CHAPTER V. Ch. 5:1-47. HEALING OF IMPOTENT MAN AND DISCOURSE THEREON.--A PARABLE OF REDEMPTION; THE NATURE AND THE CONDITION OF SPIRITUAL CURE ILLUSTRATED.--THE CHRISTIAN LAW OF THE SABBATH ILLUSTRATED.--THE AUTHORITY OF THE SON OF GOD: HE IS WITH THE FATHER; COMES FROM THE FATHER; IS TO BE HONORED AND TRUSTED AS THE FATHER; HE RAISES THE DEAD AND JUDGES THE LIVING.--THE EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY; THE TESTIMONY OF JOHN; OF CHRIST’S LIFE AND WORKS; OF THE SCRIPTURE.--THE CAUSE OF UNBELIEF. [Illustration: CHURCH OVER THE POOL OF BETHESDA.] 1 After this there was a feast[159] of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. [159] ch. 2:13; Lev. 23:2, etc.; Deut. 16:16. 2 Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep _market_, a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches. 3 In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. 4 For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first[160] after the troubling of the water stepped in, was made whole[161] of whatsoever disease he had. [160] Prov. 8:17; Eccles. 9:10; Matt. 11:12. [161] Ezek. 47:8, 9; Zech. 13:1. =1-4. After this was a feast of the Jews.= There were three great feasts of the Jewish nation, the Passover in the spring, usually March; the Pentecost, fifty days after, coming therefore usually early in June; and the Tabernacles, a feast in the Fall, usually October, analogous to our Thanksgiving. To these must be added the feast of Purim, which was kept in celebration of the deliverance of Israel, in the time of Esther, from massacre (Esther 9:17-19), and the feast of Dedication, instituted subsequent to the close of the O. T. canon, to commemorate the purging of the temple and the rebuilding of the altar, after Judas Maccabeus had driven out the Syrians, B. C. 164. There is nothing in the language of John to indicate which of these various feasts is the one here intended. Some manuscripts have indeed the words, _the_ feast of the Jews, and if this reading were correct it would unquestionably designate the Passover; but the weight of authority is against it. The question is one which has provoked a vast deal of discussion, but no general agreement. It is important only in determining the chronology of the life of Christ, and is itself so far undetermined that it cannot be of great value even for that purpose. I think it clear (_a_) that it could not be the feast of Dedication, which took place in the winter, when it is not probable that the sick would be lying in the porches of Bethesda; (_b_) nor the feast of Purim, though this has been maintained by some eminent modern scholars, as Wieseler, Godet, Olshausen, Ellicott, and Meyer; for there is no evidence that the Jews generally went up to Jerusalem to