Lectionary Calendar
Thursday, June 19th, 2025
the Week of Proper 6 / Ordinary 11
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Read the Bible

New Revised Standard

John 5:5

One man was there who had been ill for 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 King James Version
Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity 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.
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 festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2 Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha, which has five porticoes. 3 In these lay many invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, "Do you want to be made well?" The sick man answered him, "Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me." Jesus said to him, "Stand up, take your mat and walk." At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk. Now that day was a sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been cured, "It is the sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your mat." But he answered them, "The man who made me well said to me, ‘Take up your mat and walk.'" They asked him, "Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take it up and walk'?" Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had disappeared in the crowd that was there. Later Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, "See, you have been made well! Do not sin any more, so that nothing worse happens to you." The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. Therefore the Jews started persecuting Jesus, because he was doing such things on the sabbath. But Jesus answered them, "My Father is still working, and I also am working." For this reason the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because he was not only breaking the sabbath, but was also calling God his own Father, thereby making himself equal to God. Jesus said to them, "Very truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise. The Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing; and he will show him greater works than these, so that you will be astonished. Indeed, just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whomever he wishes. The Father judges no one but has given all judgment to the Son, so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Anyone who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come under judgment, but has passed from death to life. "Very truly, I tell you, the hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself; and he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. Do not be astonished at this; for the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and will come out—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation. "I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge; and my judgment is just, because I seek to do not my own will but the will of him who sent me. "If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true. There is another who testifies on my behalf, and I know that his testimony to me is true. You sent messengers to John, and he testified to the truth. Not that I accept such human testimony, but I say these things so that you may be saved. He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. But I have a testimony greater than John's. The works that the Father has given me to complete, the very works that I am doing, testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has himself testified on my behalf. You have never heard his voice or seen his form, and you do not have his word abiding in you, because you do not believe him whom he has sent. "You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify on my behalf. 4 Yet you refuse to come to me to have life. I do not accept glory from human beings. But I know that you do not have the love of God in you. I have come in my Father's name, and you do not accept me; if another comes in his own name, you will accept him. How can you believe when you accept glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the one who alone is God? Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; your accuser is Moses, on whom you have set your hope. If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But if you do not believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?" 5 One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, "Do you want to be made well?" 7 The sick man answered him, "Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me." 8 Jesus said to him, "Stand up, take your mat and walk." 9 At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk. Now that day was a sabbath. 10 So the Jews said to the man who had been cured, "It is the sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your mat."

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
By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return."
Genesis 5:7
Seth lived after the birth of Enosh eight hundred seven years, and had other sons and daughters.
Genesis 5:8
Thus all the days of Seth were nine hundred twelve years; and he died.
Genesis 5:10
Enosh lived after the birth of Kenan eight hundred fifteen years, and had other sons and daughters.
Genesis 5:11
Thus all the days of Enosh were nine hundred five years; and he died.
Genesis 5:12
When Kenan had lived seventy years, he became the father of Mahalalel.
Genesis 5:14
Thus all the days of Kenan were nine hundred and ten years; and he died.
Genesis 5:21
When Enoch had lived sixty-five years, he became the father of Methuselah.
Genesis 5:22
Enoch walked with God after the birth of Methuselah three hundred years, and had other sons and daughters.
Genesis 5:32
After Noah was five hundred years old, Noah became the father of 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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