John 4:12

4:12 Surely you’re not greater than our ancestor ¹  Jacob, are you? For he gave us this well and drank from it himself, along with his sons and his livestock.” ² 

John 5:6

5:6 When Jesus saw him lying there and when he realized ³  that the man ⁴  had been disabled a long time already, he said to him, “Do you want to become well?”

John 5:14

5:14 After this Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “Look, you have become well. Don’t sin any more, ⁵  lest anything worse happen to you.”

John 7:23

7:23 But if a male child ⁶  is circumcised ⁷  on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses is not broken, ⁸  why are you angry with me because I made a man completely well ⁹  on the Sabbath?

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¹ tn Or “our forefather”; Grk “our father.”

² tn Questions prefaced with μή (mh) in Greek anticipate a negative answer. This can sometimes be indicated by using a “tag” at the end. In this instance all of v. 12 is one question. It has been broken into two sentences for the sake of English style (instead of “for he” the Greek reads “who”).

³ tn Or “knew.”

⁴ tn Grk “he.” The referent (the man) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁵ tn Since this is a prohibition with a present imperative, the translation “stop sinning” is sometimes suggested. This is not likely, however, since the present tense is normally used in prohibitions involving a general condition (as here) while the aorist tense is normally used in specific instances. Only when used opposite the normal usage (the present tense in a specific instance, for example) would the meaning “stop doing what you are doing” be appropriate.

⁶ tn Grk “a man.” See the note on “male child” in the previous verse.

⁷ tn Grk “receives circumcision.”

⁸ sn If a male child is circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses is not broken. The Rabbis counted 248 parts to a man’s body. In the Talmud (b. Yoma 85b) R. Eleazar ben Azariah (ca. a.d. 100) states: “If circumcision, which attaches to one only of the 248 members of the human body, suspends the Sabbath, how much more shall the saving of the whole body suspend the Sabbath?” So absolutely binding did rabbinic Judaism regard the command of Lev 12:3 to circumcise on the eighth day, that in the Mishnah m. Shabbat 18.3; 19.1, 2; and m. Nedarim 3.11 all hold that the command to circumcise overrides the command to observe the Sabbath.

⁹ tn Or “made an entire man well.”