The Pool of Bethesda

Described in John 5:2 as a pool with five porticoes (covered colonnades) near the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem where Jesus healed a paralyzed man. For centuries, critics dismissed this as a theological invention; no such pool existed, and the “five porticoes” detail was considered geographically impossible. Then, in the late 19th century, excavations near St. Anne’s Church in Jerusalem uncovered a large pool complex matching John’s description. The pool was a mikveh (Jewish ritual bath) with two basins divided by a central causeway, creating exactly five porticoes; a layout that would have been visible to an eyewitness in the first century but was completely unknown to later readers. The discovery transformed John 5 from “theologically suspect” to “archaeologically verified.”