John 5:13 - Exposition

Now he that was healed —in this place ὁ ἰαθεὶς takes the place of τεθεραπευμένος of John 5:10 . £ The fundamental idea in the verb θεραπεύω to render kindly and useful, even noble, service to another—to do the work and act the part of a θεράπων . The ministry rendered may be that of a δοῦλος or ὑπηρέτης , a θάλπων or ἰατρὸς . The "service" successfully rendered by a physician is more often expressed by ἰάομαι , which has no other meaning than restoration to health, and its use here may imply this positive fact (see the use of both words in Matthew 8:7 , Matthew 8:8 )— knew not who it was (was at that time and for a while ignorant of the person of his Healer): for Jesus withdrew —after the healing. ἐκνεύω is "to nod or bend the head and avoid a blow," but comes to mean "withdraw" or "retire." Some have supposed that, like ἐκνέω ,, to "escape by swimming from a danger," ἐξένευσε means here "stealthily escaped"—a sense that it has in Eur., 'Hipp.,' 470, and elsewhere; but (as Grimm says) Jesus did not withdraw to avoid a danger which had not yet proclaimed itself, but to evade the acclamation of the multitude (see also Lange)— a crowd being in the place where the miracle had been wrought.