Pool of Bethesda
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Bethesda was originally the name of a pool in Jerusalem, on the path of the Beth Zeta Valley.
[edit] First Temple Period - the Upper Pool
The pool was dug out during the 8th Century BC and was called "the Upper Pool" - "הבריכה העליונה". It is mentioned in the Book of Kings II, chapter 18 verse 17:
- "And the king of Assyria sent Tartan and Rab-saris and Rab-shakeh from Lachish to king Hezekiah with a great army unto Jerusalem. And they went up and came to Jerusalem. And when they were come up, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is in the highway of the fullers' field."
(Repeated also in the Book of Isaiah, chapter 36, verse 2).
and in the Book of Isaiah, chapter 7, verse 3:
- "Then said the LORD unto Isaiah: 'Go forth now to meet Ahaz, thou, and Shear-jashub thy son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, in the highway of the fullers' field"
[edit] Second Temple Period - The Washers pool
A second pool was dug during the third century BC by Simon the High Priest. These pools were used to wash the sheep prior to their sacrifice in the Temple. This use of the pools gave the water of the pools a halo of sanctity, and many invalids came to the pools to be healed.
The pools are mentioned in the New Testament. In John 5, in the Bible, Jesus was reported healing a man at the pool. Its name is said to derive from the Aramaic language beth hesda, meaning "house of grace" -בית חסדא - Alternative renderings of its name include Bethzatha and Bethsaida.
According to the Easton's Bible Dictionary Bethesda means house of mercy, a reservoir (Gr. kolumbethra, "a swimming bath") with five porches, close to the sheep-gate or market (Nehemiah 3:1; John 5:2).
Eusebius the historian (A.D. 330) calls it "the sheep-pool." It is also called "Bethsaida" and "Beth-zatha" (John 5:2, RSV marg.). Under these "porches" or colonnades were usually a large number of infirm people waiting for the "troubling of the water."
Prior to archeological digs it was identified with the modern so-called Fountain of the Virgin, in the valley of the Kidron, and not far from the Pool of Siloam and also with the Birket Israel, a pool near the mouth of the valley which runs into the Kidron south of St. Stephen's Gate.
In digs conducted in the 19th Century Schick has discovered a large tank situated about 100 feet north-west of St. Anne's Church, which is, as he contends, very probably the Pool of Bethesda. But most archologist identify it with the twin pools called the "Souterrains," under the convent of the Sisters of Zion, situated in what must have been the rock-hewn ditch between Bezetha and the fortress of Antonia.
