“Now there is at Jerusalem, by the sheep market, a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethes'da, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.” (John 5:2-4).
The recording of this picturesque Jewish superstition inevitably raises the question as to the locality of the pool to which were ascribed such magical powers. Two main answers are given. First, Mr. Garrow Duncan identifies it with Gihon, or the Virgin’s Spring, which is mentioned in both 1 Kings 1:35-45 and 2 Chronicles 33:14. It is in the bottom of the Kidron Valley and is described by Josephus as a fountain. The word Gihon means a “gusher.” Mr. Duncan thus describes it:—
“It is an intermittent spring and is understood to be fed from a natural cistern in the rock some considerable height above it. Into this cistern the collected rain finds its way. By and by the water, compressed into a space too small for it, forces an exit for itself by a sort of siphon in the softest part of the rock. When the water in the cistern rises high enough to run over the bend of the siphon exit, the whole cistern empties itself into the natural cavity of the Virgin’s Fountain, filling it to a depth of 10-12 feet above its normal level which is not more than 3 feet deep . . . During the early rains (November to January) and the later rains (March to April) the Gihon spring may overflow its basin as often as five times a day, the supply cistern being then quickly refilled. In summer the spring flows not more than once or twice a day, but there is always an unceasing supply of water.”
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Author: F. E. Mitchell
Keywords: Bethesda, Pool of Siloam, Gihon, Virgin's Spring, 5 porches, Five porches
Bible reference(s): 1 Kings 1:38, 1 Kings 1:45, 2 Chron. 33:14
Source: “Jerusalem in Old Testament Times,” The Testimony, Vol. 22, No. 259, July 1952, pg. 216-217.
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