Jesus performed one of His best known miracles here; the healing of the man who had been lame for 38 years. He told the man to take up his bed and walk and the lame man did as he was told.
The location of the pool is clearly described in the “New Testament” : It’s near the Sheep pool and the Sheep gate. These indications are clearly identifiable today:
Both pools and the gate nearby can still be seen. The pools are located in a valley called the Valley of Bethesda which is a natural catchment area.
Its location is also identifiable by archaeological remains found there referring to one of the uses of the pool namely as a place of healing (the word Bethesda means House of Kindness) : A piece of a Roman temple with the sign of a snake, which is the sign of Asclepius, the Roman God of healing, some remains of a temple dedicated to Serapes, the God of healing for the ancient Egyptians.
Several churches have been built here in the Byzantine and Crusader period. One of these still stands, the church of St. Anne and the ruins of the others can still be clearly seen.
Besides all of the above the site is exciting because new archaeological discoveries are shedding light on the significance of the miracle: In the “New Testament” the lame man says that he can’t get healed because only the first person to go into the water after an angel moves it is healed and he doesn’t have anyone to help him get in the water. Jesus obviously wasn’t the first person from whom he had requested help; it’s obvious that many people had refused to help him. The help he expected was for Jesus to pick him up and put him in the water.
Jesus surprises him by helping him with words that bring new understanding to that lame man and to us, namely; It’s not the holy water that heals you, but your belief.
I think that the message in this miracle is that belief in the healing powers of holy water or other so called holy objects aren’t beliefs, they’re superstitions.
Jesus told the lame man to go and sin no more. His superstitious belief in the power of “holy water” to heal him was his sin and that is what kept him from being healed.
I think Jesus didn’t heal only that lame man but all people who are spiritually “lame” because of superstitions.
Unfortunately many people still believe in holy water and other superstitions.
The new archeological discoveries I refer to reinforce the superstitious nature of the lame man’s reason for not being healed, namely that only the first person to enter the water after it has been moved by and angel was healed and he couldn’t manage to get in the water in time as he didn’t have anyone to help him.
After examining the pools it appears they were a series of dams where the water flowed from one to the other as the one filled up water was allowed to drain off into another one so releasing pressure on the dam walls and making it possible to store up as much of the Winter rain water as possible for use in the dry Summer months.
One can still see the slots at the base of the dam wall and the steps, carved into the wall at the place of these slots to enable someone to climb down there and release stones that closed the slots.
When these stones were released water would gush out of the dam into a channel, which carried the water to another dam lower down the valley.
You could call the man operating the drainage system an “angel” because some of that water spilled over, or was siphoned off to caves next to the dam. Bathing of the sick probably took place in one of these caves. Once these caves were full, however, it would be almost impossible to bath in them.
14 Interchanging of letters is common from one language to another and from one period to another
15 .Although the terms “New Testament”, “Old Testament” are unacceptable to Jews, their meaning is clear to Christians and using them rather than the word Bible makes it clear which books are being referred to.
The location of the pool is clearly described in the “New Testament” : It’s near the Sheep pool and the Sheep gate. These indications are clearly identifiable today:
Both pools and the gate nearby can still be seen. The pools are located in a valley called the Valley of Bethesda which is a natural catchment area.
Its location is also identifiable by archaeological remains found there referring to one of the uses of the pool namely as a place of healing (the word Bethesda means House of Kindness) : A piece of a Roman temple with the sign of a snake, which is the sign of Asclepius, the Roman God of healing, some remains of a temple dedicated to Serapes, the God of healing for the ancient Egyptians.
Several churches have been built here in the Byzantine and Crusader period. One of these still stands, the church of St. Anne and the ruins of the others can still be clearly seen.
Besides all of the above the site is exciting because new archaeological discoveries are shedding light on the significance of the miracle: In the “New Testament” the lame man says that he can’t get healed because only the first person to go into the water after an angel moves it is healed and he doesn’t have anyone to help him get in the water. Jesus obviously wasn’t the first person from whom he had requested help; it’s obvious that many people had refused to help him. The help he expected was for Jesus to pick him up and put him in the water.
Jesus surprises him by helping him with words that bring new understanding to that lame man and to us, namely; It’s not the holy water that heals you, but your belief.
I think that the message in this miracle is that belief in the healing powers of holy water or other so called holy objects aren’t beliefs, they’re superstitions.
Jesus told the lame man to go and sin no more. His superstitious belief in the power of “holy water” to heal him was his sin and that is what kept him from being healed.
I think Jesus didn’t heal only that lame man but all people who are spiritually “lame” because of superstitions.
Unfortunately many people still believe in holy water and other superstitions.
The new archeological discoveries I refer to reinforce the superstitious nature of the lame man’s reason for not being healed, namely that only the first person to enter the water after it has been moved by and angel was healed and he couldn’t manage to get in the water in time as he didn’t have anyone to help him.
After examining the pools it appears they were a series of dams where the water flowed from one to the other as the one filled up water was allowed to drain off into another one so releasing pressure on the dam walls and making it possible to store up as much of the Winter rain water as possible for use in the dry Summer months.
One can still see the slots at the base of the dam wall and the steps, carved into the wall at the place of these slots to enable someone to climb down there and release stones that closed the slots.
When these stones were released water would gush out of the dam into a channel, which carried the water to another dam lower down the valley.
You could call the man operating the drainage system an “angel” because some of that water spilled over, or was siphoned off to caves next to the dam. Bathing of the sick probably took place in one of these caves. Once these caves were full, however, it would be almost impossible to bath in them.
14 Interchanging of letters is common from one language to another and from one period to another
15 .Although the terms “New Testament”, “Old Testament” are unacceptable to Jews, their meaning is clear to Christians and using them rather than the word Bible makes it clear which books are being referred to.
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