Part 12 - The Pool of Bethesda

In Old Testament times, the Pool of Bethesda was referred to as the "upper pool," and it was located just north of the city of Jerusalem.  In Jesus' day this spring was still outside the walls, but it lie adjacent to the Roman fortress known as the Antonia Tower, probably the place where Jesus was interrogated and sentenced by Pilate.  It is also the first station on the Via Dolorosa, the way of the cross. Today, the old Antonia Tower is now a Muslim theological school.  

There was an Asclepius healing center at the pool, and those who were sick and infirmed would gather there looking for a cure.  Asclepius was a Greek cult of healing and his rod, intertwined with a snake, is still the symbol of medicine today.  One Sabbath day, Jesus showed up at the pool and healed a man who had been infirmed for 38 years.  We do not know how long he had lain by the pool, waiting for a miracle, but we do know he had been disappointed.  The man was Jewish, as we learn later in the story, but he had been looking for answers outside the walls.  Jesus demonstrated the power of the God of Israel by speaking the word of healing.

2 Kings 18:14   "And Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria to Lachish, saying, I have offended; return from me: that which thou puttest on me will I bear............   And the king of Assyria sent Tartan and Rabsaris and Rabshakeh from Lachish to king Hezekiah with a great host against Jerusalem. And they went up and came to Jerusalem.  And when they were come up, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is in the highway of the fuller's field."

John 5:1  "Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches.  In these lay a great 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, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.  And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years.  When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole?  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.  Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.  And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked: and on the same day was the sabbath..........  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.  The man departed, and told the Jews that it was Jesus, which had made him whole.  And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the sabbath day.  But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work."

The pool of Jesus' day lie at the bottom of the ruins.  A church was later built over the pool, and it was the source of the columns and arches seen in the picture

Ruins of the Asclepius at the other end of the site