And he answered them, He £ that made me whole, that very same man ( ἐκεῖνος,, "even he;" cf. for this use of the pronoun, John 1:18, John 1:33; John 14:21, John 14:26, etc.) said unto me, Take up thy bed, and walk.
This was justification for him. The Prophet-like Healer must know what was right, and upon his shoulders the responsibility must rest. There was a rabbinic saying, which the cured man may or may not have heard, that conferred a dispensing power upon a prophet; but the marl could not have known with any certainty that such was Christ's official character.
It is, moreover, clear that he did not know at this moment either the face, the voice, or the name. Meyer hears a ring of defiance in these words. The other hints we obtain touching the man's character do not sustain such an idea.