“What man is that which said unto thee, Take up thy bed, and walk?”
The full verse · John 5:12 · KJV
asked , that unto , Take , ?
Asked by
Jews: those John calls "the Jews," who saw the healed man carrying his bed on the sabbath and challenged him (John 5:10); the text does not say they were rulers
Asked to
Healed Man: the man at the pool of Bethesda, infirm thirty-eight years, whom Jesus had just made whole on the sabbath (John 5:5-9)
The Scene
On the sabbath, the Jews stop the newly healed man for carrying his bed, and he tells them that the one who made him whole told him to do it (John 5:9-11).
Why It Was Asked
The purpose behind the questionThe Jews who stopped him wanted to find the person responsible for what they saw as breaking the sabbath. The man had said, "He that made me whole, the same said unto me, Take up thy bed, and walk" (John 5:11). Notice which half of his answer they pick up. Barnes says, "Instead of looking at the miracle, and at the man's statement of the manner in which he was healed, they look only at what they thought to be a violation of the law." Gill adds that "they take no notice of the cure, being unwilling to give any glory to Christ." Their question asks who gave the command, not who did the healing.
The Response
What Scripture recordsAt first the man could not answer: he "wist not who it was: for Jesus had conveyed himself away, a multitude being in that place" (John 5:13). Later Jesus found him in the temple and said, "sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee" (John 5:14). Then "the man departed, and told the Jews that it was Jesus, which had made him whole" (John 5:15). As a result the Jews persecuted Jesus "and sought to slay him" (John 5:16).
Historical Context
The world behind the wordsThey based their complaint on the law against bearing burdens on the sabbath. Barnes points to Jeremiah 17:21 ("bear no burden on the sabbath day") and Nehemiah 13:15. Gill quotes later Jewish rules that counted carrying anything "from one place to another" as "one of the principal works" forbidden on the sabbath.
Barnes says Jesus could command this because "the Son of man was Lord of the Sabbath." Barnes reads "conveyed himself away" in John 5:13 to mean that Jesus "had silently mingled with the multitude, or had passed on with the crowd unobserved." Gill reads it differently: Jesus slipped away and passed through the crowd, "not that he hid himself among them."
The Bigger Picture
Where this fits in God's storyThis question is about who Jesus is, even though those asking did not mean it that way. They asked, "What man is that?" The rest of John 5 answers: He is the Son who works as the Father works (John 5:17), and He has authority to give life and to judge (John 5:21-22).
The scene also shows two ways of looking at the same event. The man saw that he was made whole. His questioners saw only a rule broken. Jesus would later ask them why they were angry "because I have made a man every whit whole on the sabbath day" (John 7:23), and told them to "judge righteous judgment" (John 7:24).
Look Closer
Which part of the man's explanation did his questioners focus on?
Carry the question into prayer and conversation.
Lord, these men looked at a healed man and saw only a broken rule; where am I missing what You are doing because I am looking at the wrong thing?
A prayer to carry into the day.
- His questioners noticed the bed but not the healing. What tends to draw your attention first when God is at work in someone else's life?
- Tell about a time you were slow to recognize God's goodness because it did not come the way you expected.
For you, a small group, a friend, or the dinner table.
It is possible to care so much about the rules around God's work that you miss the work itself. His questioners had a healed man standing in front of them and asked only who had told him to carry his bed.
When you see God bring healing or change to someone, start with thankfulness before critique. Ask what God has done before asking whether it was done the way you would have done it.
This does not mean God's commands don't matter. Jesus Himself told the man, "sin no more" (John 5:14). The problem was not caring about God's law; it was refusing to see the One who gave it standing among them.
Built from the biblical text and checked against trusted commentaries and lexicons. References & Sources
Keep questioning
“Wilt thou be made whole?”
“How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only?”
“If a man on the sabbath day receive circumcision, that the law of Moses should not be broken; are ye angry at me, because I have made a man every whit whole on the sabbath day?”