Jesus visited Jerusalem many times before the fateful Passover week. He sometimes taught, sometimes healed. Seeing their authority threatened, the Temple establishment watched His actions with suspicion. One such occasion was the healing Jesus performed at the Pools of Bethesda.
They claimed it was unlawful because He had told the lame man to take up his bed and walk, thus breaking the law prohibiting work on the Sabbath. Jesus answered saying, “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God”, John 5:17-18.
The remains of the Pools of Bethesda were discovered by the White Fathers while excavating the grounds of St. Anne’s Church. The largest is 350 feet long, 200 wide and 40 deep (105 × 60 × 13m).
*Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches. … And a certain man was there which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole? The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me. Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed and walk. And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked. John 5:2-9
This page is part of the book The Holy Land of Jesus
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