Angel's Healing at the Pool??

Angel's Healing at the Pool??

John 5 is the only passage in the Bible where an angel seemed to stir the water occasionally, resulting in possible healing.

Every other passage had Christ as the Healer. In fact, if we want to be sticky about it, Christ still revealed Himself as the Healer in this passage for the invalid man of 38 years.

I did a study on this, because we cannot just take one incident to build a doctrine around it.

Many of the early manuscripts (ancient copies) did not contain verse 4. Check out the literal translations such as ESV, RSV and NASB (latest). In fact, many of the scholars agreed that verse 4 was added much later.

Note: Verse 7 does mention about the stirring of the water, but it does not mention anything about an angel.

If the writer John excluded an angel in the passage on healing, his focus must be on Christ, since John wrote to point to the Divinity of Christ.

Nowhere in the entire Bible shows us that an angel heals. God either healed directly in the Old Testament, or did it through the Word (spoken through His prophet). Because He healed through His Word (Ps 107:20).

Some scholars believe that the stirring of the pool by an angel was the belief of the people in those days.

Dave Miller, a professor of Biblical and Theological Studies in United States, said, "The Bible is not to be blamed as giving sanction to this idea merely on the basis of the personal sentiments held by the people of the day, since the Bible merely reports their beliefs — as indicated by the sick man’s own remarks. Jesus certainly said nothing to give that belief credibility."

Food for thoughts:

1) If an angel is involved in healing, it would have contradicted the nature of God, who is Himself Jehovah Rapha ----- the One who heals (Exo 15:26)

2) If God allows the sick to compete with one another to get healed one at a time in the pool, it would have contradicted His nature ----- not found in Christ (Heb 1:3; Col 1:15)

3) Such healing in the pool would have been anti-Christ, since it does not point to God (Jn 5:19; 14:9; 20:21). Jesus HAD to REVEAL Himself as the Healer to the invalid man (Jn 5:6, 5:8, 5:14).

The man was so stuck with his healing and his own belief, that he failed to recognise the Healer standing in front of Him.

May we recognise Christ alone as our Jehovah Rapha.