John 5:18

Ver. 18. “ For this reason the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only broke the Sabbath, but called God his own Father, making himself equal with God. ”

The διὰ τοῦτο (for this reason), is explained by the ὅτι (because), which follows. We have seen, that according to the genuine text in John 5:16, the intention to kill Jesus had not yet been ascribed to His enemies; it was only implicitly contained in the word ἐδίωκον (they persecuted). This suffices to explain the μᾶλλον (yet more) of John 5:18. Let us notice here the singular exaggerations of Reuss: “Let one read,” he says, “the discourse, John 5:18 ff., many times interrupted by the phrase: They persecute him, they seek to kill him. According to the common and purely historical exegesis, we reach the picture of the Jews running after Jesus in the streets and pursuing Him with showers of stones” (t. ii., p. 416). The fact is, that the simple historical exegesis, which does not of set purpose go into error, does not find in these expressions: “ They persecuted Him ” (John 5:16), “ they sought to kill Him ” (John 5:18), anything else than the indication of some hostile secret meetings in which the rulers asked themselves, even then, how they could get rid of so dangerous a man. The Synoptics trace back also to this epoch the murderous projects of the adversaries of Jesus (Luke 6:7; Luke 6:11; Mark 3:6; Matthew 12:14). The anxious look of John was able to discern the fruit in the germ. ῎Ελυε, not: He had violated (Ostervald); but (imperfect): He broke, strictly: dissolved. His example and His principles seemed to annihilate the Sabbath. Besides this first complaint, the declaration of Jesus in John 5:17 had just furnished them a second that of blaspheming. It was, first of all, the word μοῦ (my Father), which shocked them because of the special and exclusive sense which this expression assumed in the mouth of Jesus. If He had said Our Father, the Jews would have accepted the saying without displeasure (John 8:41). It was, in addition, the practical consequences which he seemed to draw from the term, making the working of God the standard of His own, and thus making Himself equal with God.

The 17th verse contains the primal idea of the whole following discourse: the relation of subordination between the activity of the Father and that of the Son. John 5:19-20, set forth this idea in a more detailed way; in John 5:19, the relation of the Son's action to that of the Father; in John 5:20, the relation of the Father's action to that of the Son. We might say: the Son who puts himself with fidelity at the service of the Father (John 5:19), and the Father who condescends to direct the activity of the Son (John 5:20).