A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W XY Z

Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary

BETHESDA

Name of a pool in Jerusalem to which many sick and infirm people came (Jn 5:2). Bethesda is an Aramaic word transliterated into Greek and is the name of a pool in Jerusalem in Jesus’ day that was surrounded by five porches or colonnades that gave an arcadelike walkway around the pool. Located near the Sheep Gate, it was the place where the handicapped and ill came with the hope they would be miraculously healed if they could get into the pool at the proper time.

A number of other forms of the name of this pool occur in different manuscripts. These are Bethsaida (“house of fish”), Belzetha, and Bezatha, the latter two apparently variants of Bethzaitha. Another form is Beth-zatha, meaning “house of olives.” Recent studies, especially of the Copper Scroll of Qumran Cave Three, suggest that Bethesda is the correct form among the several variations. Further, it is a dual form, which indicates that the site of Bethesda was characterized by two pools. This understanding shows that the older theory that Bethesda meant “house of mercy” is incorrect.

The archaeological activity of the Franciscan Fathers of the Church of St Anne near St Stephen’s Gate in the Old City has been a corrective of older views as well as the means of clarifying where the pool actually was. Their research has shown that the pool of Bethesda is not to be identified with Birket Israel, a pool about 360 feet (109.7 meters) by 126 feet (38.4 meters), located between St Anne’s and the temple area to the south; or with the large cisterns under the convent of the Sisters of Zion several hundred yards west of St Anne’s on the Via Dolorosa; or with the pool adjacent to the Gihon, still farther south than Birket Israel on the slope of Ophel. Rather, the pool of Bethesda is to be identified with the excavated ruin in the St Anne Courtyard, a ruin with two pools of considerable size. Arched pillars originally bordering the two reservoirs were covered intact with 25 to 30 feet (7.5 to 9 meters) of debris. Excavated, these now stand impressively as witness to an astounding architectural achievement.

Architectural style and inscription point to Herodian times, making it one of the many magnificent building projects of Herod the Great. The debris and ruins of several centuries were dumped into the pool area, filling the space around the still-standing colonnades. This debris was later leveled and a Byzantine church constructed on top of it in the fifth century AD. Thus through various literary and archaeological studies, Bethesda is now correctly understood to mean “a place of two pools” located near the Sheep Market of St Stephen’s Gate. See Bethsaida; Beth-zatha.