The Pool of Bethesda

In John 5:1-9, the Apostle records the story of a man who had been disabled for thirty-eight years, waiting by the pool near the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem. The text describes crowds of the sick gathering there, hoping for healing when the waters were stirred. Some Bible versions, including the NASB 1995, add the explanation that an angel of the Lord would come and stir the waters, and the first to enter afterward would be healed.

The difficulty is that verses 3b-4 do not appear in the earliest and most reliable Greek manuscripts. Most scholars agree that this was a later scribal addition meant to clarify why people were lying around the pool. Archaeological studies of the Pool of Bethesda confirm that it was a double-basin structure with intermittent springs. The bubbling of the water was most likely a natural phenomenon that became the basis for a local tradition about angelic activity.

Two primary views exist: some maintain that the stirring was truly miraculous, a unique way God provided healing much like the bronze serpent in Numbers 21 or Naaman's washing in the Jordan (II Kings 5). Others argue it was a cultural belief, a piece of Jewish folklore that associated natural occurrences with angelic intervention. If so, John is not endorsing the story but simply reporting what the people believed, as seen in the sick man's words: "I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up" (John 5:7).

John's greater point, however, is not whether an angel stirred the pool but that Jesus Himself is the true source of healing. The man who could not win the race to the water found immediate wholeness through the word of Christ.

The lesson for today is that many still place their hope in superstitions, rituals, or modern-day equivalents–fortune-tellers, healing crystals, or prosperity schemes–believing these will bring relief or blessing. The gospel reminds us that real healing, whether of body or soul, comes not from human invention or mystical places but from the power of Jesus Christ.