The name of this ancient pool in Jerusalem means "house of mercy" (from the Hebrew beth Chesda) or "house of grace" (from the Aramaic beth hesda).
It was constructed in the riverbed of the Beth Zetha valley in the northeastern part of Jerusalem. Today the pool may be seen just inside St. Stephen’s gate on the east side of the city, adjacent to the Church of St. Anne.
The Pool of Bethesda actually consisted of two pools whose original purpose was for the washing of sheep to be sacrificed in the temple area nearby. In ancient times it was called The Sheep Pool.
Bethesda mentioned in the book of Kings as the upper pool, is most likely in contrast to the Pool of Siloam located in the south, topographically lower.
Then the king of Assyria sent Tartan and Rab-saris and Rabshakeh from Lachish to King Hezekiah with a large army to Jerusalem. So they went up and came to Jerusalem. And when they went up, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is on the highway of the fuller’s field(2nd Kings 18.17 NASB).
It is mentioned in Isaiah as well.
Then the LORD said to Isaiah, “Go out now to meet Ahaz, you and your son Shear-jashub, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, on the highway to the fuller’s field (Isaiah 7.3 NASB).
By the first century, the pool had become known as a place of healing by pagan deities. If, as is likely, the pool had been dedicated to pagan gods at that time, including Asclepias, the Greek-Roman god of healing, Jesus’ healing of the lame man (John 5:1-9) would have demonstrated publicly His superiority over these gods.
Comments
Post a Comment