John 5:10

The Jews, therefore, said unto him.

"Therefore," points to the fact that he was carrying his bed on the Sabbath day. The term, "the Jews," does not refer to the people, but to the authorities. John always uses it to signify, not the multitude, but the rulers. The man was officially stopped and questioned. The bearing of burdens on the Sabbath was forbidden, not only by Jewish tradition, but by the law. See Exodus 31:13; Jeremiah 17:21 and Nehemiah 13:15-19. The Pharisees, however, had carried the matter to extremes never designed. Their doctors had gravely decided that "on the Sabbath. nailed shoe could not be worn; it was. burden; but an unnailed shoe could be worn; that. person could go with two shoes on, but not with only one; and that one man could carry. loaf of bread, but that two men could not carry it between them." The spirit of love, rest, worship and peace in the original Sabbath had given way to the iron bondage of formality. It was needful for one who was "Lord of the Sabbath" to teach them that "the Sabbath was made for man." These rigid martinets who delighted in frivolous minutia and forgot the spirit of the law, at once interrupted the man who was healed and accused him of breaking the law.