The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: S. John
Chapter 5
After these things , &c. Observe, John here omits many things which Christ did in Galilee, but which Matthew records from the 4th to the 12th chapter of his Gospel. For what Matthew relates in his 12th chapter concerning the disciples plucking the ears of corn took place after the following feast, as will appear presently.
A feast. SS. Chrysostom, Cyril, and others think that this was the Feast of Pentecost. With more probability, S. Irenaeus (lib. 2, c. 39), Ruperti, and others, think it was the Passover. They show this (1.) Because in chap, iv., ver. 35, Jesus said there were still four months unto harvest. That therefore must have been before the Passover: thus the Passover must have been the first great subsequent feast.
2. Because the Passover was the feast of feasts. When therefore it is said absolutely, there was a feast , the Passover, which was the feast par excellence, is to be understood.
3. Because Christ after His baptism preached for three years and a half, according to the common consent of divines. It follows from this that there ought to be notices in the Gospels of four Passovers, which is the case. The first is mentioned by John in ii. 13 ; the second in this place ; the third in vi. 4 ; the fourth , just before His death, xix. 14. But if the feast mentioned in this 5th chapter were not the Passover, we could only gather the mention of three by S. John.
Here then comes to a close the account of the first year and three months of Christ’s ministry, that is to say, from January 6, when He was baptized, until this second Passover, which was kept in Nisan, or March.
Ver. 2. — Now there is . . . sheep-market : Vulgate, Probatica. The pool took its name both because it was nigh the gate adjacent to the Temple, through which the flocks of sheep for the sacrifices were driven, and also because the sheep, which were offered to God every morning and evening in the Temple, were there gathered together and washed.
A pool: i.e., a place which contained fishes, or at least might have held them. The Greek is κολυμβήθρα, a place to swim in, because fishes, or even men, might swim in it. The Vulgate has piscina. This pool was constructed by Solomon for the service of the Temple; hence it is called by Josephus (Bell. Jud., vi. 6) Solomon's Pool. In it the Nethinims washed the victims which they handed over to the priests to be offered in the Temple.
Some Greek codices instead of pool read στοά, a porch, or gate, but S. Chrysostom, Theophylact, Cyril, Euthymius, S. Jerome, and others passim, read κολυμβήθρα, i.e., a pool. The Syriac has a baptistery , or font.
Bethsaida: so read the Vulgate, and among the Greeks SS. Chrysostom and Cyril. And appositely, for Bethsaida means in Hebrew a house, i.e., a place of hunting, or fishing. And this is the signification of the Greek a place for fish to swim in.
The Greek MSS., however, read so also S. Jerome (loc. cit.). Bethesda means in Hebrew a place of pouring forth, because the rain from the roofs of the houses, and streams of water from aqueducts, flowed into it. The Syriac has Bethchesda, or house of mercy, from the Hebrew TDT7, chesed, mercy, because there God showed His mercy to the miserable sick whom He healed ; or else because righteous men relieved with their alms the sick poor who lay there.
Having five porches, or porticoes : these porches or porticoes were places covered above, but open below, either for walking, or taking rest in, that sick persons might rest in them secure from rain, or the heat of the sun, and immediately step out of them into the pool when its angel moved the water.
Ver. 3. — In them . . . languishing people (Vulg.) ; Greek, ἀσθενούντων ; Eng. Ver. sick folk; withered (Vulg.) aridorum, dry, i.e., whose arm, or hand, or foot, or some other limb, was lifeless.
An angel of the Lord; either Raphael, or some other. Raphael, who presides over bodily healing, is so called from the Hebrew, which signifies the medicine , or physician of God. Whence he cured Tobit of his blindness.
According to a time (Vulg.), i.e., at a certain time determined by God, or the angel, but unknown to men. Wherefore what Tertullian and Cyril say does not seem to be correct, that it was only once in the year, namely, at Pentecost, that the angel went down into the pool. For if so, the sick folk would not have lain beside it (for so long a time), but would have waited at home until Pentecost was close at hand. As Euthymius says, “ By speaking of a stated time, he showed that the miracle was not continually taking place, but at certain times, unknown indeed to men, though often, as I think, in the course of the year.”
The water was moved (Vulg.); Greek, ἐτάραξε τὸ ὕδωρ, i.e., he disturbed or troubled the water. “The sound of moving signified that angels were present to sanctify the water,” says S. Cyril. “The water was moved in order to show that the angel had descended,” says S. Ambrose.
And he that first went down, &c. In order to show the value of labour and diligence, and that we ought to be swift and active to take God's benefits. Thus it was necessary for him who would gather the manna to rise at dawn, for when the sun was risen it melted, “ that it might be made known unto all that it was needful to prevent the rising of the sun for Thy blessing, and to worship Thee at the dawning of the day ” (Wisd. vi. 28). For God gives His gifts to the watchful and earnest, not to the slow and sleepy. Thus in the race only he who excels the rest receives the prize.
You will ask why, after the troubling of the water, as it is in the Greek, only he who first stepped in after the troubling was healed ? I answer, that the literal reason was to show that this power of healing did not proceed from any natural virtue of the water, but from the moving of the angel, and the command of God. This moving of the angel did not impress any physical power or quality upon the water to heal any disease, but it was a sign of the Divine power and working, which were about to heal that sick person who had previously, by his own diligence, stirred up himself, and had gone down into the water that he might there receive the miraculous blessing of God. This moving , therefore, was an invitation to the sick to receive healing in the troubled water.
Appositely indeed did the angel make use of this sign of motion, because, whilst it was being moved, the virtue of the water became lively and efficacious. For life consists in motion, death in quietude and torpor.
Tropologically, the reason was to signify that the sinner, when he is converted and healed by God, is wont to be troubled and agitated in his conscience by various emotions of fear, shame, and hope. God moves a man to repentance and contrition, that he may thereby be healed, as the Council of Trent teaches.
Of whatsoever disease . From hence it is plain that the healing virtue of this pool did not proceed from the victims which were washed in it, nor from wood lying at the bottom, of which the cross of Christ was afterwards made, as some have supposed, but was supernatural and miraculous. For God wished to bestow this benefit upon believing people about the time of Christ’s coming (for there is no mention of it in the Old Testament), in order that Christ thus healing a sick man might show that He was God, who had given this property to the pool, and therefore that He without it could heal the sick. Wherefore it would seem that this gift was taken away from the ungrateful Jews when they killed Christ, for we find no subsequent mention of it. As Tertullian says ( cont. Jud., c. 13), “The pool of Bethsaida, which, to the coming of Christ, healed the sicknesses of Israel, afterwards ceased from bestowing its benefits through their persevering fury.”
Allegorically, God willed that this pool should be a token of His Passion and His Baptism. For as the angel descended into the water, so Christ went down to His Passion and torments ; and in them, as in water, He was immersed and buried. And as the pool was red with the blood of the victims which were washed in it, so was Christ ruddy, and stained with His own blood (Isa. lxiii. 2), that by the merit of His blood He might cause baptism (wherefore the Syriac here translates baptistery ), in whose water believers are washed, to heal all spiritual infirmities. So Tertullian (de Baptismo , c. 5), S. Ambrose (de Spir. Sc., lib. 1, c. 7), and S. Chrysostom. The latter says, “ For when God wished to instruct us in the belief of baptism now nigh at hand, He drove away not only pollutions, but diseases of water : for the nearer the images and figures were to the truth, they were more illustrious than the ancient figures.” And S. Austin says, “ To descend into the troubled water is humbly to believe in the Lord’s Passion. There one was healed to signify unity. Whosoever came afterwards was not healed, because whoso is outside of unity cannot be healed.”