36-783: Bethesda originally referred to the Pool of Bethesda , a pool in Jerusalem, described in the New Testament story of the healing the paralytic at Bethesda . Bethesda may also refer to: Pool of Bethesda The Pool of Bethesda is referred to in John's Gospel in the Christian New Testament , ( John 5:2 ) in an account of Jesus healing a paralyzed man at a pool of water in Jerusalem , described as being near
72-742: A mat or rug, but biblical commentator Alfred Plummer notes that his Jewish accusers "had the letter of the law very strongly on their side", citing several passages in the Mosaic law ( Exodus 23:12 , Exodus 31:14 , Exodus 35:2–3 and Numbers 15:32 ), but especially Jeremiah 17:21 : Plummer notes that the man carries his bed in obedience "to a higher authority", not merely as a practical consequence of his having been cured. The Jews begin to persecute Jesus (and in some texts, verse 16 adds that they "sought to kill him"). H. W. Watkins argues that "the words 'and sought to slay Him' should be omitted: in his view they have been inserted in some manuscripts to explain
108-465: Is based on the Textus Receptus ). Most modern textual critics believe that John 5:3b–4 is an interpolation , and not an original part of the text of John. In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of
144-658: Is belief attached to a letter previously received, than to a discourse heard for the first time". However, the Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges is critical of this approach: These teachings of Jesus are almost only found in John. In the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus only speaks of himself as the Messiah in such a straightforward way at the very end, shortly before his death. All this occurs in Jerusalem, while
180-500: Is considered a sabbath . At the Pool of Bethesda or Bethzatha, Jesus heals a man who is both paralyzed and isolated . Jesus tells him to "Pick up your mat and walk!" This takes place on the Sabbath , and Jewish religious leaders see the man carrying his mat and tell him this is against the law. He tells them the man who healed him told him to do so, and they ask who that was. He tries to point out Jesus, but he has slipped away into
216-555: Is the Son. The Son imitates the Father; the Father loves the Son and shows Him his ways; and the Son gives life in the way that the Father raises the dead. But the Father has delegated the exercise of judgment to the Son: all should honour the Son as they would honour the Father, and anyone who does not honour the Son does not honour the Father who sent Him. ( John 5:19–23 ) The words in verse 19:
252-452: The Feast of Weeks (Shavuot, or Pentecost), and at the Feast of Tabernacles ". Bengel's Gnomen lists a number of authorities for the proposition that the feast referred to was Pentecost . The Pulpit Commentary notes that "the indefinite Greek : ἑορτη has been identified by commentators with every feast in the calendar, so there can be no final settlement of the problem". In verse 9 it
288-530: The conquest of Jerusalem by Saladin in 1187, it was transformed into a Shafi`i fiqh (Islamic law school). Gradually the buildings fell into ruin, becoming a midden (waste dump). In 1856, the area including the Church of St. Anne and the pool site was presented by the Ottoman Sultan Abdülmecid I to Napoleon III of France . The French renovated and rededicated the church (under
324-622: The "strongest affirmation of inaugurated eschatology in the Fourth Gospel" ... it is not necessary for the believer to "wait until the last day to experience something of resurrection life". Lutheran theologian Heinrich Meyer refers to "the hour when the dead hear the voice of the Son of God" as the "resurrection summons". Meyer argues that this "hour" extends from its beginning at "Christ's entrance upon His life-giving ministry" until "the second advent – already had it begun to be present, but, viewed in its completeness, it still belonged to
360-661: The 19th century, there was no clear archaeological evidence for the existence of such a pool. The Pool of Bethesda was sometimes identified by commentators with the modern so-called Fountain of the Virgin , in the Kidron Valley , not far from the Pool of Siloam , or alternatively with the Birket Isrâ'il , a pool near the mouth of the valley, which runs into the Kidron south of St. Stephen's Gate . Others identified it with
396-624: The Church and the generality of modern commentators have regarded our Lord as the prophet promised in these verses [of Deuteronomy]". Commentators have also explored whether the contrast to be emphasized is a contrast between the person of Moses and the person of Jesus, or between Moses understood as the author of scriptural writings and Jesus, who did not write but whose testimony was his ' sayings '. Bengel's Gnomen argues that in John 5:47, Moses' writings ( Greek : Γράμμασιν ) are placed in antithesis to Jesus' words ( Greek : ῥήμασι ): "Often more readily
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#1732772333320432-574: The Pool of the Sheep) or the Church of the Lame Man. This site, as subsequently excavated by archaeologists, seems plausibly to fit the description in John's Gospel. In archaeological digs conducted in the 19th century, Conrad Schick discovered a large tank situated about 100 feet (30 m) north-west of St. Anne's Church, which he contended was the Pool of Bethesda. Further archaeological excavation in
468-816: The Probatic or Sheep Pool) and initially dedicated to the Healing of the Paralytic, though from the sixth century associated with the Virgin Mary (the German pilgrim Theodosius wrote in De Situ Terrae Sanctae (c. 530) that "next to the Sheep-pool is the church of my Lady Mary"). This reflects a more general movement which appropriated the healing sites of pagan religion and rededicated them to
504-732: The Sheep Gate and surrounded by five covered colonnades or porticoes. It is also referred to as Bethzatha . It is now associated with the site of a pool in the current Muslim Quarter of the city, near the gate now called the Lions' Gate or St. Stephen's Gate and the Church of St. Anne , which was excavated in the late 19th century. The name of the pool is said to be derived from the Hebrew and/or Aramaic language . Beth hesda (בית חסד/חסדא), means either "house of mercy" or "house of grace ". This meaning may have been thought appropriate, since
540-684: The Son can do nothing on his own become, in verse 30, I can do nothing on my own ; Jesus "identifies himself with the Son". Two sayings then follow each commencing with a double " amen " ( Greek : αμην αμην , translated "Verily, verily" in the King James Version , "Truly, truly" in the English Standard Version , or "Very truly I tell you" in the New International Version ): Reformed Evangelical theologian D. A. Carson sees John 5:24 as giving
576-717: The Virgin Mary. The theory that this church was built by the Empress Eudocia (present in Jerusalem in 438–439 and 443–460) is uncertain. It seems more likely to be associated with Juvenal , bishop of Jerusalem in the mid 5th century. This church was destroyed in 614 by the Persians . After the Crusader conquest of Jerusalem in 1099 , a much smaller church was built among the Byzantine-period ruins on
612-784: The administration of the White Fathers ), at the southeast corner of the pools, leaving the other ruins untouched. There is a tale that the site was originally offered to Queen Victoria as part of the negotiations which led ultimately to the Cyprus Convention of 1878. John 5 John 5 is the fifth chapter of the Gospel of John of the New Testament of the Christian Bible . It relates Jesus' healing and teaching in Jerusalem , and begins to evidence
648-467: The area, in 1964, uncovered the remains of the Byzantine and Crusader churches, Hadrian's Temple of Asclepius and Serapis , the small healing pools of an Asclepeion , the second of the two large pools, and the dam between them. It was discovered that the Byzantine church had been built in the very heart of Hadrian's temple and contained the healing pools. The Johannine text ( chapter 5 ) describes
684-511: The baths into the city. When Hadrian rebuilt Jerusalem as Aelia Capitolina , he placed a roadway along the dam, and expanded the site into a large temple to Asclepius and Serapis. By the fifth century, at least part of the asclepieion had been converted into, or replaced by, a Byzantine church , known as the Church of the Probatike (literally, the Church of the Sheep, the pool being called
720-594: The city. The reservoir became known as the Upper Pool ( בריכה העליונה ). Around 200 BC, during the period in which Simon II was the Jewish High Priest , the channel was enclosed, and a second pool was added on the south side of the dam. Although popular legend argues that this pool was used for washing sheep, this is very unlikely due to the pool's use as a water supply, and its extreme depth (13m). There has been some scholarly debate about whether
756-508: The crowd. Jesus comes to him later and tells him "Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you". The man then tells the Jewish religious leaders that it was Jesus who healed him ( John 5:15 ). The ruins of the Pool of Bethesda are still standing in Jerusalem. Verses 3b–4 are not found in the most reliable manuscripts of John, although they appear in the King James Version of the Bible (which
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#1732772333320792-452: The first clause of John 5:18 (the Jews sought the more to kill him)", the first of several Jewish threats against him ( John 7:1 , 7:19–25 , 8:37 , 8:40 and 10:39 ). Two reasons emerge: From Jesus' words, "My Father", Methodist founder John Wesley observed that "It is evident [that] all the hearers so understood him [to mean] making himself equal with God". St. Augustine sees
828-498: The future". The final verses of this chapter, verses 31 to 47 refer to what the New King James Version calls the "fourfold witness". Jesus states that he does not bear witness ( Greek : η μαρτυρια ) to himself, for such witness would not be true or valid. Instead he calls on the testimony of four other witnesses: Jesus says that the Jews who seek to kill him study the scriptures hoping for eternal life, but that
864-557: The hostility shown him by the Jewish authorities. The original text was written in Koine Greek . This chapter is divided into 47 verses. Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter are: Some writers place this chapter after John 6 . As the chapter opens, Jesus goes again to Jerusalem for "a feast ". Because the gospel records Jesus' visit to Jerusalem for the Passover in John 2:13 , and another Passover
900-595: The latter is considered to be a metathetical corruption by Biblical scholars. Franz Delitzsch ("Talmudische Studien, X. Bethesda", Zeitschrift für die gesamte lutherische Theologie und Kirche, 1856) suggested that the name comes from a mishnaic Hebrew loanword from Greek, estiv/estava , that appropriately referred to stoa (στοά) . According to the Gospel of John, Bethesda was a bathing pool ( Greek : κολυμβήθρα , kolumbethra ) with five porticoes (translated as porches by older English Bible translations). Until
936-454: The location was seen as a place of disgrace due to the presence of invalids, and as a place of grace due to the granting of healing. Alternative renderings to the name Βηθεσδά (Bethesda), appearing in manuscripts of the Gospel of John, include Βηθζαθά ( Beth-zatha = בית חדתא ), a derivative of Bezetha , and Bethsaida (not to be confused with Bethsaida , a town in Galilee ), although
972-462: The man to take up his mat, prompts a protest that the religious customs of the Sabbath have been broken. The history of the pool began in the 8th century BC, when a dam was built across the short Beth Zeta Valley, turning it into a reservoir for rain water; a sluice-gate in the dam allowed the height to be controlled, and a rock-cut channel brought a steady stream of water from the reservoir into
1008-446: The pool may have been a mikveh (Jewish ritual bathing pool). According to Jerome Murphy-O'Connor in the 1st century BC natural caves to the east of the two pools were turned into small baths with a religious/medical function. The Mishnah implies that at least one of these new pools was sacred to Fortuna , the goddess of fortune, rather than Asclepius, the god of healing. Murphy-O'Connor thinks it likely that this development
1044-417: The porticoes as being a place in which large numbers of infirm people were waiting, which could correspond with the site's possible use in the 1st century AD as an Asclepeion . The biblical narrative continues by describing a Shabbat visit to the site by Jesus , during which he heals a man who has been bedridden for 38 years and could not make his own way into the pool. The healing, and Jesus' instruction to
1080-537: The scriptures speak of him, and people still refuse to come to him for life. People accept people who preach in their own name but not in one who comes in the name of the Father. "How can you believe if you accept praise from one another, yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God?" He then speaks of Moses as their accuser: But, says Jesus, since you do not believe what Moses wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?" ( John 5:47 ) Theologian Albert Barnes notes that "the ancient fathers of
1116-541: The stone dyke separating the two pools, known as the Church of the Paralytic or the Moustier ('the Monastery'). It was followed by a larger new church erected nearby. This larger church , completed in 1138, was built over the site of a grotto which had (from the fifth or sixth century onwards ) been traditionally believed to be the birthplace of Mary, mother of Jesus and was named for Mary's mother, Saint Anne . After
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1152-644: The twin pools then called the Souterrains (French for "subterranean"), under the Convent of the Sisters of Zion ; subsequent archaeological investigation has identified these with the later Struthion Pool . However, as early as the fifth century, there was a Byzantine church in what became the precincts of the Church of St. Anne, called the Church of the Probatike (the Church at the Probatic Pool, or
1188-504: The water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. The New English Translation and the English Revised Version omit this text completely, but others such as the New International Version refer to it in a note. Before Jesus is accused of working on the Sabbath , the man he has healed is accused. His bed would probably be only
1224-513: The words "... equal to God" as an extension of the words in John 1:1 : In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God . Jesus continues to speak of himself ("the Son") in relation to God ("the Father"): the Son can do nothing independently of (or in rivalry with) the Father; "the Son can have no separate interest or action from the Father". the Son "acts with no individual self-assertion independent of God, because He
1260-468: Was founded by the Roman garrison of the nearby Antonia Fortress , who would also have been able to protect it from attack. Additionally, the location of the baths outside the then city walls would have made its presence tolerable to the Jews, who might otherwise have objected to a non-Jewish religious presence in their holy city. In the mid 1st century AD, Herod Agrippa expanded the city walls, bringing
1296-524: Was mentioned in John 6:4 , some commentators have speculated whether John 5:1 also referred to a Passover (implying that the events of John 2–6 took place over at least three years), or whether a different feast is indicated. According to Deuteronomy 16:16 , "Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God in the place which He chooses (i.e. Jerusalem): at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at
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