John 5:1-13 ▼

1 Some time later came the feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool with five covered colonnades, which in Hebrew is called Bethesda.

3 On these walkways lay a great number of the sick, the blind, the lame, and the paralyzed, awaiting the moving of the water.

4 For from time to time an angel descended into the pool and stirred the water. As soon as the water was stirred, the first to enter the pool would be healed of his disease.

5 One man there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.

6 When Jesus saw him lying there and realized that he had spent a long time in this condition, He asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

7 “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am on my way, someone else goes in before me.”

8 Then Jesus told him, “Get up, pick up your mat, and walk.”

9 Immediately the man was made well, and he picked up his mat and began to walk. Now this happened on the Sabbath day,

10 so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “This is the Sabbath! It is unlawful for you to carry your mat.”

11 But he answered, “The man who made me well told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’”

12 “Who is this man who told you to pick up your mat and walk?” they asked.

13 But the man who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away while the crowd was there.