John 5:3

Syriac Peshitta (NT Only)

ܘܰܒ݂ܗܳܠܶܝܢ ܪܡܶܝܢ ܗ݈ܘܰܘ ܥܰܡܳܐ ܣܰܓ݁ܺܝܳܐܐ ܕ݁ܰܟ݂ܪܺܝܗܶܐ ܘܰܣܡܰܝܳܐ ܘܰܚܓ݂ܺܝܣܶܐ ܘܝܰܒ݁ܺܝܫܶܐ ܘܰܡܣܰܟ݁ܶܝܢ ܗ݈ܘܰܘ ܠܙܽܘܥܳܐ ܕ݁ܡܰܝܳܐ ܀

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

of blind: Matthew 15:30, Luke 7:22

withered: 1 Kings 13:4, Zechariah 11:17, Mark 3:1-4

waiting: Proverbs 8:34, Lamentations 3:26, Romans 8:25, James 5:7

Reciprocal: Matthew 12:10 - which Luke 6:6 - there Acts 14:8 - impotent

Gill's Notes on the Bible

In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk,.... Sick and weak persons; who were an emblem of men under the law of works, and in a state of unregeneracy; who are enfeebled by sin, and are impotent and unable to do anything of themselves; as to keep the law of God, to which they have neither will nor power, and to atone for the transgressions of it; nor to redeem themselves from the curse of the law or to begin and carry on a work of grace upon their souls; or to do anything that is spiritually good; no, not to think a good thought, or to do a good action, as is required:

of blind; these also may represent men a state of nature, who are ignorant of, and blind to everything that is spiritual; as to the true knowledge of God in Christ, the way of salvation by him, the plague of their own hearts, and the exceeding sinfulness of sin; to the Spirit of God, and his work upon the soul; and to the truths of the Gospel, in the power of them:

halt, or "lame"; this word sometimes is used of persons in suspense about religious things, hesitating concerning them, halting between two opinions; and sometimes designs the infirmities of the saints, and their faulterings in religious exercises; and here maybe expressive in a figurative way, of the incapacity natural men, to go or walk of themselves; as to come to Christ for grace and life, which no man can do, except the Father draw him; or to walk by faith in him: it is added,

withered; one limb or another of them dried up: their arms or legs were withered, and their sinews shrunk, and were without radical moisture, or the free use of the animal spirits; and may point out carnal persons, such as are sensual, not having the Spirit, destitute of the grace of God, without faith, hope, love, knowledge, and the fear of God; without God, Christ, and the Spirit; and in a lifeless, helpless, hopeless, and perishing condition:

waiting for the moving of the water; hereafter mentioned: and so it is in providence, and a wonderful thing it is, that the hearts of so many unregenerate persons should be inclined to attend upon the outward means of grace, and should be waiting at Wisdom's gates, and watching at the posts of her door.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Impotent folk - Sick people; or people who were weak and feeble by long disease. The word means those who were “feeble” rather than those who were afflicted with “acute” disease.

Halt - Lame.

Withered - Those who were afflicted with one form of the palsy that withered or dried up the part affected. See the notes at Matthew 4:24.

Moving of the water - It appears that this pool had medicinal properties only when it was “agitated” or “stirred.” It is probable that at regular times or intervals the fountain put forth an unusual quantity of water, or water of special properties, and that “about” these times the people assembled in multitudes who were to be healed.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse John 5:3. Blind, halt, withered — To these the Codex Bezae, three copies of the Itala, and both the Persic, add παραλυτικων, paralytic; but they are probably included among the withered.

Waiting for the moving of the water. — This clause, with the whole of the fourth verse, is wanting in some MSS. and versions; but I think there is no sufficient evidence against their authenticity. Griesbach seems to be of the same opinion; for though he has marked the whole passage with the notes of doubtfulness, yet he has left it in the text. Some have imagined that the sanative virtue was communicated to the waters by washing in them the entrails of the beasts which were offered in sacrifice; and that the angel meant no more than merely a man sent to stir up from the bottom this corrupt sediment, which, being distributed through the water, the pores of the person who bathed in it were penetrated by this matter, and his disorder repelled! But this is a miserable shift to get rid of the power and goodness of God, built on the merest conjectures, self-contradictory, and every way as unlikely as it is insupportable. It has never yet been satisfactorily proved that the sacrifices were ever washed; and, could even this be proved, who can show that they were washed in the pool of Bethesda? These waters healed a man in a moment of whatsoever disease he had. Now, there is no one cause under heaven that can do this. Had only one kind of disorders been cured here, there might have been some countenance for this deistical conjecture-but this is not the case; and we are obliged to believe the relation just as it stands, and thus acknowledge the sovereign power and mercy of God, or take the desperate flight of an infidel, and thus get rid of the passage altogether.