John 5:10-13

“ The Jews therefore said unto him who had been healed: It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed. 11. He answered them: He that healed me said unto me: Take up thy bed, and walk. 12. They asked him therefore: who is the man who said unto thee: Take up thy bed and walk? 13. But he that was healed knew not who it was; for Jesus had disappeared as there was a multitude in the place. ”

The act of carrying his bed seemed to the Jews a violation of the Sabbath rest. The Rabbis distinguished three sorts of works interdicted on the Sabbath, among them that of carrying a piece of furniture. The Rabbinical statute also prohibited treating a sick person medically, and perhaps the term τεθεραπευμένος (cared for, treated), contains an allusion to this other no less heavy grievance. But the fault of the Jews was in identifying the rabbinical explanation of the fourth commandment with its real meaning.

The sick man very logically places his action under the protection of Him who miraculously has given him the power to perform it. The question of the Jews (John 5:12) is very characteristic. It is reproduced with much accuracy and nicety. They do not ask: “Who healed thee?” The fact of the miracle, though surprising enough, affects them very slightly. But the contravention of their Sabbatic statute, this is what is worthy of attention. Here is, indeed, the spirit of the ᾿Ιουδαῖοι (John 5:10). The aorist ἰαθείς (healed), differing from τεθεραπευμένος (cared for), sets forth prominently the moment when the sick man, having gained the consciousness of his cure, looked about for His benefactor without being able to find Him. The reading adopted by Tischendorf (ὁ ἀσθενῶν) has no intrinsic value, and is not sufficiently sustained. The design of Jesus in withdrawing so speedily was to avoid the noise and the flocking together of a multitude; He feared the carnal enthusiasm which His miracles were exciting. But it does not follow from this, that the last words: “ as there was a crowd in the place,” are intended to express this motive. They rather set forth, as Hengstenberg thinks, the possibility of escape. Jesus had easily disappeared in the midst of the crowd which was thronging the place. This is, undoubtedly, the meaning which the reading of the Sinaitic MS. is designed to express: ἐν μέσῳ (in the midst of); it is inadmissible, as well as the other variant of the same MS. in this verse (ἔνευσεν). ᾿Εκνεύω, strictly: to make a motion of the head in order to avoid a blow, hence: to escape. The aorist has certainly here the sense of the pluperfect (against Meyer and Weiss). From this slight detail, Gess concludes that Jesus was not accompanied by His disciples in this visit to Jerusalem, and that they were at this time accomplishing their mission in Galilee.