The site in Jerusalem where Jesus healed a man who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years on a Sabbath (Jn 5:2-47). The Aramaic name very like means "house of mercy," very appropriate for a healing place. The name appears in the New Testament on only this occasion. A number of ancient manuscripts call it Bethesda.
See where in modern Jerusalem ☰
This part of the ancient city, all the way to the Damascus Gate, was higher than the temple mount and served extensively—with the construction of a number of small dams, sluice gates, aquaducts and cisterns—as a catchment for rain water. 2 Ki 18:17 reports the presence of an "Upper Pool, on the road to the Washerman's Field," which scholars locate in this part of the city. A second pool was added in the late 3rd cent. BC. These pools remained an important source of water for the growing city until Herodian times when many parts of the complex were reconfigured especially for the construction of the so-called "Pool of Israel" (located at the north-eastern end of the Temple Mount, to meet the voracious need of water for the animal sacrifices conducted at Herod's newly refurbished Temple just to the south) and of Fort Antonia.
Part of the rock channels cut off during the Herodian re-constructions.
This part of the city was given to the French by the Ottoman authorities in gratitude for their help in the Crimean War, hence the obvious presence of the French in this area even today. Archaeological excavations by the White Fathers in the compound of St Anne's Church have revealed a structure—part of a pool complex—that had all the features reminiscent of the "five porticoes" of John's account. How the place became a place of healing remains unknown. After Jerusalem was turned into a Roman city (Aelia Capitolina), the place was paganized and turned into a temple dedicated to Serapis/Asclepius (the Greek/Roman god of healing), and many of the pools and cisterns in the vicinity covered over for roads (one of which is now part of the Via Dolorosa and the Ecce Homo) and housing.
The excavated colonaded pool at St Anne's, Jerusalem. Notice the depth of debris that had accumulated since the time of Jesus.
Further Reading & Resources:
Titus Kennedy, "The Pools of Bethesda and Siloam," Archaeological Diggings 23.3 (May/June 2016): 21-27. html N 4-5
Steven M. Bryan, "Power in the Pool: The Healing of the Man at Bethesda and Jesus' Violation of the Sabbath (Jn 5:1-18)," Tyndale Bulletin 54.2 (2003): 7-22.Pdf N
Craig R. Koester, "Topography and Theology in the Gospel of John," In Fortunate the Eyes That See: Essays in Honor of David Noel Freedman in Celebration of His Seventieth Birthday, edited by Astrid B Beck, 436–48. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995. See p.441f., ("III. The Pool of Bethzatha") Pdf N 6
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