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Passage Research

John 5 — Sermon Preparation

Jesus heals a man ill for thirty-eight years at Bethesda, triggering a Sabbath dispute and an extended discourse on the Son's authority. Below is a research summary for John 5, drawn from openly licensed scholarly databases — original-language morphology, classic sermons from the church fathers through the Puritans, and ancient geography data.

47
verses
790 / 188
Greek words / lemmas
47
classic sermon excerpts
11
preachers & commentators

John 5 in the Greek

Distinctive vocabulary of this chapter, based on original-language morphology.

GreekTransliterationStrong'sCountKJV renderings
πατήρpatḗrG396214father, parent
υἱόςhuiósG520710child, foal, son
ὑγιήςhygiḗsG51995sound, whole
ζωήzōḗG22227life
μαρτυρέωmartyréōG31406charge, give, bear record, have good report
πιστεύωpisteúōG41007believe, commit, put in trust with
κρίσιςkrísisG29205accusation, condemnation, damnation, judgment

How preachers through history handled this text

47 public-domain excerpts on John 5, from the church fathers to the Puritans.

Spurgeon11Calvin9Matthew Henry8Augustine6Chrysostom5Alexander MacLaren2George Whitefield2+4 more

“We are all by nature impotent folk in spiritual things, blind, halt, and withered; but full provision is made for our cure, if we attend to it. An angel went down, and troubled the water; and what disease soever it was, this water cured it, but only he that first stepped in had benefit. This teaches us to be careful, that we let not a season slip which may never return. The man had lost the use of his limbs thirty-eight years. …”

— Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (Concise), on John 5:1–9 (Public Domain)

Places in the text

Based on ancient-geography data

  • Jerusalem— John 5:1
  • Bethesda— John 5:2
  • Sheep Gate— John 5:2

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