Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of John 5:2
Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep [market] a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches.
2. there is at Jerusalem ] This is no evidence whatever that the Gospel was written before the destruction of Jerusalem. The pool would still exist, even if the building was destroyed; and such a building, as being of the nature of a hospital, would be likely to be spared. Even if all were destroyed the present tense would be natural here. See on Joh 11:18.
by the sheep market ] There is no ‘market’ in the Greek, and no reason for supposing that it ought to be supplied. The margin is probably right: sheep – gate. We know from Neh 3:1; Neh 3:32; Neh 12:39 that there was a sheep-gate; so called probably from sheep for sacrifice being sold there. It was near the Temple. The adjective for ‘sheep-’ occurs nowhere else in N.T. but here, and nowhere in O.T. but in the passages in Nehemiah. But so little is known of this gate, and the ellipsis of ‘gate’ is so unparalleled that we cannot regard this explanation as certain. Another translation is possible, with a change of case in the word for pool; Now there is in Jerusalem, by the sheep-pool, a place called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda.
in the Hebrew tongue ] ‘Hebrew’ means Aramaic, the language spoken at the time, not the old Hebrew of the Scriptures. See on Joh 20:16.
Bethesda ] ‘House of mercy,’ or possibly ‘House of the Portico,’ or again ‘of the Olive.’ The name Bethesda does not occur elsewhere. The traditional identification with Birket Israil is not commonly advocated now. The ‘Fountain of the Virgin’ is an attractive identification, as the water is intermittent to this day. This fountain is connected with the pool of Siloam, and some think that Siloam is Bethesda. That S. John speaks of Bethesda here and Siloam in Joh 9:7, is not conclusive against this: for Bethesda might be the name of the building and Siloam of the pool; and the Greek for ‘called’ here is strictly ‘called in addition ’ or ‘ sur named,’ as if the place had some other name.
five porches ] Or, colonnades. These would be to shelter the sick. The place seems to have been a kind of charitable institution.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The sheep-market – This might have been rendered the sheep-gate, or the gate through which the sheep were taken into the city for sacrifice. The marginal rendering is gate, and the word market is not in the original, nor is a sheep-market mentioned in the Scriptures or in any of the Jewish writings. A sheep-gate is repeatedly mentioned by Nehemiah Neh 3:1, Neh 3:32; Neh 12:39, being that by which sheep and oxen were brought into the city. As these were brought mainly for sacrifice, the gate was doubtless near the temple, and near the present place which is shown as the pool of Bethesda.
A pool – This word may either mean a small lake or pond in which one can swim, or a place for fish, or any waters collected for bathing or washing.
Hebrew tongue – Hebrew language. The language then spoken, which did not differ essentially from the ancient Hebrew.
Bethesda – The house of mercy. It was so called on account of its strong healing properties – the property of restoring health to the sick and infirm.
Five porches – The word porch commonly means a covered place surrounding a building, in which people can walk or sit in hot or wet weather. Here it probably means that there were five covered places, or apartments, in which the sick could remain, from each one of which they could have access to the water. This pool is thus described by Professor Hackett (Illustrations of Scripture, pp. 291, 292): Just to the east of the Turkish garrison, and under the northern wall of the mosque, is a deep excavation, supposed by many to be the ancient pool of Bethesda, into which the sick descended after the troubling of the water, and were healed, Joh 5:1 ff. It is 360 feet long, 130 feet wide, and 75 deep. The evangelist says that this pool was near the sheep-gate, as the Greek probably signifies, rather than sheep-market, as rendered in the English version. That gate, according to Neh 3:1 ff, was on the north side of the temple, and hence, the situation of this reservoir would agree with that of Bethesda. The present name, Birket Israil, Pool of Israil, indicates the opinion of the native inhabitants in regard to the object of the excavation. The general opinion of the most accurate travelers is that the so-called pool was originally part of a trench or fosse which protected the temple on the north.
Though it contains no water at present except a little which trickles through the stones at the west end, it has evidently been used at some period as a reservoir. It is lined with cement, and adapted in other respects to hold water. Dr. Robinson established by personal inspection the fact of the subterranean connection of the pool of Siloam with the Fountain of the Virgin, and made it probable that the fountain under the mosque of Omar is connected with them. This spring is, as he himself witnessed, an intermittent one, and there may have been some artificially constructed basin in connection with this spring to which was given the name of Bethesda. He supposes, however, that there is not the slightest evidence that the place or reservoir now pointed out as Bethesda was the Bethesda of the New Testament (Bib. Res., i. 501, 506, 509). In the time of Sandys (1611) the spring was found running, but in small quantities; in the time of Maundrell (1697) the stream did not run. Probably in his time, as now, the water which had formerly filtered through the rocks was dammed up by the rubbish.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 2. There IS] This is thought by some to be a proof that John wrote his Gospel before the destruction of Jerusalem; and that the pool and its porticoes were still remaining. Though there can be little doubt that Jerusalem was destroyed many years before John wrote, yet this does not necessarily imply that the pool and its porticoes must have been destroyed too. It, or something in its place, is shown to travellers to the present day. See Maundrell’s Jour. p. 108. But instead of , IS, both the Syriac, all the Arabic, Persic, Armenian, and Nonnus, read , WAS; which is to me some proof that it did not exist when these versions were made, and that the pool which is shown now is not the original.
By the sheep market] Rather, gate: see Ne 3:1, Ne 3:32; Ne 12:39. This was in all probability the gate through which the sheep were brought which were offered in sacrifice in the temple.
A pool] Bp. Pearce thinks the word should be translated bath, and that this place was built for the purpose of bathing and swimming in. He observes that signifies to swim, in Ac 27:43. In proof of this, he cites three of the old Itala, which have natatoria, a bathing or swimming place.
Bethesda] This word is variously written in the MSS. and versions: Bezatha-Bethzatha-Betzetha-Belzetha-Belzatha-Berzeta; and many have Bethsaida. But the former reading is the genuine one. Bethesda, or according to the Hebrew Bethchasdah, signifies literally, the house of mercy. It got this name probably from the cures which God mercifully performed there. It is likely the porticoes were built for the more convenient reception of the poor and distressed, who came hither to be healed. It does not appear that any person was obliged to pay man for what the mercy of God freely gave. Wicked as the Jewish people were, they never thought of levying a tax on the poor and afflicted, for the cures they received in these healing waters. How is it that a well-regulated state, such as that of Great Britain, can ever permit individuals or corporations to enrich themselves at the expense of God’s mercy, manifested in the sanative waters of Bristol, Bath, Buxton, c.? Should not the accommodations be raised at the expense of the public, that the poor might enjoy without cost, which they are incapable of defraying, the great blessing which the God of nature has bestowed on such waters? In most of those places there is a profession that the poor may drink and bathe gratis but it is little better than a pretence, and the regulations relative to this point render the whole nearly inefficient. However, some good is done.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
We read in Scripture of the sheep gate in Jerusalem, Neh 3:1. There was also a market for sheep and other cattle, Deu 14:26. Some therefore add market, others add gate, to the word in the Greek signifying sheep. Near to this gate or market there was
a pool, kolumbhyra: some translate it, a fish pool; others, (more properly), a place to wash or to swim in (the word derives from a verb that signifies, to swim). They say there were two such pools within the compass of the mount on which the temple stood; the one eastward, called
the upper pool, 2Ki 18:17; the other westward, near to the sheep gate. The one was called
Bethesda; the other,
the pool of Siloah, by the kings garden, Neh 3:15, mentioned also by our evangelist, Joh 9:7. They say the waters of these pools were supplied from a fountain called Siloam, which was not always full of water, but the water bubbled up in it at certain times with a great noise, coming (as was thought) through hollow places of the earth, and quarries of hard stones. These waters of Shiloah are mentioned, Isa 8:6, and said to go softly; from which place these waters are concluded a type of the kingdom of David and of Christ. This being admitted, it is not to be wondered that they had that healing virtue given unto them (as some judge) just about the coming of Christ; for it should appear by Joh 9:7, that the pool of Siloam, as well as that of Bethesda, had so; for in former times it is thought to have been of use chiefly to wash garments in, and sacrifices when they were slain. Some will have them to have derived their healing virtue from thence; but that is vain, their healing virtue was doubtless derived from the Lord that healeth us. This pool in the Hebrew was called Bethesda, which some interpret, The house of pouring out, because, as some fancy, the blood of the sacrifices was there poured out; (but that is a great mistake, for that was to be poured out at the altar); or because rain water (as some think) was poured into it; or (which is more probable) because waters were poured into it out of the conduit mentioned 2Ki 20:20. But others interpret it, The house of grace, mercy, &c., because of Gods great goodness showed the people, in giving this healing virtue to these waters. The
five porches belonging to this pool seem to have been five apartments for impotent men to walk in, or rest themselves in, when they came to wash themselves in the pool.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
2, 3. sheep marketThe supplement should be (as in Margin) “sheep[gate],” mentioned in Neh 3:1;Neh 3:32.
Bethesdathat is,”house (place) of mercy,” from the cures wrought there.
five porchesforshelter to the patients.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep [market],…. The word “market” is not in the text, and of such a market, no account is given in the Scripture, nor in the Jewish writings; and besides, in our Lord’s time, sheep and oxen were sold in the temple; rather therefore this signifies, the sheep gate, of which mention is made, in Ne 3:1, through which the sheep were brought into the city, to the temple.
A pool. The Vulgate Latin and Ethiopic versions read, “there is at Jerusalem a sheep pool”; and so it is interpreted in the Arabic version, and Jerom calls it the “cattle pool” f. The Targumist on
Jer 31:39 speaks of a pool called , “the calf”, or “heifer pool”, as Dr. Lightfoot renders it; though the translations of it, both in the London Polyglott, and in the king of Spain’s Bible, interpret it “the round pool”. This pool of Bethesda, is thought by some, to be the same which the Jews call the great pool in Jerusalem; they say g,
“between Hebron and Jerusalem, is the fountain Etham, from whence the waters come by way of pipes, unto the great pool, which is in Jerusalem.”
And R. Benjamin h speaks of a pool, which is to be seen to this day, where the ancients slew their sacrifices, and all the Jews write their names on the wall: and some think it was so called, because the sheep that were offered in sacrifice, were there washed; which must be either before, or after they were slain; not before, for it was not required that what was to be slain for sacrifice should be washed first; and afterwards, only the entrails of a beast were washed; and for this there was a particular place in the temple, called “the washing room”; where, they say i, they washed the inwards of the holy sacrifices. This pool here, therefore, seems rather, as Dr. Lightfoot observes, to have been a bath for unclean persons; and having this miraculous virtue hereafter spoken of, diseased persons only, at certain times, had recourse to it. The Syriac and Persic versions call it, “a place of a baptistery”; and both leave out the clause, “by the sheep market”, or “gate”: it is not easy to say where and what it was:
which is called in the Hebrew tongue, Bethesda; which signifies, according to the Syriac, Arabic, and Persic versions, “an house of mercy”, or “grace”, or “goodness”; because many miserable objects here received mercy, and a cure. Hegesippus k speaks of a Bethesda, which Cestius the Roman general entered into, and burnt; and which, according to him, seems to be without Jerusalem, and so not the place here spoken of; and besides, this is called a pool, though the buildings about it doubtless went by the same name. The Vulgate Latin and Ethiopic versions read Bethsaida, very wrongly; and it is called by Tertullian l the pool of Bethsaida. The Hebrew tongue here mentioned is , “the language of those beyond the river” m, i.e. the river Euphrates; which is the Chaldee language, as distinct from the Assyrian language, which is called the holy and blessed language; the former is what the Cuthites, or Samaritans used; the latter, that in which the book of the law was written n.
Having five porches; or cloistered walks, which were very convenient for the diseased, which lay here for a cure, so Nonnus: Athanasius o speaks of the pool itself, as in being, though the buildings round about lay in ruins in his time; and p Daviler observes, there are still remaining five arches of the “portico”, and part of the basin. Now this place may be an emblem of the means of grace, the ministry of the word, and ordinances: the house of God, where the Gospel is preached, may be called a Bethesda, an house of mercy; since here the free, sovereign, rich, and abundant grace and mercy of God, through Christ, is proclaimed, as the ground and foundation of a sinner’s hope; the mercy of God, as it is displayed in the covenant of grace, in the mission of Christ, and redemption by him, in regeneration, and in the forgiveness of sin, and indeed, in the whole of salvation, from first to last, is here held forth for the relief of distressed minds: and this Bethesda being a pool, some of the ancients have thought, it was an emblem of, and prefigured the ordinance of baptism; and that the miraculous virtue in it, was put into it, to give honour and credit to that ordinance, shortly to be administered: but as that is not the means of regeneration and conversion, or of a cure or cleansing, but pre-requires them; rather it might be a symbol of the fountain of Christ’s blood, opened for polluted sinners to wash in, and which cleanses from all sin, and cures all diseases; and this is opened in the house of mercy, and by the ministry of the word: or rather, best of all, the Gospel itself, and the ministration of it, mass be signified; which is sometimes compared to waters, and a fountain of them; see Isa 4:1 Joe 3:18; and whereas this pool was in Jerusalem, and that so often designs the church of Christ under the Gospel dispensation, it may fitly represent the ministry of the word there: and it being near the sheep-market, or gate, or a sheep-pool, may not be without its significancy; and may lead us to observe, that near where Christ’s sheep are, which the Father has given him, and he has died for, and must bring in, he fixes his word and ordinances, in order to gather them in: and inasmuch as there were five porches, or cloistered walks, leading unto, or adjoining to this place, it has been thought by some of the ancients, that the law, as lying in the five books of Moses, may be intended by them; for under the law, and under a work of it, men are, before they come into the light and liberty, and comfort of the Gospel; and as the people which lay in these porches, received no cure there, so there are no relief, peace, joy, life, and salvation, by the law of works.
f De Locis Hebraicis, p. 89. L. Tom. III. g Cippi Hebraici, p. 10. h Itinerar. p. 43. i Misn. Middot, c. 5. sect. 2. Maimon. Beth Habbechira, c. 5. sect. 17. k De Excidio, l. 2. c. 15. l Adv. Judaeos, c. 13. m De Semente, p. 345. Tom. I. n In Chambers’ Dictionary, in the word “Piscina”. o Vid. Gloss. in T. Bab. Sabbat, fol. 115. 1. Megilla, fol. 18. 2. & Sanhedrin, fol. 21. 2. p Maimon. & Bartenora in Misn. Yadaim, c. 4. sect. 5. Vid. Gloss. in T. Bab. Megillia, fol. 8. 2.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
There is (). Bengel argues that this proves a date before the destruction of Jerusalem, but it is probably only John’s vivid memory.
By the sheep gate ( ). Supply (gate) which occurs with the adjective (pertaining to sheep, ) in Neh 3:1; Neh 3:22.
A pool (). A diving or swimming pool (from , to swim, Ac 27:43), old word, only here in N.T.
Which is called ( ). “The surnamed” (present passive participle, only N.T. example except Ac 15:40 first aorist middle participle ).
In Hebrew (). “In Aramaic” strictly as in John 19:13; John 19:17; John 19:20; John 20:16; Rev 9:11; Rev 16:16.
Bethesda (, or House of Mercy. So A C Syr cu). Aleph D L 33 have or House of the Olive, while B W Vulg. Memph. have .
Having five porches ( ). was a covered colonnade where people can gather from which Stoic comes (Ac 17:18). See John 10:23; Acts 3:11. Schick in 1888 found twin pools north of the temple near the fortress of Antonia one of which has five porches. It is not, however, certain that this pool existed before A.D. 70 when the temple was destroyed (Sanday, Sacred Sites of the Gospels, p. 55). Some have identified it with the Pool of Siloam (9:7), though John distinguishes them. There is also the Virgin’s Well, called the Gusher, because it periodically bubbles over from a natural spring, a kind of natural siphon. This is south of the temple in the Valley of Kedron and quite possibly the real site.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Sheep – market [ ] . The word is an adjective pertaining to sheep, which requires to be completed with another word, not with ajgora, market, but with pulh, gate. This gate was near the temple on the east of the city. See Neh 3:1, 32; Neh 12:39. Some editors join the adjective with the following kolumbhqra, pool, making the latter word kolumbhqra (the dative case), and reading the sheep – pool. Wyc., a standing water of beasts.
Pool [] . In the New Testament only in this chapter and Joh 9:7,
Joh 5:11Properly, a pool for swimming, from kolumbaw, to dive. In Ecc 2:6 (Sept.,) it is used of a reservoir in a garden. The Hebrew word is from the verb to kneel down, and means, therefore, a kneeling – place for cattle or men when drinking. In ecclesiastical language, the baptismal font, and the baptistery itself.
Called [] . Strictly, surnamed, the name having perhaps supplanted some earlier name.
Bethesda [] . Commonly interpreted House of Mercy; others House of the Portico. The readings also vary. Tischendorf and Westcott and Hort give bhqzaqa, Bethzatha, House of the Olive. The site cannot be identified with any certainty. Dr. Robinson thinks it may be the Fountain of the Virgin, the upper fountain of Siloam. See Thomson’s “Land and Book,” ” Southern Palestine and Jerusalem, ” pp. 458 – 461.
Porches [] . Cloisters, covered porticoes.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “Now there is at Jerusalem,” (estin de en tois lerosolumois) “Now there is in Jerusalem,” or exists in Jerusalem, did exist when John did this writing.
2) “By the sheep market a pool,” (epi te probatike kolumbethra) “Upon the entrance at the sheep gate, a pool.” This gate by the pool was setup by Eliashib the high priest in the days of Nehemiah, Neh 3:1; Neh 3:32. Referred to also Neh 12:39, now known as St. Stephen’s gate. Through this gate were brought the sheep for sacrifice.
3) “Which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda,” (he epilegomene hebraisti Bethzatha) “The one that is called in Hebrew Bethzatha,” meaning “house of mercy,” believed to have been built by benevolent contributions solicited by the priests under Eliashib, Neh 12:39.
4) “Having five porches.” (pente stoas echousa) “Which has five porches,” or colonades or porches about it, with an opening in the floor to get down to the water. In these five porches lay many crippled people on couches, rolled in blankets, objects of misery and suffering,
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
2. There was in Jerusalem, at the sheep-market, a pool. The circumstance of the place is added, from which we learn that the miracle was not concealed or known to a few persons only; for the five porches show that the place was celebrated for the great number of persons who resorted to it, and this was also implied in its vicinity to the temple. Besides, the Evangelist expressly says that many diseased persons lay there With respect to the meaning of the name, the learned justly reject the fanciful opinion of Jerome, who, instead of Bethesda, makes it Betheder, and interprets it to mean the house of the flock; for here mention is made of a pool, which was near the sheep-market Those who read it Bethesda, as meaning a place of fishing, have no reason on their side. There is greater probability in the opinion of those who explain it to be a place of pouring out; for the Hebrew word ( אשך) ( Eshed) signifies flowing out; but the Evangelist, as was then the ordinary way of speaking, pronounced it Esda For I think that the water was conveyed into it by conduits, that the priests might draw out of it; unless perhaps the place received its name from the circumstance that the water was poured into it by means of tubes. It was called the sheep-market, in my opinion, because the beasts which were to be offered in sacrifice were taken there.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(2) Now there is at Jerusalem.We have no certain knowledge of the time referred to in the last, nor of the place referred to in this, verse. For sheep-market, we should read with the margin, sheep-gate (Neh. 3:1; Neh. 3:32; Neh. 12:39). This gate was known well enough to fix the locality of the pool, but is itself now unknown. St. Stephens Gate, which has been the traditional identification, did not exist until the time of Agrippa. There is something tempting in the interpretation of the Vulgate adopted by some modern travellers and commentators, which supplies the substantive from the immediate context, and reads sheep-pool. But the fact that the Greek adjective for sheep, is used here only in the New Testament, and in the Old Testament only in the passages of Nehemiah referred to above, seems to fix the meaning beyond doubt.
Bethesda means house of mercy. The Hebrew tongue is the then current Hebrew, what we ordinarily call Aramaic, or Syro-Chaldaic. The spot is pointed out traditionally as Birket Israil, near the fort of Antonia, but since Dr. Robinsons rejection of this, it has been generally abandoned. He himself adopted the Fountain of the Virgin, which is intermittent. He saw the water rise to the height of a foot in five minutes, and was told that this occurs sometimes two or three times a day. The fountain is connected with the pool of Siloam, and probably with the fountain under the Grand Mosque. The seventh edition of Alfords Commentary contains, an interesting letter, pointing out that Siloam itself was probably the pool of Bethesda, and that the remains of four columns in the east wall of the pool, with four others in the centre, show that there was a structure half covering it, which resting upon four columns would give five spaces or porches. The fact that this pool is called Siloam in Joh. 9:7 does not oppose this view. The word called here, is more exactly surnamed, and House of Mercy may well have been given to the structure, and thus extended to the pool in addition to its own name. But to pass from the uncertain, it is established beyond doubt, (1) that there are, and then were, on the east of Jerusalem mineral springs; (2) that these are, and then were, intermittent; and (3) that such springs are resorted to in the East just as they are in Europe.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
2. By the sheep market Market is in italics, indicating that the word is not found in the original, but supplied by the English translators. It should be sheep- gate; so called, because the sheep for sacrifice were driven through it into the city. (See plan of city, vol. i, p. 274.) But the place of this gate and of Bethesda, near it, is very uncertain. Popular tradition had given the name to a pool, which later research has ascertained to have been a fosse, dug for the defence of the Castle of Antonia. (See note on Mat 22:12.) Dr. Strong, agreeing with Lightfoot and Robinson, identifies Bethesda with the “Fountain of the Virgin;” Dr. Olin, with the pool of Siloam. Dr. Barclay pronounces both these suppositions incredible, as neither will meet the requirements of the passage; but believes himself to have identified the spot, near the sheep-gate, at which this pool will be found, when the rubbish is removed.
Five porches Small apartments, recesses for the diseased, lining the edge of the pool; covered, as some think, upon the top only, but more probably with three sides closed, and the fourth open, like a shed, toward the pool.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘Now there is in Jerusalem, near the Sheep Gate, a pool which in Hebrew is called Bethesda’ (or Bethzatha or Bethsaida or, less likely, Belzetha – the manuscripts differ widely) ‘which has five covered collonades’.
The pool was clearly renowned for its healing properties which occurred at various times at ‘the moving of the water’ (v. 7), and the five collonades had presumably been built round it to aid those who came seeking healing. Its site is uncertain but a pool that adequately fits the desription has been excavated in Jerusalem. It was ‘near that which pertains to sheep’, therefore possibly ‘the Sheep Gate’ which was near the Temple. It probably means ‘place of outpouring’.
At this point explanatory glosses have been introduced into the text, but not with great support in the early manuscripts – ‘waiting for the moving of the water’ has support in some important regionalised texts, and Joh 5:4 is found in a few, mainly unimportant texts. The former is probably a note to draw attention to the phenomenon mentioned in v. 7 and the latter an explanation added to bring in a supernatural element. It is probably safe to assume that they were not part of the original text. They were possibly notes added later which accidentally became incorporated in the text.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Joh 5:2. Now there is at Jerusalem, &c. Some are of opinion from this passage, that Jerusalem was standing when St. John wrote his gospel; but others, on the strength of a different reading, controvert that opinion, rendering the verse,Now there was, or There stood at Jerusalem. But see the Introduction to this gospel. At Jerusalem, says Bishop Pearce, near the place called the sheep-market, or sheep-gate rather, which was built by Eliashib the high-priest, (Neh 3:1.) there was a bath, built for the use of such of the common people as loved to swim and bathe themselves in water. This is the proper sense of the original , from , to swim, (Act 27:43.) rendered in the old Latin version, called the Italick, Natatoria, a bath or swimming-place. Nothing was more common, or more useful than such baths, in these warm climates, where the excessiveheat was not only troublesome, but noxious to health. Josephus mentions some by this very name, at Jericho, as used for the exercise and pleasure of swimming; and it may reasonably be presumed, that this at Jerusalem was built for the same purpose. That the sheep to be sacrificed were washed, or that all the blood of the sacrifices ran into it, whence it gained a kind of medicinal virtue, is an hypothesis not only void of all proof, but sufficiently exploded bythe learned Bishop just mentioned, in his useful “Vindication of our Saviour’s miracles,” p. 8. This bath was called Beth-esda, that is, the house or place of mercy, not only for its singular usefulness, but also for the extraordinary circumstance attending it, recorded by the evangelist. Around the bath, which seems to have been of a pentagonal form, were built five porches, a kind of cloisters or porticos, , which served to shelter both from the heat and cold those who frequented the place; but which were more particularly serviceable to the infirm people who crowded hither on account of the miraculous virtue of the water. See the next verse.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Joh 5:2-3 . ] is all the less opposed to the composition of the Gospel after the destruction of Jerusalem, as what is mentioned is a bath , whose surroundings might very naturally be represented as still existing. According to Ewald, the charitable uses for which the building served might have saved it from destruction. Comp. Tobler, Denkbltt . p. 53 ff., who says that the porches were still pointed out in the fifth century.
] is usually explained by supplied: hard by the sheep-gate; see on Joh 4:6 . Concerning the , Neh 3:1 ; Neh 3:32 ; Neh 12:39 , so called perhaps because sheep for sacrifice were sold there, or brought in there at the Passover, nothing further is known. It lay north-east of the city, and near the temple. Still the word supplied, “gate,” cannot he shown to have been in use; nor could it have been self-evident, especially to Gentile Christian readers, not minutely acquainted with the localities. I prefer, therefore, following Theodore of Mopsuestia, Ammonius, Nonnus, to join . with , and, with Elz. 1633 and Wetstein, to read , as a dative (comp. already Castalio): “Now there is in Jerusalem, at the sheep-pool, [a place called] Bethesda, so called in the Hebrew tongue.” According to Ammonius, the sheep used for sacrifice were washed in the sheep-pool.
.] “this additional name being given to it.” On , elsewhere usually in the sense of selecting, see Plat. Legg. iii. p. 700 B. The pool was called Bethesda, a characteristic surname which had supplanted some other original name.
] , locus benignitatis, variously written in Codd. (Tisch., following . 33, ), not occurring elsewhere, not even in Josephus; not “house of pillars,” as Delitzsch supposes. It is impossible to decide with certainty which of the present pools may have been that of Bethesda. [204] See Robinson, II 136 f., 158 f. To derive the healing virtue of the (according to Eusebius) red-coloured water, which perhaps was mineral , as Eusebius does, from the blood of the sacrifices flowing down from the temple, and the name from , effusio (Calvin, Aretius, Bochart, Michaelis), is unwarranted, and contrary to Joh 5:7 . The five porches served as a shelter for the sick, who are specially described as , etc., and those afflicted with diseases of the nerves and muscles. On , “persons with withered and emaciated limbs,” comp. Mat 12:10 ; Mar 3:1 ; Luk 6:6 ; Luk 6:8 . Whether the sick man of Joh 5:5 was one of them or of the is not stated.
[204] Probably it was the present ebbing and flowing “ Fountain of the Virgin Mary ,” an intermittent spring called by the inhabitants “ Mother of Steps .” See Robinson, II. 148 f. According to Wieseler, Synopse , p. 260, it may have been the pool mentioned in Josephus, Antt . v. 11. 4, as was already supposed by Lampe and several others, against which, however, the difference of name is a difficulty; it has no claim to be received on the ground of etymology, but only of similarity of sound. Ritter, Erdk . XVI. pp. 329, 443 ff., describes the pool as now choked up, while Krafft, in his Topogr . p. 176, thinks it was the Struthion of Josephus. It certainly was not the ditch, now pointed out by tradition as Bethesda, at the north of the temple wall. See also Tobler as before, who doubts the possibility of discovering the pool. As to the meaning of the name ( House of Mercy ), it is possible that the arrangement for the purposes of a bath together with the porches was intended as a charitable foundation (Olshausen, Ewald), or that the divine favour, whose effects were here manifested, gave rise to the name. This latter is the more probable, and perhaps gave occasion to the legend of the Angel in the Received Text.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep-market, a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue, Bethesda, having five porches. (3) In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. (4) For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water; whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. (5) And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. (6) When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole? (7) The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool; but while I am coming another steppeth down before me. (8) Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed and walk. (9) And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed and walked, and on the same day was the sabbath. (10) The Jews therefore said unto him that was cured, It is the sabbath-day: it is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed. (11) He answered them, He that made me whole, the same said unto me, Take up thy bed and walk. (12) Then asked they him, What man is that which said unto thee, Take up thy bed and walk. (13) And he that was healed wist not who it was: for Jesus had conveyed himself away, a multitude being in that place. (14) Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.
Concerning this Pool, if we consult the Old Testament, we shall find some light thrown upon it, as to its situation, near the field of Kidron. Joh 18:1 . Nehemiah; and Jeremiah, seem to have had it in view. See Neh 3:32Neh 3:32 ; Jer 31:38-39 . It was not a market for sheep, but rather a sheep gate, or fold, near it; where, probably, the cattle were pent up for sacrifice. And the Pool, probably formed from the waters of Shiloah. Isa 8:6 . But I would rather call the attention of the Reader to some of the very interesting subjects, which are proposed to us, in our Lord’s visit to the Pool, and the miracle Jesus wrought there.
Is it not highly probable, (for I do not speak decidedly,) that as this pool possessed this miraculous quality John describes, when excited by the ministry of the angel, that during the long dark night, in which no open vision was made, from the time of Malachi to Zacharias; the Lord was pleased to appoint this pool, as a standing monument in his Church; that the Lord was still watching over them, and had not cast away his people whom he foreknew? Rom 11:1-2 . And was it not to keep alive in the minds of his chosen, by the miracle itself, that He would come, who was a fountain open for sin and for uncleanness to the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem? Zec 13:1 .
I admire the very interesting account John hath given, of the many diseased and miserable objects, which lay around the pool, in those cloisters, waiting for the moment of healing. Blind, halt, withered; all descriptive of the totally blind, halt, and helpless state of our fallen nature: yea, dead in trespasses and sins. Reader! surely in beholding this groupe of miserable objects, we discover the whole race of Adam-nature. And though those five porches might contain the whole of that neighbourhood, yet the globe itself is but as one great hospital of human woe. But what a mercy, when Jesus the Angel of the Covenant descends in the midst, under that endearing character, Jehovah Rophe, to heal, Mal 3:1 ; Exo 15:26 .
It were needless to ruin over the several particulars enumerated in the account of the Bethesda: neither of the one, the Lord singled out to manifest his mercy more particularly upon. No grace like distinguishing grace: neither are there any mercies which come home to the heart, with sweetness of so high a nature, as those which are personal and direct. How it must have struck every beholder, when the Lord Jesus singled out this man? And though he had been eight and thirty years in waiting for a cure; yet it was well worth waiting for, when the Lord Jesus thus came at length in person, to heal him; and chose him from among all the crippled, and sinew-shrank objects of misery around, to manifest his grace upon. And, Reader! if it be so, in natural things; what must it be in spiritual?
If the blessing, from its distinguishing nature, be so valuable to the body; what must it be to the soul?
I will only detain the Reader, with a short observation on what the Lord Jesus said to this man, when he afterwards found him in the temple. Sin no more, (said Christ,) lest a worse thing come unto thee. Did this precept of Jesus refer to his bodily complaint, as if, (which is indeed the case,) both sickness and death are the effect of sin? In this sense, our Lord’s words will be, to avoid everything which in its nature is sinful, and which hath a tendency, in the present state of things, to induce disease in the body. But , under an impression that this man was a child of God, of which there appears nothing to the contrary; and though not expressly said, (as in some other miracles Jesus wrought, is taken notice of: See Luk 13:16 and Luk 19:9 ) seems probable, I should rather be inclined to think, our Lord referred to the case of his soul. And then the subject becomes more abundantly interesting, to discover what was the express object of our Lord’s caution to him.
We cannot suppose that the Lord meant to say, that if he fell into a single transgression, he would lose thereby the Lord’s favor, and come under condemnation, not to be pardoned. For James saith, in many things we offend all. And John adds, that if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. Jas 3:2 . Neither could the Lord mean, that such an after act of transgression, when a soul had been regenerated by the Holy Ghost, would destroy that renewing of the Spirit, and subject the soul to everlasting death. For there is not a just man (that is, a truly justified soul in Christ,) upon earth, that doeth good and sinneth not. Ecc 7:20 . And a just man falleth seven times a day, and riseth up again. Pro 24:16 .
But though a child of God cannot forfeit, by any act of his, what was never bestowed upon him, for any deservings of his; but is the result of God’s grace, and not man’s merit; yet he may have a much worse thing of soul befall him, than any calamity of the body. Though he cannot, when justified freely, lose God’s favor, yet he may be under great sorrow of heart, from the want of the light of God’s countenance. Holy men of old, groaned bitterly under such a state, in their seasons of soul exercise. While I suffer thy terrors, (said one of them,) I am distracted. Psa 88:15 . And another cried out in anguish of spirit; The terrors of God do set themselves in array against me. Job 6:4 . And who that reads David’s groans under sin, will conceive, that any bodily pain could equal them. Psa 51 throughout. Reader! do not such views form the best comment to our Lord’s advice to his patient in the Temple.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
2 Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches.
Ver. 2. Having five porches ] Built, belike, by some well-affected persons, at the motion of God’s ministers, for the use of such impotent folk as here lay looking and languishing at Hope’s Hospital. Like as King Edward VI was moved by a sermon of Bishop Riding’s, touching works of charity, to grant his two houses in London, Bridewell and the Savoy, for such like good uses; together with lands and monies for their maintenance.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
2. ] has been thought by Bengel and others to import that John wrote his Gospel before the destruction of Jerusalem . But this must not be pressed. He might have spoken in the present without meaning to be literally accurate at the moment when he was writing (see Prolegg. to John, iv. 6).
. , probably near the sheep-gate , mentioned by Nehemiah, see reff. The situation of this gate is unknown; it is traditionally supposed to be the same with that now called St. Stephen’s gate; but inaccurately, for no wall existed in that quarter till the time of Agrippa (Robinson, i. 472). Eusebius, Jerome, and the Itinerarium Hieros. speak of a , so also probatica piscina , Vulg.
The reading would be more usual; perhaps . implies that it had another name.
= Syr [74] . , the house (place) of mercy, or of grace. Its present situation is very uncertain. Robinson established by personal inspection the fact of the subterranean connexion of the pool of Siloam (see ch. Joh 9:7 , note; and the supplementary note at the end of this volume) and that called the Fountain of the Virgin (i. 501 ff.); and has made it probable that the Fountain under the grand Mosk is also connected with them (i. 509 ff.); in fact that all these are but one and the same spring. (See also some interesting particulars respecting an attempt made subsequently to prove this connexion, and mention of a fourth fountain with the same peculiar taste as the water of Siloam, in Williams’s Holy City, pp. 381 ff.) Now this spring, as he himself witnessed, (i. 506,) is an intermittent one, as indeed had been reported before by Jerome (on Isa 8:6 ), Prudentius (in Trench, Mir. p. 247, edn. 2), William of Tyre, and others. There might have been then, it is obvious, some artificially constructed basin in connexion with this spring, the site and memory of which have perished, which would present the phnomenon here described: see below.
[74] The Peschito (or simple) Syriac version. Supposed to have been made as early as the second century . The text as edited is in a most unsatisfactory state.
The spot now traditionally known as Bethesda is a part of the fosse round the fort or tower Antonia, an immense reservoir or trench, seventy-five feet deep. But, as Robinson observes (i. 489), there is not the slightest evidence that can identify it with the Bethesda of the N.T.
This pool is not mentioned by Josephus.
. ] Probably these were for the shelter of the sick persons, and were arches or porticos, opening upon and surrounding the reservoir. , . Euthym [75]
[75] Euthymius Zigabenus, 1116
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Joh 5:2 . . From the use of the present tense Bengel concludes that this was written before the destruction of Jerusalem [“Scripsit Johannes ante vastationem urbis”]. But quite probably John considered the pool one of the permanent features of the city. Its position is more precisely defined in the words , rendered in A.V [53] “by the sheep market” and in R.V [54] “by the sheep gate”. Others read , and render “by the sheep- pool a pool ”; Weiss, adopting this reading, supplies or some such word: “there is by the sheep-pool a building”. But this does some violence to the sentence; and as the “sheep gate” is mentioned in Neh 3:32 ; Neh 12:39 , the reading, construction, and rendering of R.V [55] are to be preferred. . The pool has recently been identified. M. Clermont Ganneau pointed out that its site should not be far from the church of St. Anne, and in 1888 Herr Shick found in that locality two sister pools, one fifty-five and the other sixty feet long. The former was arched in by five arches, while five corresponding porches ran alongside the pool. By the crusaders a church had been built over this pool, with a crypt framed in imitation of the five porches and with an opening in the floor to get down to the water. That they regarded this pool as that mentioned here is shown by their having represented on the wall of the crypt the angel troubling the water. [Herr Shick’s papers are contained in the Palestine Quarterly , 1888, pp. 115 134, and 1890, p. 19. See also St. Clair’s Buried Cities , Henderson’s Palestine , p. 180.] The pool had five porches. Bovet describes the bath of Ibrahim near Tiberias: “The hall in which the spring is found is surrounded by several porticoes in which we see a multitude of people crowded one upon another, laid on couches or rolled in blankets, with lamentable expressions of misery and suffering”. Here lay , and these were of three kinds, , , .
[53] Authorised Version.
[54] Revised Version.
[55] Revised Version.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
at = in. Greek.
en. App-104.
by = upon, or at. Greek. epi. App-104.
market, or gate. Compare Neh 3:1, Neh 3:32; Neh 12:39, and App-68. Joh 15:40.
which is called. Greek. epilegomai. Only here and Acts
Bethesda. Aramaic. App-93. Compare Siloam in the sixth sign, App-176.
porches = arches, i, e. a colonnade, or cloister. Greek. stoa. Occurs only here, Joh 10:23. Act 3:11; Act 5:12. The Eng. “porch” is from the French porche, Latin. porticum = a gallery or door. All from Latin. portare = to carry-the wall being carried over by an arch.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
2.] has been thought by Bengel and others to import that John wrote his Gospel before the destruction of Jerusalem. But this must not be pressed. He might have spoken in the present without meaning to be literally accurate at the moment when he was writing (see Prolegg. to John, iv. 6).
., probably near the sheep-gate,-mentioned by Nehemiah, see reff. The situation of this gate is unknown;-it is traditionally supposed to be the same with that now called St. Stephens gate; but inaccurately, for no wall existed in that quarter till the time of Agrippa (Robinson, i. 472). Eusebius, Jerome, and the Itinerarium Hieros. speak of a , so also probatica piscina, Vulg.
The reading would be more usual; perhaps . implies that it had another name.
= Syr[74]. , the house (place) of mercy, or of grace. Its present situation is very uncertain. Robinson established by personal inspection the fact of the subterranean connexion of the pool of Siloam (see ch. Joh 9:7, note; and the supplementary note at the end of this volume) and that called the Fountain of the Virgin (i. 501 ff.); and has made it probable that the Fountain under the grand Mosk is also connected with them (i. 509 ff.); in fact that all these are but one and the same spring. (See also some interesting particulars respecting an attempt made subsequently to prove this connexion, and mention of a fourth fountain with the same peculiar taste as the water of Siloam, in Williamss Holy City, pp. 381 ff.) Now this spring, as he himself witnessed, (i. 506,) is an intermittent one, as indeed had been reported before by Jerome (on Isa 8:6), Prudentius (in Trench, Mir. p. 247, edn. 2), William of Tyre, and others. There might have been then, it is obvious, some artificially constructed basin in connexion with this spring, the site and memory of which have perished, which would present the phnomenon here described: see below.
[74] The Peschito (or simple) Syriac version. Supposed to have been made as early as the second century. The text as edited is in a most unsatisfactory state.
The spot now traditionally known as Bethesda is a part of the fosse round the fort or tower Antonia, an immense reservoir or trench, seventy-five feet deep. But, as Robinson observes (i. 489), there is not the slightest evidence that can identify it with the Bethesda of the N.T.
This pool is not mentioned by Josephus.
.] Probably these were for the shelter of the sick persons, and were arches or porticos, opening upon and surrounding the reservoir. , . Euthym[75]
[75] Euthymius Zigabenus, 1116
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Joh 5:2. , there is) John wrote before the destruction of the city. There is, saith he, not there was, a pool. Even then there was remaining with His hearers a recollection of the treasury, a place in the temple: ch. Joh 8:20, These words spake Jesus in the treasury, as He taught in the temple. In agreement with this are those of the ancients, who set down this book as edited 30, 31, or 32 years after the ascension of our Lord.- ) Many understand : and indeed occurs, Neh 3:1; Neh 3:32; Neh 12:39. But though frequent mention is made in the books of the Old Testament of the gates of Jerusalem, and in Roman history of the gates of Rome, yet nowhere or seldom is the noun , gate, omitted. Nonnus has , with the penultima lengthened, is equivalent to a substantive. Camerarius understands , or some such word. So Chrysostom, in B. ii. concerning the Priesthood, ch. iv., 120, uses , which we express by Das Pastorat Germ., [the Pastorate]. It is credible, that near the sheep-gate was the pool, equally by itself called from the sheep; for often sheep bathe in a pool: Son 4:2, Thy teeth are like a flock of sheep-shorn, which came up from the washing. Thus , which the Greek Text has [97][98][99][100]. But many MSS. of the Vulgate have probatica piscina, in nomin. and without super; so thiop. Version, Euseb. Athanas. Chrysost. also ], the order of the words being elegantly varied, is equivalent to , as the Versions and Fathers explain it. In our language the former would be ein Teich bey der Schaefferey [a pond near a sheep-fold]; the latter, ein Schaf-Teich [a sheep-pond].-, a pool) About baths there is frequently the , something of divine help vouchsafed.-, in the Hebrew tongue) This book, therefore, was not written in Hebrew; otherwise this adverb would be redundant. They were therefore Hellenists,[101] for whose sake John wrote in Greek, and perhaps sent this book from Jerusalem to Asia [Minor]. Comp. ch. Joh 1:38; Joh 1:41-42, ch. Joh 9:7 [in which four passages Greek explanations are given of Hebr. words].-, porches) built by [i.e. by direction of] the impotent, or on their account, near the pool.
[97] the Alexandrine MS.: in Brit. Museum: fifth century: publ. by Woide, 1786-1819: O. and N. Test. defective.
[98] the Vatican MS., 1209: in Vat. Iibr., Rome: fourth cent.: O. and N. Test. def.
[99] Ephrmi Rescriptus: Royal libr., Paris: fifth or sixth cent.: publ. by Tisch. 1843: O. and N. T. def.
[100] Bez, or Cantabrig.: Univ. libr., Cambridge: fifth cent.: publ. by Kipling, 1793: Gospels, Acts, and some Epp. def.
[101] Greek-speaking Jews, who clothed Hebraistic idioms with Greek words.-E. and T.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Joh 5:2
Joh 5:2
Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate-It is thought that this is the gate through which the sheep for sacrifice were generally brought.
a pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda,-This pool and its qualities are not mentioned by any other writer of the Bible. Its identity and locality have not been fixed with certainty. Whether there was real curative property in the waters is not certain. Among the superstitious people imagination is so active that reputation for healing is frequently kept up for centuries when the imagination does all that is done for them. The record here gives no intimation that Jesus thought the healing genuine. He heals entirely independent of the waters.
having five porches.-These were five sheltered entrances to the pool called porches.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
market a pool
Or, gate, Neh 3:1; Neh 12:39
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
market: or, gate, Neh 3:1, Neh 12:39
pool: Isa 22:9, Isa 22:11
Bethesda: The supposed remains of the pool of Bethesda are situated on the east of Jerusalem, contiguous on one side to St. Stephen’s gate, and on the other to the area of the temple. Maundrell states that, “it is 120 paces long, and forty broad, and at least eight deep, but void of water. At its west end it discovers some old arches, now damned up. These some will have to be porches, in which sat that multitude of lame, halt, and blind. But it is not likely, for instead of five, there are but three.
Reciprocal: Neh 3:32 – the sheep gate Eze 40:16 – arches Joh 19:20 – in Act 21:40 – Hebrew Rev 16:16 – the Hebrew
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
2
Sheep market is from the Greek word PROBATIKOS, which Thayer defines, “the sheep-gate.” The Greek translation of the Old Testament (the Septuagint) uses the same word, and Donnegan defines it, “Pertaining to sheep, or to cattle, especially sheep.” This spot is mentioned in Neh 3:1; Neh 3:32. Porch is from STOA, which the lexicon of Thayer defines, “a portico, a covered colonnade where people can stand or walk, protected from the weather and the heat of the sun.”
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches.
[In the Hebrew tongue.] That is, in the language beyond Euphrates, or the Chaldean.
Aruch; that is, the language of those beyond the flood.
If the Holy Books be written in the Egyptian, or Medes’, or Hebrew language. Gloss, In the Hebrew, that is, the language of those beyond Euphrates.
The Hebrew writing is that of those beyond the river.
So that by in the Hebrew tongue they mean the Chaldee language, which, from their return out of Babylon, had been their mother-tongue; and they call it “the language of those beyond Euphrates” (although used also in common with the Syrians on this side Euphrates), that, with respect to the Jews, they might distinguish it from the ancient holy tongue; q.d. “not the tongue they used before they went into captivity, but that which they brought along with them from beyond Euphrates.”
The Jews to whom this was the mother-tongue were called Hebrews; and from thence are distinguished from the Hellenists; which every one knows. Whence St. Paul should call himself a Hebrew, 2Co 11:22; when he was born in Tarsus of Cilicia, might deserve our consideration.
[Having five porches.] It mightily obtains amongst some, that in Bethesda the sacrifices were washed before they offered them: but here I am a little at a stand. For,
I. It is very difficult proving that the sacrifices were washed at all either here or in any place else, before they were offered. The Holy Scriptures are wholly silent as to any such thing; nor, as far as I have yet found, do the traditional writings speak of it. It is confessed, the entrails were washed after the beast had been slain; and for this service there was set apart in the very Temple the washing-room. But for their bodies, their skins, or backs, whether they were washed before they were slain, is justly questionable.
II. Amongst all the blemishes and defects whereby the beast was rendered unfit for sacrifice, we do not read that this was ever reckoned, “that they had not been washed.” Do we believe that Abraham washed the ram caught in thicket, Genesis_22, before he sacrificed it? It is said, indeed, “that he took it and wiped it. But this was after he had taken off the skin. He took it, and taking off the skin; he said, ‘Behold this, O Lord, as if the skin of thy servant Isaac was taken off before thee.’ He wiped it [Gloss, he wiped it with a sponge], and said, ‘Behold this, as if Isaac was wiped.’ He burnt it, and said,” etc.
And let that be well considered in Siphra; folio 18. 1, where a dispute is had upon those words, Lev 6:27; “If the blood of the sacrifice for sin be sprinkled upon a garment, etc. When the discourse is of a garment, I would understand it of nothing but a garment. Whence is to be added, the skin when it is pulled off. The text saith, ‘Upon whatsoever the blood shall be sprinkled, ye shall wash.’ Perhaps, therefore, one may add the skin before it is pulled off. The text saith, a garment; as a garment that is capable of uncleanness, so whatsoever is capable of uncleanness. Except the skin before it be pulled off. They are the words of R. Judah.” Mark, the skin as yet cleaving to the beast’s back, and not flayed off, is not capable of uncleanness.
I. I would therefore judge rather, that men; and not beasts; were washed in the pool of Bethesda. I mean the unclean, that by washing they might be purified. For whoever considers the numbers of the unclean that did every day stand in need of being washed, and whoever would a little turn over the Talmudic treatises about purifications, and the gatherings of waters for those purposes, might easily persuade himself that both Bethesda, and all the other pools in Jerusalem, did serve rather for the washing of men, and not of beasts.
I would further judge, that the Syriac interpreter, when he renders that passage, “There was at Jerusalem a certain place of baptistery;” that he intended rather the washing unclean person than beasts.
II. “There was not any like to Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, under the second Temple. He one day struck his foot against a dead tortoise, and went down to Siloam, where, breaking all the little particles of hail, he washed himself……This was on the shortest day in winter, the tenth of the month Tebeth.”
I do not concern myself for the truth of this story; but must take notice what he hints that telleth it; viz. that in such a case men were wont to wash themselves in Siloam, not the fountain, but the pool.
“Simeon Sicuensis dug wells, cisterns, and caves in Jerusalem. Rabban Jochanan Ben Zacchai saith to him, ‘If a woman should come to thee, and ask thee about her menstrua, thou sayest to her, Dip thyself in this well; for the waters thereof will purify.’ ”
III. Those five porches, therefore, seem to be the several entrances by which the unclean went down into the waters to be washed; and in which, before washing, they might lay up their clothes, and after it put them on again, being there always protected from the rain. And perhaps they had their different entrances and descents according to the different sorts of uncleanness, that all those that were one and the same way defiled should have one and the same entrance and descent into the pool. That this was the first design and use of these porches I do not at all doubt, though afterward there was another use for them brought in. And as to the washing of the unclean in this pool, let me also superadd this one remark: That when they allowed (and that of necessity, because of the multitudes of unclean persons) the lesser gatherings of waters, viz. forty seahs of water in a place fitted on purpose both for breadth and depth, if there was no greater plenty of water, then we must not suppose that they would by any means neglect the ponds and pools.
Fuente: Lightfoot Commentary Gospels
Joh 5:2. Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep-pool the pool which is surnamed in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porticos. The use of the present tense, there is, may seem to indicate that the pool still remained after the destruction of Jerusalem; unless indeed we adopt the opinion that, as John in all probability committed to writing very early his recollections of his Lords discourses and works, an incidental mark of his practice is left us in this verse.The translation of the words that follow is much disputed. The Greek word for pool may be written in two ways. That which is usually adopted gives the meaning, there is by the sheep ….a pool, that which is surnamed, etc.; and the question is how the ellipsis is to be filled up. There is no authority for supplying market, as is done in the Authorised Version; and that method of supplying the blank is now generally abandoned. The idea of most writers on the Gospel is that the sheep-gate (Neh 3:1; Neh 3:32; Neh 12:39) is intended, but we have found no example of a similar omission of the word gate. We are thus led to examine the other mode of writing the Greek word pool, from which results the translation, there is by the sheep-pool the pool that is surnamed; and to this rendering of the sentence there appears to be no valid objection It may, indeed, seem strange that the situation of the pool called Bethesda should be defined by its proximity to another pool about which no information is preserved; but it must be remembered that in questions relating to the topography of Jerusalem arguments from the silence of historians are not worth much. Early Christian writers also (Eusebius and Jerome) do actually speak of a sheep-pool in Jerusalem in connection with this passage. Ammonius tells us that the pool was so called from the habit of gathering together there the sheep that were to be sacrificed for the feast: similarly Theodore of Mopsuestia. And it is very interesting to notice that an early traveller in the Holy Land (about the first half of the fourth century) speaks of twin pools in Jerusalem, having five porticos. We conclude therefore that John defines the position of the pool with which the following narrative is connected by its nearness to another pool, probably of larger size, and at that time well known as the sheep-pool. It is remarkable that of the other pool the proper name is not mentioned, but only a Hebrew or Syro-Chaldaic second name or surname. What this name is and what it signifies can hardly be determined with certainty, as several forms of the name are given in Greek manuscripts and other authorities. If we assume that Bethesda is the true form, the most probable explanation is House of grace. It is easy to see that such a name might naturally arise, and might indeed become the common appellation amongst those who associated a beneficent healing power with the waters of the pool; and it is also easy to understand how it was the second name that lingered in Johns thought,a name which to him bore a high significance, recalling the grace which came through Jesus Christ (Joh 1:17), and of which a wonderful manifestation was made at this very spot. The pool called Bethesda had five porticos; probably it was five-sided, and surrounded by an arched verandah or colonnade, closed in on the outward side. The hot springs of Tiberias are so surrounded at this day, and it is at least possible that the style of architecture may be traditional.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Joh 5:2-4. Now there is at Jerusalem The Syriac seems to have read, , there was, as it is rendered in that version in the past time. Cyril, Chrysostom, and Theophylact favour this reading, as also does Nonnus. If tolerably supported, says Dr. Campbell, it would be accounted preferable, as this gospel was written after the destruction of Jerusalem. But if Jerusalem was destroyed, as it probably was, when St. John wrote this, it does not follow that the pool and its porticoes were destroyed also. The pool, or what is said to be it, is shown to travellers at the present time. By the sheep-market a pool Or, by the sheep-gate, as Dr. Campbell renders , observing, however, that there is nothing in the Greek which answers to either gate or market; but the word used being an adjective, requires some such addition to complete the sense: and we have good evidence that one of the gates of Jerusalem was called the sheep-gate. See Neh 3:32; Neh 12:39. But we have no evidence that any place there was called the sheep-market. The word , here rendered a pool, signifies a place to swim in. Doddridge, Macknight, Campbell, and many other learned men, understand by it, a bath, like those near Jericho, where Aristobulus was drowned by Herods order, as he was swimming. Called in the Hebrew tongue, Bethesda That is, the house of mercy; having five porticoes Piazzas, or covered walks, being a most agreeable and salutary building in those warm climates, where excessive heat was not only troublesome, but prejudicial to health. Probably the basin had five sides. In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk The water being highly esteemed on account of some medicinal virtues which attended it, and the benefit many had received by bathing in it: waiting for the moving of the water For an extraordinary commotion to be caused in it. For an angel went down at a certain season Or, as some understand , at that season, the season of the feast, mentioned Joh 5:1, confining the miracle of the pool to this particular feast. For, since the evangelist does not say that the waters of this pool had their healing quality at any other feast, we are at liberty to make what supposition seems to us most probable. Perhaps the silence of Philo and Josephus upon this miracle may induce some to think that it happened only at one passover. For though many infirm people lay in these porticoes, if the angel, as is probable, descended frequently during that solemnity, the miracle would be no sooner known than multitudes would come and wait at the pool, to be cured by the moving waters. However, if the number of the sick, collected together on this occasion, and the phrase , rendered, at a certain season, shall incline any to believe that these waters had a healing quality at other passovers also, the silence of the writers before mentioned needs not to be much regarded, it being well known that they have omitted much greater transactions, which they had as good an opportunity to know; namely, that multitude and variety of miracles which our Lord performed in the course of his ministry. See Macknight. As the word rendered angel means also messenger, and is frequently used of any messenger whatever, Dr. Hammond conjectures, that not an angel of God, but an officer, sent by the priests and rulers at a certain time to stir up the waters of this pool, is here intended; and that the warm entrails of animals, which he supposed were cast into it to be washed, communicated this healing virtue to it. But surely all the circumstances of this history, as Dr. Whitby justly observes, render this hypothesis highly improbable. For how is it likely, 1st, That this should be a natural means of curing all sorts of diseased persons, without exception, the blind, the halt, and the withered?
2d, That it should only cure the person that stepped in first, though he might be followed by others the same instant; for how should the natural virtue of this pool, impregnated with the warm entrails of so many sacrifices, extend itself only to one ?Man 1:3 d, That it should do this only at one time of the year, namely, at the feast of passover; for this was done, not at several times, but only at a certain time, or season, or at that time, or season. And, lastly, the very foundation of this conjecture is taken away by that observation of Dr. Lightfoot, that there was a laver in the temple for the washing of those entrails, and so they were not likely to be washed in this pool. It is further to be observed, that these waters of Siloam were a type of the kingdom of David, according to Isa 8:6; and of Christ, according to Joh 12:3 of the same prophet; whence Siloam is interpreted sent, by this evangelist, Joh 9:7. To this type of the Messiah, God might therefore give this virtue about that time, to prepare the Jews to receive his advent, who was sent to them; and, at the same time, when a fountain was to be opened for sin and for uncleanness, (Zec 13:1,) he might communicate this virtue to this pool, as a prefiguration of it: whence, as Tertullian observes, the virtue of this pool then ceased, when they, persisting in their infidelity, rejected our Saviour. And this might be one reason why the Jewish writers are so silent as to its virtue, because, by its signification, it related to Christ, and by this miracle confirmed his doctrine. That the waters of Bethesda, says Dr. Macknight, should at this time have obtained a miraculous healing quality, was, without doubt, in honour of the personal appearance of the Son of God on earth. Perhaps it was intended to show that Ezekiels vision of waters, (Eze 47:1; Eze 47:7,) issuing out of the sanctuary, was about to be fulfilled; of which waters it is said, (Joh 5:9,) They shall be healed, and every thing shall live whither the river cometh.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Ver. 2. Now there is at Jerusalem, by the sheep-gate, a pool called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches.
The Sinaitic MS. rejects the words , by the, and thus makes the adjective , pertaining to sheep, the epithet of : the reservoir or the pool for sheep. This reading is too weakly supported to be adopted, even in the view of Tischendorf. We must, therefore, understand as the substantive belonging with the adjective , pertaining to sheep, one of the substantives, , gate, or , market. The passages in Nehemiah, Neh 3:1-32; Neh 12:39, where a sheep-gate is mentioned, favor the former of these two ellipses.
In Neh 3:3, mention is made of a fish-gate as near the preceding; it is probable that these two gates derived their names from the adjacent markets. The sheep-gate must have been situated on the side of the valley of Jehoshaphat, on the east of the city. As Bovet says, the small cattle which entered Jerusalem came there certainly by the east; for it is on this side that the immense pastures of the wilderness of Judea lie. Riehm’s Dictionary also says: Even at the present day, it is through this gate that the Bedouins lead their flocks to Jerusalem for sale. The sheep-gate, asHengstenberg observes, according to Neh 12:39-40, must have been quite near the Temple; for it is from this that, in the ceremony of the inauguration of the walls, the cortege of priests entered immediately into the sacred inclosure. The gate, called at the present day St. Stephen’s, at the northeast angle of the Haram, answers to these data. M. de Saulcy (Voyage autour de la mer Morte, t. II. pp. 367, 368) holds, according to some passages of St. Jerome and of authors of the Middle Ages, that there were in this place two neighboring pools, and supplying, in thought,, he explains: Near the sheep-pool, there is the pool called Bethesda. In spite of the triumphant tone with which this explanation is proposed, it is inadmissible. The expression of the evangelist, thus understood, would suppose this alleged sheep-pool, which is nowhere mentioned in the Old Testament, to be known to his Greek readers. Meyer, accepting the reading of the Sinaitic MS. , explains: There is near the sheep-pool the place called in Hebrew, Bethzatha.
But a place so completely unknown as the sheep-pool could not be indicated as a determining-point to Greek readers. The feminine which follows is, besides, hardly favorable to this reading, which is only an awkward correction, like so many others which are met with in this manuscript. Weiss makes , a dative, and thinks that the best subject to be supplied is , the building Bethesda; this ellipsis seems to me very unnatural.Bengel and Lange have concluded from the present , there is, that the Gospel was written before the destruction of Jerusalem. But this present may be inspired by the vividness of recollection. Besides, an establishment of this kind belongs to the nature of the place and may survive a catastrophe. Tobler (Denkblatter, pp. 53ff.), has proved that, in the fifth century, the porches here spoken of were still pointed out. Hengstenbergconcludes from the , upon, in the word , sur named, that the pool bore also another name.
But it is more simple to suppose that John regards the wordpool as the name, and Bethesda as the sur name. The expression: in Hebrew, denotes the Aramaic dialect, which had become the popular language since the return from the captivity. The most natural etymology of the wordBethesda is certainly beth-cheseda, house of mercy, whether this name alludes to the munificence of some pious Jew who had had these porches constructed to shelter the sick, or whether it refers to the goodness of God, from which this healing spring proceeded. Delitzsch has supposed that the etymology may be beth-estaw ()peristyle. Beth- Aschada () place of outpouring (of the blood of victims), has also been thought of. The Alexandrian and Greco-Latin variants are only gross corruptions (see those of B and D). It might be supposed that these porches were five isolated buildings, arranged in a circle around the pool. But it is more simple to imagine a single edifice, forming a pentagonal peristyle, in the centre of which was the reservoir. There are still known at the present day, in the eastern part of the city of Jerusalem, some springs of mineral water; among others, on the west of the inclosure of the Temple, in the Mahometan quarter, the baths of Ain-es-Schefa (Ritter, 16th part, p. 387).Tobler has proved that this spring is fed by the large chamber of water situated under the mosque which has replaced the temple. Another better known spring is found at the foot of the southeastern slope of Moriah; it is calledthe Virgin-spring. We have two principal accounts respecting this pond, those of Tobler and Robinson. The spring is very intermittent.
The basin is sometimes entirely dry; again, the water is seen springing up between the stones. On the 21st of January, 1845, Tobler saw the water rise four and a half inches, with a gentle undulation. On the 14th of March, it rose for more than twenty minutes to the height of six or seven inches, and in two minutes sank again to its previous level. Robinson saw the water rise a foot in five minutes. A woman assured him that this movement is repeated at certain times, two or three times a day, but that in summer it is often observed only once in two or three days. These phenomena present a certain analogy to what is related of the spring of Bethesda. Eusebius also speaks of springs existing in this locality whose water was reddish. This color, which evidently arises from mineral elements, was, according to him, due to the infiltration of the blood of victims. Tradition places the pool of Bethesda in a great square hollow, surrounded by walls and situated to the north of the Haram, southward of the street which leads from St. Stephen’s gate. It is called Birket-Israil; it has a depth of about twenty-one meters, a breadth of about forty, and a length more than twice as great. The bottom is dry, filled with grass and shrubs. Robinson supposed that it was a fosse, formerly belonging to the fortifications of the citadel of Antonia. This supposition is rejected by several competent authorities. However this may be, Bethesda must have been nearly in this locality, for it is here that the sheep-gate (see above) was situated. As it is impossible to identify the pool of Bethesda with any one of the thermal springs of which we have just spoken, it must have been covered with debris, or have disappeared, as happens so frequently with intermittent fountains. The springs which are found at the present day merely prove how favorable the soil is to this kind of phenomena.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
Verse 2
Porches. These seem to have been small erections for the accommodation of the sick that resorted to the water.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
5:2 {1} Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep [market] a {a} pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue {b} Bethesda, having five porches.
(1) There is no disease so old which Christ cannot heal.
(a) Of which cattle drank, and used to be plunged in, since there was a great abundance of water at Jerusalem.
(b) That is to say, the house of pouring out, because a great abundance of water was poured out into that place.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
John frequently used the "historic (dramatic) present" tense to describe past events. Therefore this verse does not prove that he wrote his Gospel before the fall of Jerusalem. Wallace is one scholar who believed that it does prove this. [Note: Wallace, p. 531.] He pointed out that the equative verb estin, used here, nowhere else in the New Testament is clearly a historical present. Perhaps this is the one place where it is.
The Sheep Gate was evidently a gate in the north part of Jerusalem’s wall just west of its northeast corner (cf. Neh 3:1; Neh 3:32; Neh 12:39). Various Greek manuscripts refer to this pool as Bethesda, Bethsaida, Bethzatha, and Belzetha, but the first name is probably the correct one. It means "house of outpouring" or perhaps "house of mercy." [Note: See the map "Jerusalem in New Testament Times" at the end of these notes.] The modern name is St. Anne’s pool. Evidently there were two pools with a covered colonnade or portico on all four sides of the complex and a fifth colonnade that separated the two pools. [Note: J. Wilkinson, Jerusalem as Jesus knew it: Archaeology as Evidence, pp. 95-104.]