John 5:12
Then asked they him, What man is that which said unto thee, Take up thy bed, and walk?
Then asked they him,.... Suspecting who had made him whole, and gave him this order:
What man is that which said unto thee, Take up thy bed and walk? they take no notice of the cure, being unwilling to give any glory to Christ, and still less to spread it; but chose rather that it should be obscured, hid, and unobserved; but they laid hold on that, which they thought might be improved to his reproach and scandal; and they call him a man, as supposing him to be a mere man, and a wicked man too, for giving orders to transgress a tradition of the elders, though no mere man could work such a cure as this was. And so the Jews since, though they cannot find fault with the cure, which they put an "if" upon, yet are highly displeased with the order, to take up his bed and carry it:
"if (say they {a}) he wrought a cure, lo, that is good, but why did he bid him take up his bed?''
the answer may be, to show that he was cured.
{a} Vet. Nizzachon, p. 207.