12. Interrogaverunt ergo eum: Quis est ille homo qui dixit tibi, Tolle grabatum tuum, et ambula?12. They asked him, therefore: Who is that man who said to thee: Take up thy bed and walk?
13. Is autem qui sanus fuerat effectus, nesciebat quis esset. Iesus enim declinavit a turba constituta in loco.13. But he who was healed, knew not who it was. For Jesus went aside from the multitude standing in the place.

13. Christ had gone aside to escape the envy of the evil-minded as well as the admiration of the well-disposed. See [vi. 15]. A more correct rendering of the Greek would be: For Jesus had gone aside, there being a crowd in the place.

14. Postea invenit eum Iesus in templo, et dixit illi: Ecce sanus factus es: iam noli peccare, ne deterius tibi aliquid contingat.14. Afterwards Jesus findeth him in the temple, and saith to him: Behold thou art made whole: sin no more, lest some worse thing happen to thee.
15. Abiit ille homo, et nuntiavit Iudaeis quia Iesus esset, quia fecit eum sanum.15. And the man went his way, and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him whole.

14. Christ's words, Sin no more, insinuate that the man's previous illness had been the result of sin; and he is warned that if he provoke God further, something worse may happen to him; worse, perhaps, even on this side, and infinitely worse beyond, the grave. “Some say, indeed,” says St. Chrys., “because we have corrupted ourselves for a short time, shall we be tormented eternally? But see how long this man was tormented for his sins. Sin is [pg 095] not to be measured by length of time, but by the nature of sin itself.”

16. Propterea persequebantur Iudaei Iesum, quia haec faciebat in sabbato.16. Therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, because he did these things on the sabbath.

16. Therefore the Jews, especially the Scribes and Pharisees, persecuted, or rather, perhaps, accused[47] Jesus for healing a man on the Sabbath (comp. vii. 23; Luke vi. 7), and for authorizing him who was healed to violate the Sabbath.

17. Iesus autem respondit eis: Pater meus usque modo operatur, et ego operor.17. But Jesus answered them: My Father worketh until now; and I work.

17. Christ's reply is, that as His (not our, for He was the natural Son of God, we are only adopted sons) Father worketh continually, and therefore even on the Sabbath, conserving and governing all things; so, too, He Himself, He being consubstantial with the Father. Thus He tells them that equally with the Father He is exempt from the law of the Sabbath.

18. Propterea ergo magis quaerebant eum Iudaei interficere, quia non solum solvebat sabbatum, sed et patrem suum dicebat Deum, aequalem se faciens Deo. Respondit itaque Iesus, et dixit eis:18. Hereupon therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he did not only break the sabbath, but also said God was his Father, making himself equal to God.

18. They understand Him, so far at least as to see that He makes Himself equal to God; and as they now consider Him to be not merely a Sabbath-breaker, but also a blasphemer, they become more exasperated, and seek to kill Him. See Deut. xiii. 5.