SEV Biblia, Chapter 5:2
Y hay en Jerusaln a la puerta de las ovejas un estanque, que en hebreo es llamado Betesda, el cual tiene cinco portales.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - John 5:2
Verse 2. There IS] This is thought by some to be a proof that John wrote his Gospel before the destruction of Jerusalem; and that the pool and its porticoes were still remaining. Though there can be little doubt that Jerusalem was destroyed many years before John wrote, yet this does not necessarily imply that the pool and its porticoes must have been destroyed too. It, or something in its place, is shown to travelers to the present day. See Maundrell's Jour. p. 108. But instead of esti, IS, both the Syriac, all the Arabic, Persic, Armenian, and Nonnus, read hn, WAS; which is to me some proof that it did not exist when these versions were made, and that the pool which is shown now is not the original. By the sheep market] Rather, gate: see Neh. iii. 1, 32; xii. 39. This was in all probability the gate through which the sheep were brought which were offered in sacrifice in the temple.
A pool] Bp. Pearce thinks the word kolumbhqra should be translated bath, and that this place was built for the purpose of bathing and swimming in. He observes that kolumban signifies to swim, in Acts xxvii. 43. In proof of this, he cites three of the old Itala, which have natatoria, a bathing or swimming place.
Bethesda] This word is variously written in the MSS. and versions: Bezatha-Bethzatha-Betzetha-Belzetha-Belzatha- Berzeta; and many have Bethsaida. But the former reading is the genuine one. Bethesda, or according to the Hebrew hdojtyb Bethchasdah, signifies literally, the house of mercy. It got this name probably from the cures which God mercifully performed there. It is likely the porticoes were built for the more convenient reception of the poor and distressed, who came hither to be healed. It does not appear that any person was obliged to pay man for what the mercy of God freely gave. Wicked as the Jewish people were, they never thought of levying a tax on the poor and afflicted, for the cures they received in these healing waters. How is it that a well- regulated state, such as that of Great Britain, can ever permit individuals or corporations to enrich themselves at the expense of God's mercy, manifested in the sanative waters of Bristol, Bath, Buxton, &c.? Should not the accommodations be raised at the expense of the public, that the poor might enjoy without cost, which they are incapable of defraying, the great blessing which the God of nature has bestowed on such waters? In most of those places there is a profession that the poor may drink and bathe gratis; but it is little better than a pretense, and the regulations relative to this point render the whole nearly inefficient. However, some good is done.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 2. Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep [market] , etc.] The word market is not in the text, and of such a market, no account is given in the Scripture, nor in the Jewish writings; and besides, in our Lords time, sheep and oxen were sold in the temple; rather therefore this signifies, the sheep gate, of which mention is made, in ( Nehemiah 3:1,32 12:39), through which the sheep were brought into the city, to the temple. A pool . The Vulgate Latin and Ethiopic versions read, there is at Jerusalem a sheep pool; and so it is interpreted in the Arabic version, and Jerom calls it the cattle pool f220 . The Targumist on ( Jeremiah 31:39) speaks of a pool called hlg[ hkyrb , the calf, or heifer pool, as Dr.
Lightfoot renders it; though the translations of it, both in the London Polyglott, and in the king of Spains Bible, interpret it the round pool.
This pool of Bethesda, is thought by some, to be the same which the Jews call the great pool in Jerusalem; they say f221 , between Hebron and Jerusalem, is the fountain Etham, from whence the waters come by way of pipes, unto the great pool, which is in Jerusalem.
And R. Benjamin speaks of a pool, which is to be seen to this day, where the ancients slew their sacrifices, and all the Jews write their names on the wall: and some think it was so called, because the sheep that were offered in sacrifice, were there washed; which must be either before, or after they were slain; not before, for it was not required that what was to be slain for sacrifice should be washed first; and afterwards, only the entrails of a beast were washed; and for this there was a particular place in the temple, called yjydmh tkl the washing room; where, they say f223 , they washed the inwards of the holy sacrifices. This pool here, therefore, seems rather, as Dr. Lightfoot observes, to have been a bath for unclean persons; and having this miraculous virtue hereafter spoken of, diseased persons only, at certain times, had recourse to it. The Syriac and Persic versions call it, a place of a baptistery; and both leave out the clause, by the sheep market, or gate: it is not easy to say where and what it was: which is called in the Hebrew tongue, Bethesda ; which signifies, according to the Syriac, Arabic, and Persic versions, an house of mercy, or grace, or goodness; because many miserable objects here received mercy, and a cure. Hegesippus speaks of a Bethesda, which Cestius the Roman general entered into, and burnt; and which, according to him, seems to be without Jerusalem, and so not the place here spoken of; and besides, this is called a pool, though the buildings about it doubtless went by the same name. The Vulgate Latin and Ethiopic versions read Bethsaida, very wrongly; and it is called by Tertullian the pool of Bethsaida. The Hebrew tongue here mentioned is rhnh rb[ l btk , the language of those beyond the river f226 , i.e. the river Euphrates; which is the Chaldee language, as distinct from the Assyrian language, which is called the holy and blessed language; the former is what the Cuthites, or Samaritans used; the latter, that in which the book of the law was written f227 . Having five porches ; or cloistered walks, which were very convenient for the diseased, which lay here for a cure, so Nonnus: Athanasius speaks of the pool itself, as in being, though the buildings round about lay in ruins in his time; and Daviler observes, there are still remaining five arches of the portico, and part of the basin. Now this place may be an emblem of the means of grace, the ministry of the word, and ordinances: the house of God, where the Gospel is preached, may be called a Bethesda, an house of mercy; since here the free, sovereign, rich, and abundant grace and mercy of God, through Christ, is proclaimed, as the ground and foundation of a sinners hope; the mercy of God, as it is displayed in the covenant of grace, in the mission of Christ, and redemption by him, in regeneration, and in the forgiveness of sin, and indeed, in the whole of salvation, from first to last, is here held forth for the relief of distressed minds: and this Bethesda being a pool, some of the ancients have thought, it was an emblem of, and prefigured the ordinance of baptism; and that the miraculous virtue in it, was put into it, to give honour and credit to that ordinance, shortly to be administered: but as that is not the means of regeneration and conversion, or of a cure or cleansing, but pre-requires them; rather it might be a symbol of the fountain of Christs blood, opened for polluted sinners to wash in, and which cleanses from all sin, and cures all diseases; and this is opened in the house of mercy, and by the ministry of the word: or rather, best of all, the Gospel itself, and the ministration of it, mass be signified; which is sometimes compared to waters, and a fountain of them; (see Isaiah 4:1 Zechariah 14:8) ( Joel 3:18); and whereas this pool was in Jerusalem, and that so often designs the church of Christ under the Gospel dispensation, it may fitly represent the ministry of the word there: and it being near the sheep-market, or gate, or a sheep-pool, may not be without its significancy; and may lead us to observe, that near where Christs sheep are, which the Father has given him, and he has died for, and must bring in, he fixes his word and ordinances, in order to gather them in: and inasmuch as there were five porches, or cloistered walks, leading unto, or adjoining to this place, it has been thought by some of the ancients, that the law, as lying in the five books of Moses, may be intended by them; for under the law, and under a work of it, men are, before they come into the light and liberty, and comfort of the Gospel; and as the people which lay in these porches, received no cure there, so there are no relief, peace, joy, life, and salvation, by the law of works.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 1-9 - We are all by nature impotent folk in spiritual things, blind, halt and withered; but full provision is made for our cure, if we attend to it. An angel went down, and troubled the water; and what disease soeve it was, this water cured it, but only he that first stepped in ha benefit. This teaches us to be careful, that we let not a season sli which may never return. The man had lost the use of his limb thirty-eight years. Shall we, who perhaps for many years have scarcel known what it has been to be a day sick, complain of one wearisom night, when many others, better than we, have scarcely known what it has been to be a day well? Christ singled this one out from the rest Those long in affliction, may comfort themselves that God keeps accoun how long. Observe, this man speaks of the unkindness of those abou him, without any peevish reflections. As we should be thankful, so we should be patient. Our Lord Jesus cures him, though he neither aske nor thought of it. Arise, and walk. God's command, Turn and live; Make ye a new heart; no more supposes power in us without the grace of God his distinguishing grace, than this command supposed such power in the impotent man: it was by the power of Christ, and he must have all the glory. What a joyful surprise to the poor cripple, to find himself of sudden so easy, so strong, so able to help himself! The proof of spiritual cure, is our rising and walking. Has Christ healed ou spiritual diseases, let us go wherever he sends us, and take u whatever he lays upon us; and walk before him.
Greek Textus Receptus
εστιν 2076 5748 V-PXI-3S δε 1161 CONJ εν 1722 PREP τοις 3588 T-DPN ιεροσολυμοις 2414 N-DPN επι 1909 PREP τη 3588 T-DSF προβατικη 4262 A-DSF κολυμβηθρα 2861 N-NSF η 3588 T-NSF επιλεγομενη 1951 5746 V-PPP-NSF εβραιστι 1447 ADV βηθεσδα 964 N-PRI πεντε 4002 A-NUI στοας 4745 N-APF εχουσα 2192 5723 V-PAP-NSF
Vincent's NT Word Studies
2. Sheep-market (th probatikh). The word is an adjective pertaining to sheep, which requires to be completed with another word, not with ajgora, market, but with pulh, gate. This gate was near the temple on the east of the city. See Neh. iii. 1, 32; xii. 39. Some editors join the adjective with the following kolumbhqra, pool, making the latter word kolumbhqra (the dative case), and reading the sheep-pool. Wyc., a standing water of beasts.Pool (kolumbhqra). In the New Testament only in this chapter and ix. 7, 11. Properly, a pool for swimming, from kolumbaw, to dive. In Eccl. ii. 6 (Sept.,) it is used of a reservoir in a garden. The Hebrew word is from the verb to kneel down, and means, therefore, a kneeling-place for cattle or men when drinking. In ecclesiastical language, the baptismal font, and the baptistery itself.
Called (epilegomenh). Strictly, surnamed, the name having perhaps supplanted some earlier name.
Bethesda (bhqesda). Commonly interpreted House of Mercy; others House of the Portico. The readings also vary. Tischendorf and Westcott and Hort give bhqzaqa, Bethzatha, House of the Olive. The site cannot be identified with any certainty. Dr. Robinson thinks it may be the Fountain of the Virgin, the upper fountain of Siloam. See Thomson's "Land and Book," "Southern Palestine and Jerusalem," pp. 458-461.
Porches (stoav). Cloisters, covered porticoes.
