John 5:2

Ver. 2. “ Now there is at Jerusalem, by the sheep-gate, a pool called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches. ”

The Sinaitic MS. rejects the words ἐπὶ τῇ, by the, and thus makes the adjective προβατικῇ, pertaining to sheep, the epithet of κολυμβήθρᾳ : the reservoir or the pool for sheep. This reading is too weakly supported to be adopted, even in the view of Tischendorf. We must, therefore, understand as the substantive belonging with the adjective προβατικῇ, pertaining to sheep, one of the substantives, πύλῃ, gate, or ἀγορᾷ, market. The passages in Nehemiah, Nehemiah 3:1-32; Nehemiah 12:39, where a sheep-gate is mentioned, favor the former of these two ellipses.

In Nehemiah 3:3, mention is made of a fish-gate as near the preceding; it is probable that these two gates derived their names from the adjacent markets. The sheep-gate must have been situated on the side of the valley of Jehoshaphat, on the east of the city. As Bovet says, “the small cattle which entered Jerusalem came there certainly by the east; for it is on this side that the immense pastures of the wilderness of Judea lie.” Riehm's Dictionary also says: “Even at the present day, it is through this gate that the Bedouins lead their flocks to Jerusalem for sale.” The sheep-gate, as Hengstenberg observes, according to Nehemiah 12:39-40, must have been quite near the Temple; for it is from this that, in the ceremony of the inauguration of the walls, the cortege of priests entered immediately into the sacred inclosure. The gate, called at the present day St. Stephen's, at the northeast angle of the Haram, answers to these data. M. de Saulcy (Voyage autour de la mer Morte, t. II. pp. 367, 368) holds, according to some passages of St. Jerome and of authors of the Middle Ages, that there were in this place two neighboring pools, and supplying, in thought, κολυμβήθρᾳ, he explains: “Near the sheep-pool, there is the pool called Bethesda.” In spite of the triumphant tone with which this explanation is proposed, it is inadmissible. The expression of the evangelist, thus understood, would suppose this alleged sheep-pool, which is nowhere mentioned in the Old Testament, to be known to his Greek readers. Meyer, accepting the reading of the Sinaitic MS. τὸ λεγόμενον ἑβραιστὶ Βηθζάθα, explains: “There is near the sheep-pool the place called in Hebrew, Bethzatha.”

But a place so completely unknown as the sheep-pool could not be indicated as a determining-point to Greek readers. The feminine ἔχουσα which follows is, besides, hardly favorable to this reading, which is only an awkward correction, like so many others which are met with in this manuscript. Weiss makes κολυμβήθρᾳ, a dative, and thinks that the best subject to be supplied is οἰκίᾳ, the building Bethesda; this ellipsis seems to me very unnatural. Bengel and Lange have concluded from the present ἔστι, there is, that the Gospel was written before the destruction of Jerusalem. But this present may be inspired by the vividness of recollection. Besides, an establishment of this kind belongs to the nature of the place and may survive a catastrophe. Tobler (Denkblatter, pp. 53ff.), has proved that, in the fifth century, the porches here spoken of were still pointed out. Hengstenberg concludes from the ἐπί, upon, in the word ἐπιλεγομένη, “ sur named,” that the pool bore also another name.

But it is more simple to suppose that John regards the word pool as the name, and Bethesda as the sur name. The expression: in Hebrew, denotes the Aramaic dialect, which had become the popular language since the return from the captivity. The most natural etymology of the word Bethesda is certainly beth-cheseda, house of mercy, whether this name alludes to the munificence of some pious Jew who had had these porches constructed to shelter the sick, or whether it refers to the goodness of God, from which this healing spring proceeded. Delitzsch has supposed that the etymology may be beth-estaw (אסטיו) peristyle. Beth- Aschada (אשׁדא) place of outpouring (of the blood of victims), has also been thought of. The Alexandrian and Greco-Latin variants are only gross corruptions (see those of B and D). It might be supposed that these porches were five isolated buildings, arranged in a circle around the pool. But it is more simple to imagine a single edifice, forming a pentagonal peristyle, in the centre of which was the reservoir. There are still known at the present day, in the eastern part of the city of Jerusalem, some springs of mineral water; among others, on the west of the inclosure of the Temple, in the Mahometan quarter, the baths of Ain-es-Schefa (Ritter, 16th part, p. 387). Tobler has proved that this spring is fed by the large chamber of water situated under the mosque which has replaced the temple. Another better known spring is found at the foot of the southeastern slope of Moriah; it is called the Virgin-spring. We have two principal accounts respecting this pond, those of Tobler and Robinson. The spring is very intermittent.

The basin is sometimes entirely dry; again, the water is seen springing up between the stones. On the 21st of January, 1845, Tobler saw the water rise four and a half inches, with a gentle undulation. On the 14th of March, it rose for more than twenty minutes to the height of six or seven inches, and in two minutes sank again to its previous level. Robinson saw the water rise a foot in five minutes. A woman assured him that this movement is repeated at certain times, two or three times a day, but that in summer it is often observed only once in two or three days. These phenomena present a certain analogy to what is related of the spring of Bethesda. Eusebius also speaks of springs existing in this locality whose water was reddish. This color, which evidently arises from mineral elements, was, according to him, due to the infiltration of the blood of victims. Tradition places the pool of Bethesda in a great square hollow, surrounded by walls and situated to the north of the Haram, southward of the street which leads from St. Stephen's gate. It is called Birket-Israil; it has a depth of about twenty-one meters, a breadth of about forty, and a length more than twice as great. The bottom is dry, filled with grass and shrubs. Robinson supposed that it was a fosse, formerly belonging to the fortifications of the citadel of Antonia. This supposition is rejected by several competent authorities. However this may be, Bethesda must have been nearly in this locality, for it is here that the sheep-gate (see above) was situated. As it is impossible to identify the pool of Bethesda with any one of the thermal springs of which we have just spoken, it must have been covered with debris, or have disappeared, as happens so frequently with intermittent fountains. The springs which are found at the present day merely prove how favorable the soil is to this kind of phenomena.