The Pool of Bethesda is referred to in John's Gospel in the Christian New Testament, in an account of Jesus healing a paralyzed man at a pool of water in Jerusalem, described as being near the Sheep Gate and surrounded by five covered colonnades or porticoes. It is also referred to as Bethzatha. It is now associated with the site of a pool in the current Muslim Quarter of the city, near the gate now called the Lions' Gate or St. Stephen's Gate and the Church of St. Anne, which was excavated in the late 19th century.
The ruins of the Byzantine Church, adjacent to the site of the Pool of Bethesda
Model of the pools during the Second Temple Period (Israel Museum)
The pool of Bethesda in 1911
The Pool of Bethesda painting by Robert Bateman (1877)
John 5 is the fifth chapter of the Gospel of John of the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It relates Jesus' healing and teaching in Jerusalem, and begins to evidence the hostility shown him by the Jewish authorities.
The beginning verses of the Gospel of John chapter 5, from a facsimile edition of William Tyndale's 1525 English translation of the New Testament.
John 5:26–29 in Papyrus 95 recto (3rd century)
Pool of Bethesda – model in the Israel Museum
