5:3a

On these walkways lay a great number of the sick: The phrase On these means inside the porticoes. The people lay there by the pool day after day. It was their custom or habit. Here are other ways to translate this clause:

A large crowd of sick people were lying on the porches (Good News Translation)
-or-
Many disabled people lay in the huts

the sick: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as the sick is a general term. Literally it says “weak ones,” referring to sick or disabled people, including the blind, the lame, and the paralyzed. Try to use a word that includes all these physical problems. For example:

disabled people

General Comment on 5:3a

In some languages it is more natural to reorder this clause. For example:

A great number of invalids used to lie on these porches.

5:3b

the blind, the lame, and the paralyzed: This phrase gives three examples of the invalids who were lying by the pool. In some languages it may be helpful to make this clear. For example:

Some were blind, others were lame, and others were paralyzed.

the lame: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as lame refers to people who could not walk, or walked with difficulty. Here is another way to translate this word:

People who could not walk well.

the paralyzed: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as paralyzed refers to a person who could not move part of his body. It means “dry” or “withered.” Its meaning has some of the same meaning of the previous word, “lame.” Here is another way to translate this word:

withered (New American Standard Bible)

General Comment on 5:3a–b

In some languages it may be natural to combine 5:3a–b. For example:

Here a great number of disabled people, blind, lame, and paralyzed, used to lie.
-or-
Crowds of sick people—blind, lame, or paralyzed—lay on the porches. (New Living Translation (2004))

[[5:3c–4c]]

[[awaiting the moving of the waters. For from time to time an angel descended into the pool and stirred the water. As soon as it was stirred, the first to enter the pool would be healed of his disease.]]: These words are not in the earliest Greek manuscripts. They were probably added later to explain verse 7. The King James Version puts them in the text, the New American Standard Bible puts them inside square brackets [ ], and the Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English puts them in parentheses ( ). The other English translations do not include them. Some English translations like the Berean Standard Bible have a footnote indicating that some later Greek manuscripts include this section.

It is recommended that you do not include this section in the text. If you use footnotes, you may want to include them in a footnote. Brief notes are included here to help you translate them for the footnote. The translation is that of the Berean Standard Bible footnote.

5:3c

awaiting the moving of the waters: The invalids (sick and disabled people) watched the water to see if it would move in an unusual way. Here is another way to translate this phrase:

they were waiting for the water to move

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