thee to carry thy bed ?" They cared not for knowing what they might admire as a work of mercy, but what they might make ihe ground of an accusation. How many arc hke them ! They are always looking out for something to find fault with.
13. — [Wist not who it was.] It is most probable that the cripple really knew not who it was that had healed him, and had only seen our Lord that day for the first time. He was ignorant of His name, and only knew Him as a kind person, who came up and said suddenly, " Wilt thou be made whole ?" and, after curing him miraculously, suddenly disappeared in the crowd.
[Conveyed himself away.] The Greek word so rendered ia peculiar, and only found in this place. Parkhurst thinks that it simply means " departed, or went away." Schleusner says that the root of the idea is, " swimming out, or escaping by swim- ming," and that the meaning here is, "withdrew himself secretly from the crowd that was in the place." If so, it is not improba- ble that, as in Luke iv. 30, at Nazareth, and John x. 39, in the Temple, our Lord put forth a miraculous power in passing or gliding through the crowd without being observed or stopped. l-t. — [Afterward.. ..temple.] It is not clear how long a time elapsed before our Lord found the man whom He had healed in the Temple. If the theory be correct to which I adverted in the note on the first verse, there must have been an interval. The word " afterwards " is literally " after these things."
Chrysostom thinks that the circumstance of the man being found " in the temple " is an indication of his piety.
[Behold thou art made whole : sin no more, etc.] These words appear to point at something more than meets the eye. They are a solemn caution. One might fancy that our Lord knew that some sin had been the beginning of the man's illness, and that he meant to remind him of it. It certainly seems very unlikely that our Lord would say broadly and vaguely, " sin no more," unless he spoke with a significant reference to some sin which had been the primary cause of this man's long illness. (See 1 Cor. xi. 30.) There are sins wliich bring their own punishments on men's bodies ; and I am strongly disposed to think that it may have been the case with this man. The expression, " a worse thing," would then come out with more force. It would be " a heavier visitation," — a worse judgment, — even than this thirty- eight years' illness. A sick bed is a sorrowful place, but hell is much worse.
Besser remarks, — "It is a dreadful thing, when the correction and mercy of Divine love wearies itself with a man in va'n. You that are sick, write over your beds, when you rise up from them in renewed health, — ' Behold thou art made whole ; sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.' " Brentius says much the same,
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