John 5 - Healing at Bethesda on Shabbat
The Scandal at Bethesda: Rethinking the Sabbath in the Light of John 5
Challenging traditional Christian interpretations of John 5
In this message, we want to look at John 5:1-17 - the healing at Bethesda on the Shabbat. Not only will we look beyond the Gospel and dive into the Jewish / Hebrew context. But we will also consider how traditional Christian thinking has turned this passage into an anti-Shabbat doctrine. To begin with, read the full passage in John 5, while we will focus here on the very last, yet most significant, verse.
Main Passage Brit Chadasha (New Testament)
John 5.17
But Jesus answered them, "My Father is still working, so I am working, too."
Main Issue: Not the Shabbat
The main, underlying issue of this passage is not that the Shabbat commandment itself is in question. The question is rather around the application of the Shabbat. Just as Yeshua taught a deeper spiritual application of God's instructions (Torah), we must look at this passage through the same lens.
The main issue is not the Shabbat itself, but a deeper spiritual application. The Jews / Pharisees in their God-fearing attempt to fence the Torah more and more [1] have ignored the essence, the spirit, of the Torah and what God requires: mercy, justice, faith [2]
Yet, in the eyes of the Jews, it was a transgression of the Torah to carry one's pallet and walk around. It was against what would later become codified as Jewish halakhah [3]. Throughout the Gospels and the B'rit Chadashah (בְּרִית חֲדָשָׁה - New Testament/New Covenant), it seems as if Yeshua took a stern stand against putting man-made ordinances before God's commandments.
Keeping in mind Matthew 5:17-19, this would very likely suggest that Messiah upholds all of the written Torah given by God as enduring, valid, and lasting. Whereas the oral laws which would later become codified are possibly of less importance to walk in righteousness in God’s eyes. Such doctrine would align with the age of the Torah which preceded the creation of the world (see below).
Was the healed cripple breaking the Shabbat by carrying his pallet?
While the Jews were focused on the breaking of the Shabbat, they seemingly fail to see the testimony of God's glory in a cripple who could walk again. While it is easy for us to see, having the understanding of it, for the Jews and Pharisees it was hidden in plain sight. Therefore, let us look at the question which seemed to have occupied the minds of the Jews in this passage:
"Is it permissible to carry your pallet on the Shabbat?"
Some answers might point to the Tanakh:
Neh 13.19
It came to pass that when the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark before the Sabbath, I commanded that the doors should be shut, and commanded that they should not be opened until after the Sabbath. I set some of my servants over the gates, so that no burden should be brought in on the Sabbath day.
The word for burden used in Hebrew is מַשָּׂא = mas'sa , meaning burden or carry
These passages seem to speak of 'carrying burdens' into Jerusalem, which does not fully resonate with what happened in this passage in John 5.
The Mishna gives us a possible explanation as to why the Jews in this passage thought the Shabbat to be broken: eruv
Eruv
An eruv is a symbolic enclosure used in Orthodox Jewish communities to allow carrying certain items in public on the Sabbath (Shabbat) and other holy days. It functions as a halakhic (Jewish law) boundary that transforms a public area into a private one, permitting activities that would otherwise be forbidden.
We see, therefore, that the validity of an eruv allows for carrying and traveling on Shabbat. Could the pool at Bethesda be considered eruv by Messiah?
After having looked at the question of whether the healed cripple broke the Shabbat, one question remains...
Does God break His own Commandment by "working" on the Shabbat?
It is a remarkable statement that Yeshua gives to the Jews who had persecuted Him because He was healing on the Shabbat and told the former crippled man to pick up his pallet and walk [4].
The Jews in question were possibly referring to their own traditions, and very likely the oral Torah, not the written Torah. Although the Tanakh provides us with plenty of details on what to do and not to do on God's Shabbat, healing He did not forbid [5].
Yeshua Messiah gives us the theological default about the Torah in the Brit Chadashah (New Covenant) early on in His ministry in Matthew 5. In that He confirms the enduring validity of Torah [6].
John 5:17 can be read in two ways: the literal way, and the deeper spiritual way.
Raising Questions - Literal interpretation, or deeper interpretation
If we understand Yeshua's statement literally, we come to the following questions:
- Is God working on His own Shabbat?
- Is God breaking His own commandments?
If that would be the case, this passage (and other significant passages about the Shabbat) could be interpreted as 'Yeshua is doing away with the weekly Shabbat because our rest is in Him only and he is the Lord of the Sabbath'. A traditional Christian doctrine.
Yeshua never breaks the Torah
However, we understand that Yeshua never breaks the Torah. Although Christianity has managed to condemn and even demonise the Torah and Judasim as a whole, we cannot come around the fact that Messiah said it himself that rather heaven and earth will pass away than one yod of the Torah. Therefore, something else must bring clarity to this passage. Something that is of the doctrine which upholds Torah just as Messiah did.
With the firm belief that God is unchanging and does not break his own commandments, what else then could a possible and plausible interpretation of verse 17 be?
1 Day = 1,000 years
David Stern in his Jewish New Testament Commentary gives a fascinating and seemingly plausible explanation on Yeshua's statement in John 5:17.
A Shabbat yet to come
In Hebrews 4:9 [7], we see that there is a 'Shabbat yet to come'. This could be interpreted as the seventh day on which God rested and made holy has not yet come. The present era in Yeshua's time could then be thought of as a weekday. But what exactly is the Shabbat yet to come? To which point in time does it allude to?
When "morning" arrives, G'd will pour over us His glory, etc. This time will arrive after the middle of the sixth millenium as we know from G'd's own words that 1000 years are equivalent to a "day" in His calendar (compare Bereshit Rabbah 8,2). Reason tells us that the first 500 years of that "day" are part of the "night" so that the time of the redemption will occur during the second five hundred years of that millenium.
When our sages claimed that no more than one day of exile had been decreed on the Jewish people, we may have to understand this in terms of Psalms 20,2: "The Lord will answer you on the day of trouble;" the "day" the Psalmist refers to being the "day" In G'd's calendar, i.e. 1.000 years in our calendar.
As Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish said: The Torah preceded the creation of the world by two thousand years. That is what is written: “I was with Him, as a protégé; I was a delight day after day” (Proverbs 8:30), and the day of the Holy One blessed be He is one thousand years, as it is written: “As one thousand years in Your eyes are like yesterday” (Psalms 90:4). That is, “have you known this from oldest times?” (Job 20:4).
The Torah knows what preceded the creation of the world. But you have license to expound only “from when man was placed upon the earth” (Job 20:4).
We see also a clarifying Midrash commentary on Genesis 2:17 [8]
Although G'd had said that Adam would die "on the day" he would eat from the tree of knowledge, the word "day" could have one of two connotations. It could mean a period of 24 hours, i.e. a day in human terms, or it could refer to a day in G'd's terms, i.e. 1000 years. If it is the latter, the meaning of the warning was that Adam would die before he reached the age of 1000 years. The respective connotation of the word depends on the severity of the sin and the feeling the sinner had at the time he committed the sin. If the sinner intended to anger G'd at the time he sinned, the meaning of the word "day" would be the minimum. The sinner would have to die before that period of 24 hours expired. If, however, the sin was not committed intentionally and the sinner had made it plain that he had not intended to sin, he would be given the maximum period possible, i.e. he would live up to but not including 1000 years.
👉 Looking into Sanhedrin 97b is highly recommended for a deep-dive into this topic [9].
Back to John 5, interpreting this passage as 'one day = one thousand years' in earthly calendars, the time period Yeshua was in would then be considered a workday in the large cosmic scale of things. Meaning, the Shabbat rest that remains in the book of Hebrews would point to a time in the future—possibly the Messianic Age [10].
Therefore, the weekly Shabbat remains for followers of Messiah to uphold just as He upheld it until the time has come where we find our eternal rest
Footnotes
-
Halakhah, in Judaism, the totality of laws and ordinances that have evolved since biblical times to regulate religious observances and the daily life and conduct of the Jewish people. Quite distinct from the Law, or the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible), Halakhah purports to preserve and represent oral traditions stemming from the revelation on Mount Sinai or evolved on the basis of it. The legalistic nature of Halakhah also sets it apart from those parts of rabbinic, or Talmudic, literature that include history, fables, and ethical teachings (Haggada). That Halakhah existed from ancient times is confirmed from nonpentateuchal passages of the Bible, where, for example, servitude is mentioned as a legitimate penalty for unpaid debts (2 Kings 4:1).
-
↩︎
17. “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.
18. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.
19. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. -
↩︎
9. There remains therefore a rest for the people of God.
10. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.
11. Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience. -
↩︎
17. but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”