(called in the Greek, ἡ Βηθέζα προσβάσις; and hence in the Vulgate, Piscina Probationis, because, according to some, the sheep were washed in it, which were appointed for sacrifices), was the Hebrew name for a pool or public bath, which had five porticos, piazzas, or covered walks around it. This bath, for its singular usefulness, was called Bethesda, בֵּית חֶזְדָא, or the house of Mercy, because, as Pool, in his Annotations, observes the erecting of baths was an act of great kindness to the common people, whose indispositions in hot countries required frequent bathing. However, some will have the word Bethesda to be בֵּית חֶזְדָא, or the sink-house, or drain, because the waters which came from the temple, and the place where the victims were washed, flowed thither. From the Greek word ἡ Βηθέζα προσβάσις being used by Bethesda, by Josephus (Antiq. xv. 3.) to denote the baths at Jericho, Dr Macknight, in his Harmony of the Gospels, concludes that their opinion seems to be without a proper foundation who affirm, that this pool served for washing the sheep designed for sacrifice before they were driven into the temple, and for washing the entrails of the beasts sacrificed there; besides, he thinks it inconsistent with the situation of Bethesda, near the sheep-gate (or market, as our English translators have rendered the Greek ἐν τῇ προσάγειν καταβαίνειν, though some copies have it, ἐν τῷ, &c.) in the south-east wall of the city; or, according to the compilers of the Universal History, in that which was on the north-east, a great way from the temple. However this may be, we are told (John v. 2, 3, &c.) that in the porticos of this bath, at the time of a certain feast (which is generally supposed to have been the passover), there lay a multitude of impotent folk, such as the blind, halt, and withered, waiting for the moving of the water: for an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water; that is, moved it in a sensible manner. Whoever then first, after the troubling of the water, stepped into it, was made whole of whatever disease he had. Some writers confine the miracle of the pool of Bethesda to the season of this particular feast mentioned in verse 1, of this chapter, because they understand ἐν τῷ καιρῷ, by times (verse 4.), which our translators render, a certain season, meant at that season; that is, the season mentioned verse 1.; and since the evangelist does not say that the water of Bethesda had their sanative quality at any other feast, we are at liberty to make what supposition seems most convenient. Perhaps the silence of Philo and Josephus upon this miracle may induce some to think, that it happened only at one passover; for though many infirm people lay in Bethesda, if the angel, as is probable, descended frequently during that solemnity, the miracle would be no sooner known, than multitudes would come and wait at the pool to be cured by the moving of the waters: however, if the number of the sick who gathered on this occasion, and the phrase ἐν τῷ καιρῷ, shall incline any person to believe that the waters of Bethesda had an healing quality at other passovers also, Dr Macknight observes, that the silence of the writers before mentioned needs not be much regarded; it being well known that they have omitted greater transactions which they had an opportunity to know, viz. that multitude and variety of miracles which our Lord performed in the course of his ministry. That the waters of Bethesda should at this time have obtained a miraculous healing quality was, without doubt, as that writer remarks, in honour of the personal appearance of the Son of God on earth. Perhaps it was intended to show that Ezekiel's (xlvii.) vision of waters issuing out of the sanctuary was about to be fulfilled, of which waters it is said, (ib. verse 9.) "They shall be healed, and every thing shall live whither the river cometh." But it must be observed, that the fourth verse of this chapter of St John is not in the Cambridge MSS. which formerly was Beza's, nor in one or two more of great authority. See Dr Mill's judgment of it in that part of his Prolegomena to which he refers the reader in his note on the text. But though it should be rejected, the difficulty for which some would have it cancelled, Dr Macknight observes, remains still; because the seventh verse implies that cures were performed in this pool, and that only one at a time was cured, and consequently that these cures were miraculous. If so, it is easy to conceive that an angel moved the water, and gave it its healing quality, as to fancy those cures were performed miraculously any other way. Grotius thinks, that the angel is said to have descended, not because he was ever seen to do so, but because the Jews were persuaded that God brought such things to pass by the ministration of angels; so that from that violent motion of the water, and the cure following it, the presence of an angel was with reason supposed. Dr Hammond supposes, that the waters became medicinal by being impregnated with a healing warmth from the blood and entrails of the sacrificed beasts that were washed there; and that the ἀγγέλος, angel, or messenger, in the text is not to be understood of those celestial beings that are usually distinguished by that name, but only of a common messenger, viz. an officer or servant of the priest, who at a proper season was sent by him to stir the pool.