Greek
1
ΜΕΤΑ ταῦτα ἦν ἡ ἑορτὴ τῶν Ἰουδαίων, καὶ ἀνέβη ὁ Ἰησοῦς εἰς Ἱεροσόλυμα.
2 ἔστι δὲ ἐν τοῖς Ἱεροσολύμοις ἐπὶ τῇ προβατικῇ κολυμβήθρᾳ, ἡ
ἐπιλεγομένη ἑβραϊστὶ Βηθεσδά, πέντε στοὰς ἔχουσα.
3 ἐν ταύταις κατέκειτο πλῆθος πολὺ τῶν ἀσθενούντων, τυφλῶν,
χωλῶν, ξηρῶν, ἐκδεχομένων τὴν τοῦ ὕδατος κίνησιν.
4 ἄγγελος γὰρ κατὰ καιρὸν κατέβαινεν ἐν τῇ κολυμβήθρᾳ, καὶ
ἐταράσσετο τὸ ὕδωρ· ὁ οὖν πρῶτος ἐμβὰς μετὰ τὴν ταραχὴν τοῦ ὕδατος ὑγιὴς
ἐγίνετο ᾧ δήποτε κατείχετο νοσήματι.
5 ἦν δέ τις ἄνθρωπος ἐκεῖ τριάκοντα καὶ ὀκτὼ ἔτη ἔχων ἐν τῇ
ἀσθενείᾳ αὐτοῦ.
6 τοῦτον ἰδὼν ὁ Ἰησοῦς κατακείμενον, καὶ γνοὺς ὅτι πολὺν ἤδη
χρόνον ἔχει, λέγει αὐτῷ· θέλεις ὑγιὴς γενέσθαι;
7 ἀπεκρίθη αὐτῷ ὁ ἀσθενῶν· Κύριε, ἄνθρωπον οὐκ ἔχω, ἵνα ὅταν
ταραχθῇ τὸ ὕδωρ, βάλῃ με εἰς τὴν κολυμβήθραν· ἐν ᾧ δὲ ἔρχομαι ἐγώ, ἄλλος
πρὸ ἐμοῦ καταβαίνει.
8 λέγει αὐτῷ ὁ Ἰησοῦς· ἔγειρε, ἆρον τὸν κράβαττόν σου καὶ
περιπάτει.
9 καὶ εὐθέως ἐγένετο ὑγιὴς ὁ ἄνθρωπος, καὶ ἦρε τὸν κράβαττον
αὐτοῦ καὶ περιεπάτει. ἦν δὲ σάββατον ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ.
10 ἔλεγον οὖν οἱ Ἰουδαῖοι τῷ τεθεραπευμένῳ· σάββατόν ἐστιν·
οὐκ ἔξεστί σοι ἆραι τὸν κράβαττον.
11 ἀπεκρίθη αὐτοῖς· ὁ ποιήσας με ὑγιῆ, ἐκεῖνός μοι εἶπεν·
ἆρον τὸν κράβαττόν σου καὶ περιπάτει.
12 ἠρώτησαν οὖν αὐτόν· τίς ἐστιν ὁ ἄνθρωπος ὁ εἰπών σοι, ἆρον
τὸν κράβαττόν σου καὶ περιπάτει;
13 ὁ δὲ ἰαθεὶς οὐκ ᾔδει τίς ἐστιν· ὁ γὰρ Ἰησοῦς ἐξένευσεν
ὄχλου ὄντος ἐν τῷ τόπῳ.
14 μετὰ ταῦτα εὑρίσκει αὐτὸν ὁ Ἰησοῦς ἐν τῷ ἱερῷ καὶ εἶπεν
αὐτῷ· ἴδε ὑγιὴς γέγονας· μηκέτι ἁμάρτανε, ἵνα μὴ χεῖρόν σοί τι γένηται.
15 ἀπῆλθεν ὁ ἄνθρωπος καὶ ἀνήγγειλε τοῖς Ἰουδαίοις ὅτι Ἰησοῦς
ἐστιν ὁ ποιήσας αὐτὸν ὑγιῆ.
English
5:1 After this there
was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
2Now there is in
Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Hebrew called Bethzatha, which
has five porticoes.
3In these lay a
multitude of invalids, blind, lame, paralyzed.
4
5One man was there,
who had been ill for thirty-eight years.
6When Jesus saw him
and knew that he had been lying there a long time, he said to him, "Do
you want to be healed?"
7The sick man
answered him, "Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water
is troubled, and while I am going another steps down before me."
8Jesus said to him,
"Rise, take up your pallet, and walk."
9And at once the
man was healed, and he took up his pallet and walked. Now that day was
the sabbath.
10So the Jews said
to the man who was cured, "It is the sabbath, it is not lawful for you
to carry your pallet."
11But he answered
them, "The man who healed me said to me, 'Take up your pallet, and
walk.'"
12They asked him,
"Who is the man who said to you, 'Take up your pallet, and walk'?"
13Now the man who
had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as
there was a crowd in the place.
14Afterward, Jesus
found him in the temple, and said to him, "See, you are well! Sin no
more, that nothing worse befall you."
15The man went away
and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him.
Larger Thought Unit
Chapter
five consists of one self-contained thought unit. Our reading today is the
first 15 verses of the chapter and relates the story of the healing of the
paralytic. While we concentrate on the story in our Sunday reading, it
serves in fact as an introduction to the rest of the chapter that ends up
being (after a quick dialogue) one long monologue by Christ. It is Christ’s
teaching that is the real substance for which the miracle functions as the
authenticating sign.
Notes
Since
the New Jerusalem, God’s heavenly city, contains the tree of life whose
leaves are “for the healing of the nations” (Rev 22:2), last Sunday’s
reading invited us to realize that his healing power was not bound to the
Jerusalem temple. Today’s reading invites us to understand that this power
was not bound to the synagogue either, which congregated on the Sabbath
prescribed by the Mosaic Law (symbolized by the pool with five porticoes).
The message of the resurrection is hinted to in the thrice reference to the
command “take up your pallet and walk” (vv.8, 11, 12), which is introduced
with the command “rise” (ἔγειρε).
However, as
Paul systematically taught (Gal 5:16-26; Rom 8:1-14), this “freedom” is not
to construed as a license to do whatever we please, but rather to “walk,”
i.e., according to the law of Christ (Gal 6:2) and of the spirit of life
(Rom 8:2), whose command is to “sin no more” (Jn 5:14). That is after all
what Jesus’ resurrection is all about, a new ‘way of life’ and not ‘orthodox
formulas of belief’:
Do you not know that all of us
who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We
were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was
raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in
newness of life… The death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the
life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to
sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your
mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. Do not yield your members to
sin as instruments of wickedness, but yield yourselves to God as men who
have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments
of righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not
under law but under grace. (Rom 6:3-4, 10-14)
Further resource
Charles H.
Talbert, Reading John, Crossroads Publishing Company, NY, NY, 1992;
pp. 121ff.
Paul Nadim Tarazi, New
Testament Introduction, Vol.3: Johannine Writings, St Vladimir’s
Seminary Press, Crestwood, NY, 2004; pp.165-8.