Finding the Answers to the Tough Questions about John 5:1-17
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Arguably, John 5:1–17 is one of the most difficult passages in Scripture to exegete correctly. There is little about this account that is easy to understand. Before the careful student of God’s Word can arrive at a faithful interpretation, he must first wrestle with several important questions.
What was this pool, and why were people suffering from serious physical maladies waiting for its waters to be stirred?
Why did the man who was healed shift the blame to Jesus when he was confronted for carrying his mat on the Sabbath?
Why did Jesus give the man such an ominous warning, telling him to sin no more lest something worse happen to him?
Why did the healed man report Jesus to the religious authorities, knowing that this could result in Jesus being persecuted?
Further complicating an already difficult text is the fact that a later scribal note concerning an angel stirring the waters of the pool found its way into some manuscripts, further obscuring an already challenging account.
It should also be noted that every faithful pastor must wrestle with these questions if he is to fulfill the duties of his office and rightly divide the Word of truth (2 Tim. 2:15). Those who have not done the necessary exegetical work (men like Mike Signorelli) will be readily apparent to those who have.
Below are resources to help answer some of these questions for those willing to put in the work.
What does recent archaeological scholarship say about the Pool of Bethesda
Here is recent archaeological scholarship arguing that the Pool of Bethesda was a Jewish mikvah.
Here is a recent scholarly paper arguing that it was a temple to Asclepius at the time of Christ.
What is the Textual Evidence Against an Angel Stirring the waters of the Pool of Bethesda
This is a PDF of a scholarly journal article written by Gordon Fee titled “On the Inauthenticity of John 5:3b-4”. This article decisively demonstrates that reading is a later scribal note / gloss that crept into the later manuscripts.
Bonus Material:
This post was compiled to accompany an episode of Fighting for the Faith demonstrating that Mike Signorelli is not the kind of “pastor” who does his homework before preaching his “sermons.” For the record, he now claims to be an apostle.
Below is the episode in which I document Mike claiming to know Greek when he clearly does not.
In the episode below, Mike Signorelli tried to defend himself against my claim that he didn’t know Greek by claiming that he was correct but I was critiquing him by using “Lutheran Greek”. The section in question begins at 25:20 and ends at 40:12.
