John 5:1 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

After this there was a feast Greek, η εορτη, the feast; of the Jews This, in all probability, was the feast of the passover; because that solemnity was called the feast, by way of eminence, (Matthew 27:15; Mark 15:6;) and because immediately after it, we find the disciples on the sabbath in the fields, rubbing the ears, probably of barley, a kind of grain which was always fit for reaping at the passover. It is generally thought this was the second passover that Christ attended after the commencement of his public ministry.