John 5 - NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible

5:1 one of the Jewish festivals. Although the festival explains why Jesus is in Jerusalem, John does not specify which festival is in view here; the crucial point is the Sabbath (vv. 9–10).

5:2 pool . . . called Bethesda. People often gathered and conversed near public baths and pools. This particular pool is mentioned in the Dead Sea Scrolls, and archaeologists have discovered a Jerusalem pool with five porches (one on each side and one through the middle, creating twin pools). The pools were about 20 feet (6 meters) deep and together were as large as a football field.

5:3 disabled people used to lie. Gentile healing shrines dedicated to Asclepius often included pools; archaeology suggests that this site was used for such purposes in later centuries.

5:10 the law forbids you to carry your mat. Working on the Sabbath (v. 9) was in principle a capital offense (Nu 15:32–36). Jewish tradition specified carrying a load as a form of work, and the man’s critics here view him as violating that interpretation of the law.

5:14 Stop sinning or something worse may happen. Though often suffering had nothing to do with personal sin, both Scripture and Jewish tradition sometimes linked them.

5:17 My Father is always at his work. Jewish tradition recognized that God worked even on the Sabbath, sustaining creation.

5:18 they tried all the more to kill him. Jewish teachers believed that rejecting obedience to any law meant rejection of the entire law. his own Father. Jewish people addressed God as Father in prayer, but Jesus’ implicit claim that he should do whatever his Father did was different. making himself equal with God. Even Gentiles normally despised the arrogance of mortals who claimed to be gods; for Jews, it was blasphemy (cf., e.g., Ge 3:5; Isa 14:14). Though Jesus challenges their misunderstanding (Jn 5:19–20), later rabbis believed that Christians worshiped two gods.

5:19 can do only what he sees his Father doing. It was natural for sons to imitate and obey their fathers. Yet not even a prophet with visions could be said to see and imitate God continually. On what Jesus and the Father do, see note on 7:23.

5:21–22 Father raises the dead . . . Father judges no one. Only God could raise the dead, and only God would be humanity’s ultimate judge. A daily prayer praised God who raises the dead.

5:23 honor the Son . . . honor the Father. The way one received an ambassador, a commissioned agent, or a son reflected one’s attitude toward the sender or father.

5:26 the Father has life in himself. Greek-speaking Jews spoke of God as without beginning or source. Thus Jesus’ hearers might hear him as stating that the Father has given him the right to claim that he too is eternal and divine.

5:27 Da 7:13–14 declared that the Son of Man would rule forever.

5:29 rise to live . . . rise to be condemned. Da 12:2 announced that God would raise both the righteous and the wicked; cf. Isa 26:19. Sadducees rejected belief in the resurrection; most other Judean and Galilean Jews believed in the resurrection of the righteous for eternal life, but not all believed that the wicked would be raised for eternal punishment.

5:30 By myself I can do nothing. In Jewish (and more generally, ancient Mediterranean) thought, an agent was to faithfully represent the sender, and to the extent that the agent did so he was fully backed by the sender’s authority.

5:31–32 I testify . . . another who testifies. Scripture required a minimum of two or three witnesses (Dt 17:6; 19:15).

5:35 John was a lamp. Jewish teachers would sometimes speak of important Biblical characters or rabbis as lamps. Most lamps were small enough to hold in the hand; they differ from the much brighter “light of the world” (8:12; cf. 1:4–5).

5:37–38 You have never heard . . . nor seen . . . nor does his word dwell in you. In a sense Israel “saw” God and heard his voice at Sinai (Ex 24:10–11; Sirach 17:13); ideally God’s law, his word, was in their hearts (Dt 30:14). By rejecting God’s agent who accurately represented him, however, these critics showed that they did not know God.

5:39–40 you think that in them you have eternal life . . . yet you refuse to come to me to have life. Jewish teachers emphasized that their people would have life by obeying Scripture (cf., e.g., Dt 4:40); Pharisees and many others studied Scripture diligently. By rejecting the one to whom the Scriptures testified, however, they showed that they missed the heart of Scripture.

5:45 Your accuser is Moses. Jewish tradition viewed Moses as an intercessor for Israel. Jesus is the prophet of whom Moses wrote (Dt 18:15–18) but also the one whose glory he witnessed (Ex 33:19–34:7; see note on Jn 1:14–18). Jesus will soon offer a sign that both recalls and transcends Moses (6:11–13, 32).