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the law, which suggested the failure of the law to save? "for the law was given by Moses,
but true grace came by Jesus Christ". Moses is most certainly introduced into these two
signs (John 5: 45, 46; 9: 28, 29), as also the fact that the Saviour was Lord even of the
sabbath day, for both signs were wrought on a sabbath.
The sick who waited for the troubling of the water were "impotent" folk, and blind,
halt, and withered. It is the "impotent" (astheneo) man that is singled out for blessing.
Astheneia, the word translated "infirmity" in John 5: 5, indicates both physical infirmity
and infirmity of the flesh (Rom. 6: 19), as well as the infirmity of the law, because of the
flesh (Rom. 8: 2). Asthenes is used of obsolete law, where it is referred to as the
"weak" and beggarly elements (Gal. 4: 9). Moreover, the man had been impotent for
thirty-eight years, the period that covered the wandering of the children of Israel.
"Waiting."--From this word in verse 3 to the end of verse 4, the passage is omitted in
many critical texts, though retained in the Syriac, but there is no justification for the
omission, neither is there any reason to attempt to "explain" the reference to angelic
ministry. If, as has been suggested, John merely introduced a popular but mistaken
superstition here, what is to prevent the application of the suggestion to other recorded
instances of angelic ministry in the N.T.? It is also unnecessary to attempt an
"explanation" on natural lines. The pool might, or might not, have been an intermittent
spring; it might, or might not, have been connected with the upper springs of the water of
Gihon. The truth is that no one knows the site of the pool. The identification of the
sheep gate with St. Stephen's gate is inaccurate, for Robinson says no well existed in that
quarter until the time of Agrippa. Against the "natural" interpretation of the troubling of
the water, we must place the testimony of the record:
(1)
Only one sufferer could be healed.
(2)
The first who stepped down was healed.
(3)
The action of the curative power was instantaneous.
(4)
The cure was not confined to any specific disease.
If the pool had consisted of some sort of medicinal water, its powers would not be
exhausted in the cure of the one sufferer, nor would it necessarily matter in what order
the sufferers stepped into the water. Moreover medicinal waters do not cure
instantaneously, nor every kind of disease or infirmity.
Before proceeding further we must discover the structure of the third sign.