Pool of Bethesda

Biblical Text

The Pool of Bethesda is mentioned once, in chapter 5 of the Gospel of John. According to John 5:2, the pool was in Jerusalem beside the Sheep Gate, was called Bethesda in Hebrew, and had five porches (roofed colonnades). Many sick people lay in these porches. Among them was a man who had been ill for thirty-eight years, and Jesus asked him, "Wilt thou be made whole?" (John 5:6). The man answered that he had no one to put him into the pool when the water was stirred. When Jesus said, "Rise, take up thy bed, and walk," he was healed at once. The day was the Sabbath. The Jews rebuked the man for carrying his bed, and a controversy followed over Jesus' having healed him (John 5:9-18).

Background

The name is commonly interpreted as "house of mercy," but its meaning has not been settled among scholars. Manuscripts vary in their spelling of the name, with forms such as "Bethzatha" and "Bethsaida." A widely known view identifies the pool with two reservoirs excavated north of the Jerusalem temple, near the present-day Church of St. Anne. The five porches are sometimes explained as colonnades on the four sides of the two pools plus a dividing colonnade between them, but the precise location and structure cannot be determined with certainty.

Significance in Scripture

This event is commonly counted as the third of the seven signs in the Gospel of John. In John's Gospel, this sign is more than a simple healing account. Jesus declares, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work" (John 5:17), and a lengthy discourse follows in which he sets forth his relationship with God. Some interpreters see this account as forming a pair with the accounts of the Pool of Siloam and the healing of the man born blind in chapter 9 of the same Gospel: in both, a Sabbath healing connected with a pool leads to controversy.

Interpretation and Points of Debate

• The passage about an angel stirring the water: The latter part of John 5:3 and all of John 5:4 contain an explanation that an angel would come down at certain times and stir the water, and that whoever stepped in first after the stirring would be healed. This portion is absent from the oldest major manuscripts. For this reason, many translations, including the New Korean Standard Version, omit it from the main text or place it in brackets or a marginal note. The view that it is a later explanatory addition is widely held in scholarship, though there is also a tradition that reads it as part of the text. Teaching from this passage that the water itself had healing power should be distinguished from what the text directly states.
• Allegorical interpretation: Church Fathers such as Augustine are known to have interpreted the five porches as the Pentateuch, that is, the law, which cannot heal. Another interpretation connects the thirty-eight years with the period of wilderness wandering mentioned in Deuteronomy 2:14.
• The relationship between sin and sickness: Jesus tells the healed man, "sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee" (John 5:14). Some read this as grounds for linking illness with sin. Others, citing John 9:1-3, hold that not all sickness is the result of sin.
• The meaning of the healing: Pentecostal churches that emphasize divine healing frequently cite this passage as a basis for healing today. Other traditions tend to emphasize its role as a sign revealing who Christ is.

In Korean Churches

"Wilt thou be made whole?" is frequently used as a sermon title and text. The name "Bethesda" is commonly given to hospitals, medical service organizations, prayer retreat centers, and mission societies.