Jesus Heals a Man at a Pool

5 ¹Later Jesus went to Jerusalem for a special Jewish festival. ²In Jerusalem there is a pool with five covered porches. In the Jewish language* it is called Bethzatha.* This pool is near the Sheep Gate. ³Many sick people were lying on the porches [beside the pool]. Some of the people were blind, some were crippled, and some were paralyzed.* ⁴* ⁵There was a man lying there who had been sick for 38 years. ⁶Jesus saw the man lying there. Jesus knew that the man had been sick for a very long time. So Jesus asked the man, "Do you want to be well?" ⁷The sick man answered, "Sir, there is no person to help me get into the water when the water starts moving. I try to be the first person into the water. But when I try, another person always goes in before I can." ⁸Then Jesus said, "Stand up! Pick up your bed and walk." ⁹Then immediately the man was well. The man picked up his bed and started walking. The day all this happened was a Sabbath day.* ¹⁰So the Jews said to the man that had been healed, "Today is the Sabbath. It is against our law for you to carry your bed on the Sabbath day." ¹¹But the man answered, "The person (Jesus) that made me well told me, 'Pick up your bed and walk.'" ¹²The Jews asked the man, "Who is the person that told you to pick up your bed and walk?" ¹³But the man that had been healed did not know who the person was. There were many people in that place, and Jesus had left. ¹⁴Later Jesus found the man at the temple.* Jesus said to him, "See, you are well now. But stop sinning or something worse may happen to you!" ¹⁵Then the man left and went back to those Jews. The man told them that Jesus was the one that made him well. ¹⁶Jesus was doing these things (healing) on the Sabbath day.* So the Jews began to do bad things to Jesus. ¹⁷But Jesus said to the Jews, "My Father never stops working. And so I work too." ¹⁸This made the Jews try harder to kill him. [The Jews said], "First this man (Jesus) was breaking the law about the Sabbath day.* Then he said that God is his Father! He is making himself equal with God!"

Jewish language Aramaic, a language like Hebrew that was spoken by the Jews in the first century. Bethzatha Also called Bethsaida or Bethesda, a pool of water north of the temple in Jerusalem. Verses 3 and 4 At the end of verse 3 some Greek copies add "and they waited for the water to move." A few later copies add verse 4: "Sometimes an angel of the Lord came down to the pool and shook the water. After the angel did this, the first person to go into the pool was healed from any sickness he had." Sabbath day The seventh day of the Jewish week. It was a special religious day for the Jews. temple The special building in Jerusalem for Jewish worship.