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Read the Bible

New King James Version

John 5:5

Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Jesus, the Christ;   Miracles;   Sabbath;   Thompson Chain Reference - Battle of Life;   Bible Stories for Children;   Children;   Chronic Ailments;   Diseases;   Health-Disease;   Home;   Infirmities;   Miracles;   Pleasant Sunday Afternoons;   Religion;   Stories for Children;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Diseases;   Miracles of Christ, the;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Miracle;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - John, gospel of;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Miracle;   Sabbath;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Palsy;   Perseverance of the Saints;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Jesus Christ;   Miracles;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Disabilities and Deformities;   Diseases;   Hour;   John, the Gospel of;   Sabbath;   Sign;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Jesus Christ;   Sabbath;   World;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Bath, Bathing;   Death of Christ;   Disease;   Impotence;   John Epistles of;   Mission;   Sabbath ;   Sinners;   Water (2);   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Bethesda;   Chief parables and miracles in the bible;   Palsy;  

Encyclopedias:

- Condensed Biblical Cyclopedia - Jesus of Nazareth;   International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Bath;   Infirmity;   Johannine Theology, the;   Kitto Biblical Cyclopedia - Bethesda;  

Devotionals:

- Every Day Light - Devotion for February 1;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
One man was there who had been disabled for thirty-eight years.
King James Version (1611)
And a certaine man was there, which had an infirmitie thirtie and eight yeeres.
King James Version
And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years.
English Standard Version
One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.
New American Standard Bible
Now a man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years.
New Century Version
A man was lying there who had been sick for thirty-eight years.
Amplified Bible
There was a certain man there who had been ill for thirty-eight years.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
A man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years.
Legacy Standard Bible
And a man was there who had been sick for thirty-eight years.
Berean Standard Bible
One man there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.
Contemporary English Version
Beside the pool was a man who had been sick for thirty-eight years.
Complete Jewish Bible
One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years.
Darby Translation
But there was a certain man there who had been suffering under his infirmity thirty and eight years.
Easy-to-Read Version
One of the men lying there had been sick for 38 years.
Geneva Bible (1587)
And a certaine man was there, which had bene diseased eight and thirtie yeeres.
George Lamsa Translation
A man was there who had been sick for thirty-eight years.
Good News Translation
A man was there who had been sick for thirty-eight years.
Lexham English Bible
And a certain man was there who had been thirty-eight years in his sickness.
Literal Translation
But a certain man was there, being in infirmity thirty eight years.
American Standard Version
And a certain man was there, who had been thirty and eight years in his infirmity.
Bible in Basic English
One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years.
Hebrew Names Version
A certain man was there, who had been sick for thirty-eight years.
International Standard Version
One particular man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years.
Etheridge Translation
But a certain man was there who for thirtyand-eight years had been in a disease.
Murdock Translation
And a certain man was there, who had been diseased thirty and eight years.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
And a certaine man was there, which had ben diseased thirtie & eyght yeres.
English Revised Version
And a certain man was there, which had been thirty and eight years in his infirmity.
World English Bible
A certain man was there, who had been sick for thirty-eight years.
Wesley's New Testament (1755)
And a certain man was there, who had been diseased eight and thirty years.
Weymouth's New Testament
And there was one man there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And a man was there, hauynge eiyte and thritti yeer in his sikenesse.
Update Bible Version
And a certain man was there, who had been thirty and eight years in his infirmity.
Webster's Bible Translation
And a certain man was there, who had an infirmity thirty and eight years.
New English Translation
Now a man was there who had been disabled for thirty-eight years.
New Living Translation
One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years.
New Life Bible
A man was there who had been sick for thirty-eight years.
New Revised Standard
One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
And there was a certain man there, who, for thirty-eight years, had continued in his sickness.
Douay-Rheims Bible
And there was a certain man there that had been eight and thirty years under his infirmity.
Revised Standard Version
One man was there, who had been ill for thirty-eight years.
Tyndale New Testament (1525)
And a certayne ma was theare which had bene diseased .xxxviii. yeares
Young's Literal Translation
and there was a certain man there being in ailment thirty and eight years,
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
And there was a man, which had lyen sicke eight and thirtie yeares.
Mace New Testament (1729)
now a certain man was there, who had been sick eight and thirty years.
Simplified Cowboy Version
One man had been lying there sick for thirty-eight years.

Contextual Overview

1 After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, [fn] having five porches. 3 In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water. 4 For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had. John 5:3, and all of John 5:4.">[fn] 5 Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, "Do you want to be made well?" 7 The sick man answered Him, "Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me." 8 Jesus said to him, "Rise, take up your bed and walk." 9 And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked. And that day was the Sabbath. 10 The Jews therefore said to him who was cured, "It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your bed."

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

thirty: John 5:14, John 9:1, John 9:21, Mark 9:21, Luke 8:43, Luke 13:16, Acts 3:2, Acts 4:22, Acts 9:33, Acts 14:8

Reciprocal: Job 13:26 - makest Psalms 25:7 - the sins Mark 5:25 - twelve Luke 5:18 - General Luke 13:11 - eighteen

Cross-References

Genesis 3:19
In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return."
Genesis 5:7
After he begot Enosh, Seth lived eight hundred and seven years, and had sons and daughters.
Genesis 5:8
So all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years; and he died.
Genesis 5:10
After he begot Cainan, Enosh lived eight hundred and fifteen years, and had sons and daughters.
Genesis 5:11
So all the days of Enosh were nine hundred and five years; and he died.
Genesis 5:12
Cainan lived seventy years, and begot Mahalalel.
Genesis 5:14
So all the days of Cainan were nine hundred and ten years; and he died.
Genesis 5:21
Enoch lived sixty-five years, and begot Methuselah.
Genesis 5:22
After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God three hundred years, and had sons and daughters.
Genesis 5:32
And Noah was five hundred years old, and Noah begot Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And a certain man was there,.... At Bethesda's pool, in one of the five porches, or cloisters, that belonged to it:

which had an infirmity thirty and eight years; what his infirmity was, is not said; he was one of the weak, or impotent folk, for so he is called, John 5:7. Some think his distemper was the palsy, and though he had had this infirmity so many years, it is not certain that he had waited so long in this place for a cure; though it may be, for that he had attended some time, is clear from John 5:7. Nor indeed can it be known how long there had been such a preternatural motion in this pool, and such a miraculous virtue in the water; some have thought, that it began at the repairing of the sheep gate by Eliashib, in Nehemiah's time; so Tremellius and Junius, on Nehemiah 3:1; and others have thought, that it had been some few years before the birth of Christ, and about the time that this man was first taken with his disorder. Tertullian says u, that there was in Judea a medicinal lake, before Christ's time; and that the pool of Bethsaida (it should be Bethesda) was useful in curing the diseases of the Israelites; but ceased from yielding any benefit, when the name of the Lord was blasphemed by them, through their rage and fury, and continuance in it w; but in what year it began, and the precise time it ceased, he says not. The Persic version here adds, "and was reduced to such a state that he could not move".

u De Anima, c. 50. w Adv. Judaeos, c. 13.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

An infirmity - A weakness. We know not what his disease was. We know only that it disabled him from walking, and that it was of very long standing. It was doubtless regarded as incurable.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse John 5:5. Had an infirmity thirty and eight years. — St. Chrysostom conjectured that blindness was the infirmity of this person: what it was, the inspired writer does not say - probably it was a palsy: his case was deplorable - he was not able to go into the pool himself, and he had no one to help him; so that poverty and disease were here connected. The length of the time he had been afflicted makes the miracle of his cure the greater. There could have been no collusion in this case: as his affliction had lasted thirty-eight years, it must have been known to multitudes; therefore he could not be a person prepared for the occasion. All Christ's miracles have been wrought in such a way, and on such persons and occasions, as absolutely to preclude all possibility of the suspicion of imposture.


 
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