John 7:21,22 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

I have done one work, &c.— It is plain, that the miracle of Bethesda, here referred to, was wrought a year and a half before this feast; but they made use of it as a pretence to destroy him, because he had done it on the sabbath-day. The words δια τουτο, at the beginning of John 7:22 should be joined with the last words of John 7:21 if we may trust the judgment of some of the most learned critics. I have done one work, and ye all marvel at it. And it must be acknowledged, that we have precisely the same construction Mark 6:6. All the versions, however, retain the common pointing; and if we do so, the translation of John 7:22 must run thus: Because that Moses gave you the precept concerning circumcision, ye circumcise a man even on the sabbath-day. But the pointing just proposed makes the sense more clear and elegant thus: Moses gave you the law of circumcision, and on the sabbath ye circumcise a man, not because it is a precept of Moses only, but of the fathers. Jesus, being charged by the Jews as a transgressor of the law of Moses for having cured a man on the sabbath-day, thus expostulates with his accusers: "You wonder and object that I should cure a man, and order him to carry his couch, on the sabbath day; yet a little reflection might convince you, that your cavil is very unreasonable, even on your own principles; for to instance in circumcision, which Moses enjoined you to observe, and not to omit the performance of it on the eighth day; now if this happen to fall on the sabbath, you interrupt its holy rest, by performing the rite without scruple on this day, because you will not break the law of Moses, which has marked out a certain day for this work of charity; are you therefore angry atme for performing a work of equal charity on the sabbath day, John 7:23 and that with far less bodily labour than you perform the ceremony of circumcision."