The Pulpit Commentary — John — Volume 1 — Section 341

oonnocted by n tunnl'l with the fountain of titude of eiok folk, blind, la.me, withered, Si loam. and i he rdations of these wells have [waiting for the moving of the wa.ter; for been quite l'C'Ccntly submitted to fresh ex- an angel went down aea.aon by aeaeon into aminntiou (' Palestine Expl. Soo. Rep.,' the pool, and troubled the wa.tera : he then Oc,t. ISS:i). Robinson identified this pool that first stepped in after the troubling of the with "Solomon's Pool" of Josephus and water 'beoa.me whole of whatsoever disease "King's Pool" of Nehemiah, and thought he had].' The interesting gloss discussed it might be the originnl pool of Betheedn. below conveys the idea of mngioal curo, with- Neander and Tholuck incline to agree with out moral signiflonncc, nud nttributes suoh him. The observations of Robinson have cnro to angelic ministry. Thi~ is the nnturnl been coufirmecl by •robler, and at Ienst show and popnla.r explanation of the Bethesda thnt what certainly happens now in some of healings, o.nd would easily occur to a. copyist these fountnins mny bnve been phenomena who h3s not taken pa.ins to use Now Testa- oonst.imtly expected at some other fountain ment diction. Wiinsche quotes from 'Chul- bearing the name now before us, on the lin,' fol. 105, b, e. testimony that "deadly north-eastern side of the Ha.ra.m area. qualities of water were attributed to demons, Within the (sl1eep-gate) St. Stephen's Gato and he:iling ones to the angels." The the traditional site of Bethesda is pointed crowds which gather in all countries round out. The modern name is Birket Israel, medicinal and intermittent springs are still nnd this tank, from the nccumulation of rub- unable to expluin their curative quality by bish, does not now show its original extent; ecientifio o.na.logies; o.nd there is nothing neither docs it now hold water, but re- more likely to have suggested itself to the ceives the drainage of neighbouring houses mind of a copyist the.n the intervention of (Colonel Wilson in • Pict. Palestine,' vol. i. a.n e.ngel. The nbsence from Scripture else- pp. 66. 106-109). A church, near that where of non-morul miracles is powerful in- of St. Anne, was built bv the Crusaders ternul reason for the lack of authenticity for over a well, in this immediate vicinity--a the poetic gloss. The text, when deprived spot which was supposed to be the site of of this dubious gloss, loses all character tho.t the angelic disturbance. Colonel Wilson is inconsistent with the e.uthentioity of the prefers this traditionel site to tliat fixed na.rro.tive. The close of ver. 3, "waiting upon by Robinson. So also Sir G. Grove, for the moving of the waters,'' is far better in Smith's 'Bible Diet.' The five porcl,e,, attested than ver. 4, and, moreo~er, is con- or porticoes, may have been a columnar structure of pentagonal form, which shel- 1 The pnesa,,o-e here marked in brackets ie tered the sick and the impotent folk. At almost certainly an ancient gloss upon the present no indubitable relic of this build- text, introduced to explain ver. 7. Lo.ch- ing has been discovered. Alford (7th edit.) mann retained it on strong authority of A, quotes a letter which makes it probable c•, E, F, G, T, ~, ete., several versions and that Silon.m '\'l"as Bethesda, and the remains definite references to it by Tertullian (' De of four columns in the east wall of that Ba.ptismo,' v.), Didymus, and Cyril ; but pool, 'l'l"ith fonr others in the centre, show there are great fluctuations in the elements that o. structure with five openings or of the text, some ma.nuecripts giving Kvplov porches might easily have been erected there. e.fter l[n,.>.os, olhers omitting it, 1Ca.Ti/3a.111e Bethesda, whioh is said to be the Hebrew interchanged for Ka.T1/PXETo and i.>.06.-ro. (that is, Aramaic) surname of the pool, is The words themselves contain a number or very doubtful Probably this is the correct i..-a.E .>.e-y&µ.,11a. Thus ,c/1171t11s, Ka.Tc ,ca.,pbv, form of the text, though there are many va- IHr1roTE, v&CT7/µ.a., -ra.pd.TT01, e.nd Ta.pa.xfi in the riants, snch as Bethzutha, in N, 33, Tischen- sense of troubling waters, a.re not elsewhere dorf (8th edit.); Betluaida, in some ver- found in the New Testament. The manu- sions and Tertullian. It seems generally scripts D, 1, 33, retain the lo..~t clause of ver. allowed that its significance (ttJQ~ M'-i1) is 3, while they omit ver. 4, ma.king it prob11.ble " house of gra.ce or mercy,'' and that it that this clause was :first added, in order to derived its reference from the dispensation explain ver. 7, and then by some subsequent there of God's providential gifts. 'fhe heal- hand enlarged into ver. 4. The great au- ing virtue of waters charged with iron and thorities, ~. B, C, D, Thebe.ic, Memphitic, carbonic acid llD.d other gas is too well Syriac, Vulgate Versions, a.11 omit the entire known to need reference, and the rema.rk- passage ; so the.t Tischendorf (8th edit.), ahle cnree derived from their use may Meyer, 'fregelles, Alford, Olsha.usen, Liioke, account for every part of the statement Godet, a.e well as Westcott and Hort, reject which was here written by John. EUBebiU& it. Reuss says it is "vainly" repudiated, as speaks of these waters as " reddened," so he though critics had merely acted here in e.n tLonght, with the blood of sacrifices, but far apologetic spirit. Thoma. does not allude to wore probably by cha.lybeate earth. critical difficulty, but finds mystical mean- V ~r•. 3, ¼.-In fa$&e (l>orchee) lay a mul- ing natu,al to" the Johauuist." Oil, V, 1-47.] 'TUE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO S'1'. JOHN. 207