John 5:1-18 ▼

1 After this there was a Festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, called in Hebrew 'Bethesda.' It has five arcades.

3 In these there used to lie a great number of sick persons, and of people who were blind or lame or paralyzed.

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5 And there was one man there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.

6 Jesus saw him lying there, and knowing that he had been a long time in that condition, He asked him, "Do you wish to have health and strength?"

7 "Sir," replied the sufferer, "I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is moved; but while I am coming some one else steps down before me."

8 "Rise," said Jesus, "take up your mat and walk."

9 Instantly the man was restored to perfect health, and he took up his mat and began to walk.

10 That day was a Sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been cured, "It is the Sabbath: you must not carry your mat."

11 "He who cured me," he replied, "said to me, 'Take up your mat and walk.'"

12 "Who is it," they asked, "that said to you, 'Take up your mat and walk'?"

13 But the man who had been cured did not know who it was; for Jesus had passed out unnoticed, there being a crowd in the place.

14 Afterwards Jesus found him in the Temple and said to him, "You are now restored to health. Do not sin any more, or a worse thing may befall you."

15 The man went and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had restored him to health;

16 and on this account the Jews began to persecute Jesus--because He did these things on the Sabbath.

17 His reply to their accusation was, "My Father works unceasingly, and so do I."

18 On this account then the Jews were all the more eager to put Him to death--because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also spoke of God as being in a special sense His Father, thus putting Himself on a level with God.