John 5:1-9

John 5:1 a. The Pool of Bethzatha. If in John 5:1 we read the feast, Tabernacles is probably meant (cf. John 7:2). The true text, however, seems to have a feast. Pentecost, Purim (in March, to suit John 4:35 taken as a note of time and not as a proverb), and Trumpets (September) have been suggested. It is best to leave the matter where the author has left it. He does not seem to know. He speaks of the pool at the Sheep Gate (NE. corner of the Temple area; cf. Nehemiah 3:1 *, Nehemiah 3:32), or perhaps the sheep pool, according to a few authorities, as still standing in his time. It is unsafe to draw inferences from the present tense, which may be explained in different ways. The name is doubtful. Probably Bethzatha (mg.) is the original form, of which Bethesda and Bethsaida are alterations to better-known names. According to Josephus Bezetha was the name of the northern quarter of the city. The account of the angel in AV, RVm (John 5:4) is clearly a later addition. The words in John 5:3, waiting for the moving of the waters, are better attested, and receive some support from John 5:7, of which, however, they may be an interpretative gloss. [On the whole story see R. Harris, Sidelights on NT Research, Lect. II. He suggests that the feast is the Rosh-ha-Shanah or Head of the Year, and relates how he once found some Armenian Christians waiting according to custom for the descent of Gabriel into their village pool, (a) to give healing virtue to the water, (b) to enrich the man who first after midnight drew water. A. J. G.]