the Fourth Week of Advent
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Bible Dictionaries
Bethesda
American Tract Society Bible Dictionary
or House of mercy, the name of a pool or fountain near the temple in Jerusalem, with an open building over or near it, for the accommodation of the sick who came to try the healing efficacy of the water, John 5:2 . Tradition locates this pool in what is now a large dry reservoir, along the outside of he north wall of the temple area. Robinson, however, shows the probability that this is but a portion of the trench, which separated Mount Moriah from the adjacent hill on the north. He suggests that the true Bethesda may perhaps be "The Fountain of the Virgin," so called, in the lower part of the valley of Jehoshaphat, eight hundred and fifty feet south of the temple area. This pool is of great antiquity, and seems to be fed from ancient reservoirs under the temple. Two flights of steps, sixteen and thirteen in number, with a platform of twelve feet between them, lead down to the pool; this is fifteen feet long, and five or six feet wide. Its waters rise and fall at irregular intervals, and flow down by a subterraneous channel to the pool of Siloam. It is supposed to be the "king's pool" of Nehemiah 2:14 . Bethesda, even if known and accessible to us, has lost its healing power; but the fountain Christ has opened for sin, guilt, and death, is nigh to all and of never failing virtue.
These files are public domain and are a derivative of the topics are from American Tract Society Bible Dictionary published in 1859.
Rand, W. W. Entry for 'Bethesda'. American Tract Society Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/ats/b/bethesda.html. 1859.
