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Joh_5:6-7. Τοῦτον … ἔχει ] two points which excited the compassion of Jesus, where γνούς , however (as in Joh_4:1), does not denote a supernatural knowledge of this external (otherwise in Joh_5:14) and easily known or ascertained fact (against Godet and the early expositors).
ἔχει ] i.e. ἐν ἀσθενείᾳ , Joh_5:5.
θέλεις , κ . τ . λ .] Wilt thou become whole? The self-evident nature of this desire made the question an appropriate one to rouse the sufferer’s attention and expectation, and this was the object Jesus had in view in order to the commencement of His miraculous work. This question was inappropriate for the purpose (de Wette thinks) of merely beginning a conversation upon the subject. Paulus falsely supposes that the man might have been a dishonest beggar, feigning sickness, and that Jesus asks him with reproving emphasis, “Wilt thou be made whole? art thou in earnest?” So, too, Ammon; while Lange regards him as simply languid in will, and that Christ again roused his dormant will; but there is nothing of this in the text, and just as little of Luthardt’s notion, that the question was meant for all the people of whom the sick man is supposed to be the type. This miracle alone furnishes an example of an unsolicited interrogation upon Christ’s part (a feature which Weisse urges against it); but in the case of the man born blind, chap. 9, we have also an unsolicited healing.
ἄνθρωπον οὐκ ἔχω ] ad morbum accedebat inopia, Grotius; ἄνθρ . emphatically takes the lead; the ἔρχομαι ἐγώ follows answers to it.
ὅταν ταραχθῇ τὸ ὕδωρ ] The occasional and intermittent disturbance of the water is not to be understood as a regular occurrence, but as something sudden and quickly passing away. Hence the man’s waiting and complaint.
βάλῃ ] throw, denoting a hasty conveyance before the momentary bubbling was over.
ἔρχομαι ] he therefore was obliged to help himself along, but slowly.
ἄλλος πρὸ ἐμοῦ ] so that the place where the bubbling appeared was occupied by another. Observe the sing.; the short bubbling is to be regarded as occurring only in one fixed springing-point in the pool, so that one person only could let it exert its influence upon him. The apocryphal Joh_5:4 has perverted this circumstance, in conformity with a popular superstition, which probably reaches as far back as the time of Christ.