With this setting in mind, let’s now dive into the story of the healing of the lame man by Jesus. Thus, rather than being the result of angelic power, the moving of the water seems to have been caused by water coming from the northern pool, bubbling up as it came through the drainage tunnel. Once they had been immersed in the water, they were then considered ritually clean to worship at the temple. As Jewish pilgrims came to Jerusalem, they could come to this pool, or one of the many others, and climb down the steps until they arrived at the water level. This would bring the “living” rain water from the north pool in contact with the stagnant water in the southern pool, making it usable for ritual purposes. Climbing down, a person could open recesses in the shaft, allowing the water to drain from the northern pool to the southern pool. One could climb up and down the shaft because of small footholds that had been carved in the side of the wall, creating a sort of ladder. The thick wall dividing the two pools, or the fifth porch, has a shaft that goes down to the bottom and connects the two pools. The steps are surprisingly tall as one climbs up them, making it understandable why the lame man was unable to easily climb down them. Visitors today can still see at least some of these steps, which have been exposed by archeologists. It was likely on one of these landings where the lame man rested. The southern pool had large steps and landings that led down to the water level. Today the northern pool has been mostly covered by centuries of soil and later structures making it almost impossible to visualize. During the rainy season, runoff water would funnel down the valley and collect into the northern pool. The pools were located at the bottom of a small valley north of the temple. Both pools were massive in size and together were about the dimensions of a standard soccer field. Bethesda had two large pools surrounded by porches on all four sides, with a fifth porch, as referenced in John 5:2, dividing the two pools. The Pool of Bethesda is believed to be one of these ritual washing areas. With tens of thousands of Jews coming to Jerusalem during such feasts, many ritual bathes or mikvot were constructed around the temple to accommodate the large crowds. If even just a small amount of living water was added to water that was stagnant or not moving, all of it would then be considered “living,” and thus suitable for purification. Living water came from a natural source of moving water such as a spring, rainwater, or a stream. Before a pilgrim could enter the temple, they had to become ritually clean by immersing in what is known as a mikvah filled with living water. While John doesn’t mention which feast it was, some scholars suggest it might have been the Feast of Weeks, or Pentecost (Brown, 206). The story begins with Jesus traveling to Jerusalem during one of the Jewish feasts (John 5:1). So, what caused this troubling of the waters, and, more importantly, what can this story teach us about becoming whole through the atonement of Jesus Christ? Yet, the earliest copies of the Gospel of John only mention the movement of the water and say nothing about the angel. According to some Bible translations, an angel stirred up the waters which allowed whoever entered them first to be miraculously healed. In John chapter 5, we learn of the story of Jesus healing a lame man at the Pool of Bethesda.
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