John Chapter 5 verse 5 Holy Bible
And a certain man was there, who had been thirty and eight years in his infirmity.
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One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years.
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But there was a certain man there who had been suffering under his infirmity thirty and eight years.
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And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years.
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read chapter 5 in WBT
A certain man was there, who had been sick for thirty-eight years.
read chapter 5 in WEB
and there was a certain man there being in ailment thirty and eight years,
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John 5 : 5 Bible Verse Songs
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 5. - And a certain man was there, who had been thirty and eight years in his infirmity. He had not lost all his powers - he crawled probably from some near home to the healing well; but for thirty-eight years be had been dragging out his impotent existence. The length implies the inveteracy of the disease. Hengstenberg, Wordsworth, Westcott (in part), imply a marked correspondence between these thirty-eight years and the similar period of time during which Israel was compelled to wander in the wilderness. It is not said how long the man had lain in the five porches waiting listlessly for healing, but that the malady was of old standing, and to all human appearance incurable. Thoma finds allegorical meaning in "Bethesda" - a synonym of the metropolls, and keeps up a series of comparisons with Acts 3.
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(5) Thirty and eight years.--The period expresses, not his age on the one hand, nor the time of his being at Bethesda on the other, but the time during which he had suffered from the infirmity. Helpless and friendless, having spent half the lot of human life in that condition, he appeals without an uttered word to the Mercy which is present in the House of Mercy; and to him alone of those He healed does Christ of His own accord address the first question. The infirmity was in some way connected with youthful sin (John 5:14), and the sufferer and his history would be well known to those at Jerusalem. The exact knowledge of the writer tells us that for thirty-eight years he had paid sin's. penalty.
