John 5:1-13 - A Paralytic Is Healed

¹ After these things Jesus went up to Jerusalem to [attend] a Jewish festival. ² Now in Jerusalem there was a pool of water near the Sheep Gate [Note: This was a city gate in the north wall]. It had five porticos [i.e., covered open areas along the outside of the Temple]. In the Hebrew language it was called Bethesda. ³ Under these porticos a large number of sick, blind, crippled and deformed people were placed {{A few ancient authorities add "to wait for the water [of the pool] to become choppy. ⁴ For an angel of the Lord came down to the pool [from heaven] at certain times and stirred up the water. Then the first person to enter the pool after the water became choppy was healed from whatever disease he had."}}

⁵ And a certain man was there who had been sick for thirty-eight years [Note: He was probably a crippled person]. ⁶ When Jesus saw him lying [there by the pool], and knew that he had been [in that condition] a long time, He said to him, "Do you want to get well?"

⁷ The sick man answered Him, "Sir, I do not have anyone to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but [just] when I am about to enter [it] someone else goes down [into the water] before me."

⁸ [So], Jesus said to him, "Get up; pick up your cot and walk." ⁹ And immediately the man was made well and picked up his cot and walked. Now this happened on the Sabbath day. ¹⁰ So, the Jews said to the man who was healed, "It is not permissible for you to pick up your cot because it is the Sabbath day."

¹¹ But he replied to them, "The same man who made me well said to me, 'Pick up your cot and walk.'"

¹² [Then] they asked him, "Who is this man who said to you, 'Pick up your cot and walk.'?" ¹³ But the man who was healed did not know who it was, because Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.