John 4:51-53

“ As he was now going down, his servants met him, and told him saying.Thy son liveth. 52. So he inquired of them the hour when he began to mend. They said to him: yesterday, at the seventh hour, the fever left him.

53. The father, therefore, knew that it was at that hour in which Jesus had said to him:Thy son liveth. And he believed, himself and all his house. ” The servants, in their report, use neither the term of affection (παιδίον), which would be too familiar, nor that of dignity (υἱός), which would not be familiar enough, but that of family life: παῖς, the child, which the T. R. rightly gives. The selected term κομψότερον, suits well the mouth of a man of rank. It is the expression of a comparative improvement; as we say, finely. The seventh hour, according to the ordinary Jewish mode of reckoning, denotes one o'clock in the afternoon (see on John 1:40). But if it was at that hour that Jesus had given his answer to the father, how was it that he did not return to his home on the same day? For seven leagues only separate him from his house. Those also who, like Keil, Westcott, etc., think that John used, in general, the mode of reckoning the hours which was usual in the Roman courts, support their view, with a certain probability, by our passage. Nevertheless, even on the supposition that Χθές, yesterday, proves that it was really the following day, in the ordinary sense of the word, this delay may be explained either by the necessity of letting his horses rest or by the fear of traveling by night. But the term yesterday does not even compel us to suppose that a night has elapsed since the healing of the child. For as the day, according to the Hebrews, closed at sunset, the servants might, some hours after this, say yesterday.

At this moment the faith of this man rises, at last, to a higher degree, that of personal experience. Hence the repetition of the word: and he believed; comp. John 2:11. The entire household is borne on by this movement of faith impressed on the heart of their head.