John 5:2

Now there is at Jerusalem, &c.— Some are of opinion from this passage, that Jerusalem was standing when St. John wrote his gospel; but others, on the strength of a different reading, controvert that opinion, rendering the verse,Now there was, or There stood at Jerusalem. But see the Introduction to this gospel. At Jerusalem, says Bishop Pearce, near the place called the sheep-market, or sheep-gate rather, which was built by Eliashib the high-priest, (Nehemiah 3:1.) there was a bath, built for the use of such of the common people as loved to swim and bathe themselves in water. This is the proper sense of the original κολυμβηθρα, from κολυμβαω, to swim, (Acts 27:43.) rendered in the old Latin version, called the Italick, Natatoria, a bath or swimming-place. Nothing was more common, or more useful than such baths, in these warm climates, where the excessiveheat was not only troublesome, but noxious to health. Josephus mentions some by this very name, κολυμβηθρα at Jericho, as used for the exercise and pleasure of swimming; and it may reasonably be presumed, that this at Jerusalem was built for the same purpose. That the sheep to be sacrificed were washed, or that all the blood of the sacrifices ran into it, whence it gained a kind of medicinal virtue, is an hypothesis not only void of all proof, but sufficiently exploded bythe learned Bishop just mentioned, in his useful "Vindication of our Saviour's miracles," p. 8. This bath was called Beth-esda, that is, the house or place of mercy, not only for its singular usefulness, but also for the extraordinary circumstance attending it, recorded by the evangelist. Around the bath, which seems to have been of a pentagonal form, were built five porches, a kind of cloisters or porticos, Στοαι, which served to shelter both from the heat and cold those who frequented the place; but which were more particularly serviceable to the infirm people who crowded hither on account of the miraculous virtue of the water. See the next verse.