Question: What pool had five porches in front of it?
Answer: Bethesda. (John 5:2)
Comments: The pool of Bethesda was a reservoir (Greek: kolumbethra, "a swimming bath" used only in the Gospel of John). The name Bethesda means "house of mercy." Eusebius (263-339) calls it "the sheep-pool." The locale is mentioned biblically only in John 5.
It is described as a spring-fed pool with five porches. A tradition is depicted in which the first invalid in the waters at the time they were mysteriously aroused would be healed. (John 5:2-4). It was at the Pool of Bethesda that Jesus healed a man who had been lame for 38 years.
Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porticoes. (John 5:2, NASB)
The site of Bethesda is thought to have been discovered by Conrad Schick (1822- 1901) in the autumn of 1888 during repairs near St. Anne's Church in the Bezetha quarter of Jerusalem, not far from the Sheep's Gate and the Tower of Antonia. It is below the crypt of the ruined fourth-century church and has a five-arch portico with faded frescoes of the miracle of Christ's healing.
Prior to its discovery, critics had doubted the existence of this site. Some had attributed the five colonnades mentioned by John to be symbolic of the first five books of the Bible.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment