This word signifies _the house of mercy_, and was the name of
a pool, or public bath, at Jerusalem, which had five porticos, piazzas,
or covered walks around it. This bath was called Bethesda, because, as
some observe, the erecting of baths was an act of great kindness to the
common people, whose infirmities in hot countries required frequent
bathing; but the generality of expositors think it had this name rather
from the great goodness of God manifested to his people, in bestowing
healing virtues upon its waters. The account of the evangelist is, “Now
there was at Jerusalem, by the sheep market, a pool, which is called in
the Hebrew tongue, Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a
multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the
moving of the water; for an angel went down at a certain season into the
pool: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in
was made whole of whatsoever disease he had,” John v, 2–4. The
genuineness of the fourth verse has been disputed, because it is wanting
in some ancient MSS, and is written in the margin of another as a
scholion; but even were the spuriousness of this verse allowed, for
which, however, the evidence is by no means satisfactory, the
supernatural character of the account, as it is indicated by the other
parts of the narrative, remains unaffected. The _agitation_ of the
water; its _suddenly_ healing virtue as to all diseases; and the
_limitation_ to the first that should go in, are all miraculous
circumstances. Commentators have however resorted to various hypotheses
to account for the whole without divine agency. Dr. Hammond says, “The
sacrifices were exceedingly numerous at the passover, κατὰ καιρὸν, (once
a year, Chrysostom,) when the pool being warm from the immediate washing
of the blood and entrails, and thus adapted to the cure of the blind,
the withered, the lame, and perhaps the paralytic, was yet farther
troubled, and the congelations and grosser parts stirred up by an
officer or messenger, ἄγγελος, to give it the full effect.” To this
hypothesis Whitby acutely replies, 1. How could this natural virtue be
adapted to, and cure, all kinds of diseases? 2. How could the virtue
only extend to the cure of one man, several probably entering at the
same instant? 3. How unlikely is it, if natural, to take place only at
one certain time, at the passover? for there was a multitude of
sacrifices slain at other of the feasts. 4. Lastly, and decisively,
Lightfoot shows that there was a laver in the temple for washing the
entrails; therefore they were not washed in this pool at all.
Others, however, suppose that the blood of the victims was conveyed from
the temple to this pool by pipes; and Kuinoel thinks that it cannot be
denied that the blood of animals recently slaughtered may impart a
medicinal property to water; and he refers to Richter’s “_Dissertat. de
Balneo Animali_,” and Michaelis _in loc._ But he admits that it cannot
be proved whether the pool was situated out of the city at the sheep
gate, or in the city, and in the vicinity of the temple; nor that the
blood of the victims was ever conveyed thither by canals. Kuinoel justly
observes, that though in Josephus no mention is made of the baths here
described, yet this silence ought not to induce us to question the truth
of this transaction; since the historian omits to record many other
circumstances which cannot be doubted; as, for instance, the census of
Augustus, and the murder of the infants. This critic also supposes that
St. John only acts the part of an historian, and gives the account as it
was current among the Jews, without vouching for its truth, or
interposing his own judgment. Mede follows in the track of absurdly
attempting to account for the phenomenon on natural principles:--“I
think the water of this pool acquired a medicinal property from the mud
at its bottom, which was heavy with metallic salts,--sulphur perhaps, or
alum, or nitre. Now this would, from the water being perturbed from the
bottom by some natural cause, perhaps subterranean heat, or storms, rise
upward and be mingled with it, and so impart a sanative property to
those who bathed in it before the metallic particles had subsided to the
bottom. That it should have done so, κατὰ καιρὸν, is not strange, since
Bartholin has, by many examples, shown, that it is usual with many
medicinal baths, to exert a singular force and sanative power at stated
times, and at periodical, but uncertain, intervals.” Doddridge combines
the common hypothesis with that of Mede; namely, that the water had at
all times more or less of a medicinal property; but at some period, not
far distant from that in which the transaction here recorded took place,
it was endued with a miraculous power; an extraordinary commotion being
probably observed in the water, and Providence so ordering it, that the
next person who accidentally bathed here, being under some great
disorder, found an immediate and unexpected cure: the like phenomenon in
some other desperate case, was probably observed on a second commotion:
and these commotions and cures might happen periodically.
All those hypotheses which exclude miracle in this case are very
unsatisfactory, nor is there any reason whatever to resort to them; for,
when rightly viewed, there appears a mercy and a wisdom in this miracle
which must strike every one who attentively considers the account,
unless he be a determined unbeliever in miraculous interposition. For,
1. The miracle occurred κατὰ καιρὸν, from time to time, that is,
occasionally, perhaps frequently. 2. Though but one at a time was
healed, yet, as this might often occur, a singularly gracious provision
was made for the relief of the sick inhabitants of Jerusalem in
desperate cases. 3. The angel probably acted invisibly, but the
commotion in the waters was so strong and peculiar as to mark a
supernatural agent. 4. There is great probability in what Doddridge,
following Tertullian, supposes, that the waters obtained their healing
property not long before the ministry of Christ, and lost it after his
rejection and crucifixion by the Jews. In this case a connection was
established between the healing virtue of the pool and the presence of
Christ on earth, indicating HIM to be the source of this benefit, and
the true agent in conferring it; and thus it became, afterward at least,
a confirmation of his mission. 5. The whole might also be emblematical,
“intended,” says Macknight, “to show that Ezekiel’s vision of waters
issuing out of the sanctuary was about to be fulfilled, of which waters
it is said, They shall be healed, and every thing shall live where the
river cometh.” It cannot be objected that this was not an age of
miracles; and if miracles be allowed, we see in this particular
supernatural visitation obvious reasons of fitness, as well as a divine
compassion. If however the ends to be accomplished by so public and
notable a miraculous interposition were less obvious, still we must
admit the fact, or either force absurd interpretations upon the text, or
make the evangelist carelessly give his sanction to an instance of
vulgar credulity and superstition.
Maundrell and Chateaubriand both describe a bason or reservoir, near St.
Stephen’s gate, and bounding the temple on the north, as the identical
pool of Bethesda; which, if it really be what it is represented to be,
is all that now remains of the primitive architecture of the Jews at
Jerusalem. The latter says, “It is a reservoir, a hundred and fifty feet
long and forty wide. The sides are walled, and these walls are composed
of a bed of large stones joined together by iron cramps; a wall of mixed
materials runs up on these large stones; a layer of flints is stuck upon
the surface of this wall; and a coating is laid over these flints. The
four beds are perpendicular with the bottom, and not horizontal: the
coating was on the side next to the water; and the large stones rested,
as they still do, against the ground. This pool is now dry, and half
filled up. Here grow some pomegranate trees, and a species of wild
tamarind of a bluish colour: the western angle is quite full of nopals.
On the west side may also be seen two arches, which probably led to an
aqueduct that carried the water into the interior of the temple.”
a pool, or public bath, at Jerusalem, which had five porticos, piazzas,
or covered walks around it. This bath was called Bethesda, because, as
some observe, the erecting of baths was an act of great kindness to the
common people, whose infirmities in hot countries required frequent
bathing; but the generality of expositors think it had this name rather
from the great goodness of God manifested to his people, in bestowing
healing virtues upon its waters. The account of the evangelist is, “Now
there was at Jerusalem, by the sheep market, a pool, which is called in
the Hebrew tongue, Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a
multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the
moving of the water; for an angel went down at a certain season into the
pool: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in
was made whole of whatsoever disease he had,” John v, 2–4. The
genuineness of the fourth verse has been disputed, because it is wanting
in some ancient MSS, and is written in the margin of another as a
scholion; but even were the spuriousness of this verse allowed, for
which, however, the evidence is by no means satisfactory, the
supernatural character of the account, as it is indicated by the other
parts of the narrative, remains unaffected. The _agitation_ of the
water; its _suddenly_ healing virtue as to all diseases; and the
_limitation_ to the first that should go in, are all miraculous
circumstances. Commentators have however resorted to various hypotheses
to account for the whole without divine agency. Dr. Hammond says, “The
sacrifices were exceedingly numerous at the passover, κατὰ καιρὸν, (once
a year, Chrysostom,) when the pool being warm from the immediate washing
of the blood and entrails, and thus adapted to the cure of the blind,
the withered, the lame, and perhaps the paralytic, was yet farther
troubled, and the congelations and grosser parts stirred up by an
officer or messenger, ἄγγελος, to give it the full effect.” To this
hypothesis Whitby acutely replies, 1. How could this natural virtue be
adapted to, and cure, all kinds of diseases? 2. How could the virtue
only extend to the cure of one man, several probably entering at the
same instant? 3. How unlikely is it, if natural, to take place only at
one certain time, at the passover? for there was a multitude of
sacrifices slain at other of the feasts. 4. Lastly, and decisively,
Lightfoot shows that there was a laver in the temple for washing the
entrails; therefore they were not washed in this pool at all.
Others, however, suppose that the blood of the victims was conveyed from
the temple to this pool by pipes; and Kuinoel thinks that it cannot be
denied that the blood of animals recently slaughtered may impart a
medicinal property to water; and he refers to Richter’s “_Dissertat. de
Balneo Animali_,” and Michaelis _in loc._ But he admits that it cannot
be proved whether the pool was situated out of the city at the sheep
gate, or in the city, and in the vicinity of the temple; nor that the
blood of the victims was ever conveyed thither by canals. Kuinoel justly
observes, that though in Josephus no mention is made of the baths here
described, yet this silence ought not to induce us to question the truth
of this transaction; since the historian omits to record many other
circumstances which cannot be doubted; as, for instance, the census of
Augustus, and the murder of the infants. This critic also supposes that
St. John only acts the part of an historian, and gives the account as it
was current among the Jews, without vouching for its truth, or
interposing his own judgment. Mede follows in the track of absurdly
attempting to account for the phenomenon on natural principles:--“I
think the water of this pool acquired a medicinal property from the mud
at its bottom, which was heavy with metallic salts,--sulphur perhaps, or
alum, or nitre. Now this would, from the water being perturbed from the
bottom by some natural cause, perhaps subterranean heat, or storms, rise
upward and be mingled with it, and so impart a sanative property to
those who bathed in it before the metallic particles had subsided to the
bottom. That it should have done so, κατὰ καιρὸν, is not strange, since
Bartholin has, by many examples, shown, that it is usual with many
medicinal baths, to exert a singular force and sanative power at stated
times, and at periodical, but uncertain, intervals.” Doddridge combines
the common hypothesis with that of Mede; namely, that the water had at
all times more or less of a medicinal property; but at some period, not
far distant from that in which the transaction here recorded took place,
it was endued with a miraculous power; an extraordinary commotion being
probably observed in the water, and Providence so ordering it, that the
next person who accidentally bathed here, being under some great
disorder, found an immediate and unexpected cure: the like phenomenon in
some other desperate case, was probably observed on a second commotion:
and these commotions and cures might happen periodically.
All those hypotheses which exclude miracle in this case are very
unsatisfactory, nor is there any reason whatever to resort to them; for,
when rightly viewed, there appears a mercy and a wisdom in this miracle
which must strike every one who attentively considers the account,
unless he be a determined unbeliever in miraculous interposition. For,
1. The miracle occurred κατὰ καιρὸν, from time to time, that is,
occasionally, perhaps frequently. 2. Though but one at a time was
healed, yet, as this might often occur, a singularly gracious provision
was made for the relief of the sick inhabitants of Jerusalem in
desperate cases. 3. The angel probably acted invisibly, but the
commotion in the waters was so strong and peculiar as to mark a
supernatural agent. 4. There is great probability in what Doddridge,
following Tertullian, supposes, that the waters obtained their healing
property not long before the ministry of Christ, and lost it after his
rejection and crucifixion by the Jews. In this case a connection was
established between the healing virtue of the pool and the presence of
Christ on earth, indicating HIM to be the source of this benefit, and
the true agent in conferring it; and thus it became, afterward at least,
a confirmation of his mission. 5. The whole might also be emblematical,
“intended,” says Macknight, “to show that Ezekiel’s vision of waters
issuing out of the sanctuary was about to be fulfilled, of which waters
it is said, They shall be healed, and every thing shall live where the
river cometh.” It cannot be objected that this was not an age of
miracles; and if miracles be allowed, we see in this particular
supernatural visitation obvious reasons of fitness, as well as a divine
compassion. If however the ends to be accomplished by so public and
notable a miraculous interposition were less obvious, still we must
admit the fact, or either force absurd interpretations upon the text, or
make the evangelist carelessly give his sanction to an instance of
vulgar credulity and superstition.
Maundrell and Chateaubriand both describe a bason or reservoir, near St.
Stephen’s gate, and bounding the temple on the north, as the identical
pool of Bethesda; which, if it really be what it is represented to be,
is all that now remains of the primitive architecture of the Jews at
Jerusalem. The latter says, “It is a reservoir, a hundred and fifty feet
long and forty wide. The sides are walled, and these walls are composed
of a bed of large stones joined together by iron cramps; a wall of mixed
materials runs up on these large stones; a layer of flints is stuck upon
the surface of this wall; and a coating is laid over these flints. The
four beds are perpendicular with the bottom, and not horizontal: the
coating was on the side next to the water; and the large stones rested,
as they still do, against the ground. This pool is now dry, and half
filled up. Here grow some pomegranate trees, and a species of wild
tamarind of a bluish colour: the western angle is quite full of nopals.
On the west side may also be seen two arches, which probably led to an
aqueduct that carried the water into the interior of the temple.”