally rendered, as they are in the Vulgate Latin and Syriac versions, "that he had had much time"; or as the Arabic version, "that he had had many years"; that is had lived many years, and was now an old man; he had his disorder eight and thirty years, and which seems from Joh 5:14 to have arisen from some sin of his, from a vicious course of living, perhaps intemperance; so that he might be a middle aged man, when this distemper first seized him, and therefore must be now stricken in years:

he saith unto him, wilt thou be made whole? which question is put, not as if it was a doubt, whether he was desirous of it, or not; for to what purpose did he lie and wait there else? but partly to raise in the man an expectation of a cure, and attention in the people to it: and it may be his sense and meaning is, wilt thou be made whole on this day, which was the sabbath; or hast thou faith that thou shall be made whole in this way, or by me?

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

6 When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole?

Ver. 6. And knew that he had been, &c.] Christ’s eye affected his heart, Lam 3:51, he could not but sympathize, and succour this poor cripple, out of his mere philanthropy, which moveth him still, μετριοπαθειν, to show mercy according to the measure of our misery, whereof he bears a part, Heb 5:2.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Wilt thou be made whole? No doubt but the poor man desired nothing more. Christ put this question, to raise him to a lively faith and hope. (Witham)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Christ, as God, knew the particular time when this infirmity seized him, which was eight years or upward before our Saviour’s birth, and about the time when the temple was re-edified, or rather enlarged and further adorned, by Herod. As man, he pitieth his case; he asketh him if he was willing to be made whole. Not that he doubted of his willingness; for what sick man was ever unwilling to be healed? Besides that, he knew that the poor man lay there for that very purpose; but that he might make him declare his miserable, helpless state and condition, and draw out his faith and hope in himself; and from his answer take an occasion to heal him, and make the spectators more attentive to his miracle.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

6. Wilt thou—Our Lord puts the question as part of the manifestation that the healing is produced by his own divine will. But it is in truth the same great question which Jesus is putting to a world of sinners lying in disease and death. It is his will to save them, but not without their wilt thou concurring.

Whole—The word whole is cognate with the words heal and hale, health. In the old English a man is called whole as free from any wound or disease.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

When Jesus saw him lying there, and perceived (came to know by his searching glance and intuitive knowledge of the history of others) that he had during a long time already been (in that condition, or in sickness,) said unto him spontaneously, in the royalty of his benefactions, not demanding from the man even the faith to be healed, and dealing with him almost as he did with the dead Wilt thou be made whole? The leper came beseeching him, "Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean." The leper was quite sure of his own intense desire for cleansing, and all he questioned was the will, not the power, of Jesus. The admission of the power was a tacit cry for healing. The questioning of Jesus on this occasion involved an offer of mercy. Dost thou veritably wish for health and strength?" The question implies a doubt. The man may have got so accustomed to his life of indolence and mendicancy as to regard deliverance from his apparent wretchedness, with all consequent responsibilities of work and energy and self-dependence, as a doubtful blessing. He whined out, with professional drawl, his oft-told story, reflecting very much upon his lovelessness and quarrelsomeness, and ugly temper. There are many who are not anxious for salvation, with all the demands it makes upon the life, with its summons to self-sacrifice and the repression of self-indulgence. There are many religious impostors who prefer tearing open their spiritual wounds to the first passerby, and hugging their grievance, to being made into robust men upon whom the burden of responsibility will immediately fall. In this case the sign of his palsied nature was written upon his face, and was probably known to every passerby.

HOMILIES BY J.R. THOMSON Ver. 6. The will to be healed.

This miracle is indeed a parable. The pitiable condition of the sufferer, the prolonged duration of his calamity, his utter helplessness and despondency, all have their analogues in the spiritual state of the sinful. And, on the other hand, the exercise of Christ"s Divine authority, the condition of blessing imposed upon the infirm man, and the immediateness and completeness of the cure, are all suggestive of the terms, the process, and the results of salvation. The language in which Christ addressed the sufferer, with a view to elicit his faith, is especially instructive: Wouldest thou be made whole?

I IT DOES NOT FOLLOW THAT WHEREVER THERE IS A SPIRITUAL MALADY THERE IS ALSO A CONSCIOUSNESS OF IT AND A DESIRE TO BE DELIVERED FROM IT. Jesus did not take it for granted that, because the man had an infirmity of long standing, he was therefore anxious to be relieved from it. As a matter of fact, he was so anxious; and the presumption is that men do wish to be delivered from bodily and temporal ills. It is not so in all cases with spiritual disorders. It was a reproach against the self-righteous that they knew not that they were poor, naked, blind, and miserable. Sin is not always accompanied by consciousness of sin. Long familiarity with vice and crime, and still more with that alienation of heart from God which is the essence of sin, is often found to render the nature insensible to its own wretched condition and prospects.

II EVEN DIVINE MERCY DOES NOT ACT INDEPENDENTLY OF HUMAN CONFESSION, FAITH, AND DESIRE. The truth is that it cannot; for God cannot override the nature with which he has himself endowed his creatures. He may annihilate that nature; but, whilst it remains, he cannot contradict himself by acting independently of it. And, further, he will not dispense with the appointed human conditions, for the sake of his own moral government, whose sacredness he will surely maintain, and for the sake of the spiritual welfare of those whom he governs. It may appear, on a superficial glance, that in taking this view we magnify the free will of man above the sovereignty of God; but reflection convinces us that this is not the case. There is nothing arbitrary in the Divine government; and infinite Wisdom has decided that without the voluntary cooperation of man the highest blessings must be unattainable.

III WHERE THERE IS A DISPOSITION AND DESIRE ON THE PART OF MAN, DIVINE MERCY WILL NOT WITHHOLD THE GRACE OF SPIRITUAL HEALING. There is no place for human power; we can do nothing to heal our spiritual diseases. There is no place for human merit; we can do nothing to deserve a Divine interposition. Yet he who will be made whole, who accepts the Deliverer and welcomes the promised deliverance, shall experience the healing power of Immanuel. Let there be willingness, let there be faith in Christ, let there be submission to Divine plans and order, and there is no sin for which pardon cannot be obtained, no character for which it shall be found that there is not provided renewal and spiritual health. T.

HOMILIES BY D. YOUNG Ver. 6. A remarkable question of Jesus.

A remarkable question, truly! and if we did not know who asked it, it would be reckoned a thoughtless and somewhat silly question. But Jesus, we know, must have had weighty reasons for asking it. It looks plausible to assume that a man who had been thirty and eight years ill must assuredly have wanted to be cured; but, after all, the assumption is badly founded. It was certainly better to make the man whole than to leave him impotent, but it does not at all follow that the man would feel it to be better amid the experiences of his new state. Thirty and eight years would fasten a man down to the habits of a dependent invalid, and the perfect recovery of physical strength by no means guaranteed that he would be fit in all other respects to use the strength he had gained. Those who had willingly helped him in the days of his incapacity would now say, "Get you gone and seek work; earn your bread as others do, by the labour of your hands." Who can doubt that the man soon had cause to reflect over the question of Jesus, and admit that it was a question full of meaning? The question, then, we see, was just the question to put to this man; and more than that, it is a question which all need to answer.

I IT REMINDS US OF THE UNIVERSAL SPIRITUAL MALADY. Jesus is the great Physician, and comes to benefit the sick. When he talks so much of himself as the Giver of new life, what does this mean but that the old life is not sufficient? When men are ill in body they know that they are ill, and are quick to seek for remedies. But men take a deal of persuading and humbling and emptying of self before they can see the need of healing from Christ.

II IT REMINDS US HOW WE MUST TAKE THE TRUE WAY TO SPIRITUAL HEALING. Notice the answer the impotent man gives to Jesus. He proceeds to explain that he is doing his best according to his light and opportunity. The only thing he knows of is to wait at Bethesda till his chance comes, and it is plain it never will come. And so to us, taking all sorts of traditional ways to ease the troubles of the breast, Jesus comes, and in the midst of all our failures says there is real healing if only we take the right way.

III IT REMINDS US OF THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE NEW AND BETTER STATE. From this poor man in his helplessness little was expected. When he was healed he would have to enter on a life of struggle, duty, and self-reliance. When Christ lays down before us of the riches of his grace, a great deal more is thereby expected from us. Y.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

6. Wilt thou be made whole? Jesus observed him and asked the question to arouse his attention.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

6. γνούς. Perhaps supernaturally, as He knew the past life of the Samaritan woman (see on Joh 2:25): but He might learn it from the bystanders; the fact would be well known.

θέλεις. Dost thou wish? Note that the man does not ask first. Here and in the case of the man born blind (9), as also of Malchus’ ear (Luk 22:51), Christ heals without being asked to do so. Excepting the healing of the royal official’s son all Christ’s miracles in the Fourth Gospel are spontaneous. On no other occasion does Christ ask a question without being addressed first: why does He now ask a question of which the answer was so obvious? Probably in order to rouse the sick man out of his lethargy and despondency. It was the first step towards the man’s having sufficient faith: he must be inspired with some expectation of being cured. Comp. S. Peter’s Βλέψον εἰς ἡμᾶς (Act 3:4). The question has nothing to do with religious scruples; ‘Art thou willing to be made whole, although it is the Sabbath?’

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

6.] γνούς, i.e. ἐν ἐαυτῷ, as on other similar occasions. Our Lord singled him out, being conscious of the circumstances under which he lay there, by that superhuman knowledge of which we had so striking an example in the case of the woman of Samaria.

θέλεις ὑγ. γεν.] Lightfoot and Semler would supply, “licet sit sabbatum.” But this is very improbable, see ver. 17. Our Lord did not thus appeal to his hearers’ prejudices, and make His grace dependent on them. Besides, the ὑγιὴς γενέσθαι had in the mind of the man no reference to a healing such as there would be any objection to on the Sabbath; but to the cure by means of the water, which he was there to seek.

The question is one of those by which He so frequently testified his compassion, and established (so to speak) a point of connexion between the spirit of the person addressed, and his own gracious purposes. Possibly it may have conveyed to the mind of the poor cripple the idea that at length a compassionate person had come, who might put him in at the next troubling of the water. It certainly is possible that the man’s long and apparently hopeless infirmity may have given him a look of lethargy and despondency, and the question may have arisen from this: but there is no ground for supposing (Schleiermacher) blame conveyed by it, still less that he was an impostor labouring under some trifling complaint (Paulus and others), and wishing to represent it more important than it was.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

6. Jesus came, unknown by sight to the sick who were assembled at the pool. καὶ γνοὺς ὅτι πολὺν ἤδη χρόνον ἔχει, “and when He knew that the man had been infirm for a long time,” He addressed him. It is neither stated nor implied that this knowledge of the man’s sad condition was supernatural. It may have been the common talk of the crowd at the Pool. See on 2:24 for the insight of Jesus into the character of men, and cf. 4:18.

Θέλεις ὑγιὴς γενέσθαι; sc., as we would say, “Would you like to be well?” There is no need to press the force of θέλεις, as if Jesus meant that the man’s own conscious effort of will must co-operate in the work of healing. That may be true in such cases, but θέλεις here only conveys the simple question, “Would you like to be healed?”

We do not know why Jesus chose this man out from the crowd of sufferers at the pool. Perhaps attention was specially directed to his pathetic case by the onlookers. There is no suggestion that the man had any faith, nor did he display gratitude for his healing. He must have known that to point out Jesus as the agent of his cure (v. 15) would bring his benefactor into danger.

Abbott (Diat. x. iii. 268 f.) suggests that we must take the act of Jesus in connexion with His own comment. He did not select the object of His pity by arbitrary caprice, but “the Son can do nothing Himself, except what He sees the Father doing” (see on v. 19 below). He “saw” this particular act of healing performed by the Father in heaven, and therefore appointed to be performed by the Son on earth. But not only is such an explanation too subtle; it really explains nothing, for why should this particular sick man have been selected by the Father any more than by the Son?

The healing is perhaps, but not certainly, regarded by Jn. as supernatural (see 7:21), although he does not call it a “sign.” But it is not represented as having any relation to the faith of the man that was cured. In this it is like the Synoptic story of the healing of a paralytic (Mar_2, Mat_9, Luk_5), where it is the faith of those who brought the man to Jesus rather than the faith of the man himself that is commended. It is unlike the Synoptic story, in that the cure in the Johannine narrative does not seem to have impressed the onlookers at all. There is nothing here corresponding to “they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, We never saw it on this fashion” (Mar 2:12). In Jn.’s story, everything turns on the fact that it was on the Sabbath that the man was cured, and it was this, and not the wonder of the healing, that attracted attention. See Introd., p. clxxviii.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Had been now a long time [πολυν ηδη χρονον εχει] . Literally, he hath already much time.

Wilt thou [θελεις] . Not merely, do you wish, but are you in earnest? See on Matthew 1. 19. Jesus appeals to the energy of his will. Not improbably he had fallen into apathy through his long sickness. Compare Act 3:4; Joh 7:17.

Whole [υγιης] . Sound.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.