Commentaries:
Barnes' Notes
What man is he ... - In this verse there is a remarkable instance of the "perverseness" of men, of their want of candor, and of the manner in which they often look at a subject. Instead of looking at the miracle, and at the man' s statement of the manner in which he was healed, they look only at what they thought to be a violation of the law. They assumed it as certain that nothing could make his conduct, in carrying his bed on the Sabbath day, proper; and they meditated vengeance, not only on the man who was carrying his bed, but on him, also, who had told him to do it. Thus men often assume that a certain course or opinion is proper, and when anyone differs from them they look only at the difference, but not at the reasons for it. One great source of dispute among men is that they look only at the points in which they differ, but are unwilling to listen to the reasons why others do not believe as they do. It is always enough to condemn one in the eyes of a bigot that he differs from "him," and he looks upon him who holds a different opinion, as the Jews did at this man, "as certainly wrong;" and such a bigot looks at the reasons why others differ from him just as the Jews did at the reason why this man bore his bed on the Sabbath - as not worth regarding or hearing, or as if they could not possibly be right.
Other Barnes' Notes entries containing John 5:12:
John 7:19
John 9:4
Acts 5:15
Acts 9:34
Romans 1:4
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