Shalom and welcome back to Israel with Aline! We are in Jerusalem, in front of the walls and the Lions' Gate, why? Because right next to here is the Pool of Bethesda, also known as the Sheep Pool, the place where the healing of the paralytic took place.
And this is what we are going to talk about today. So if you are ready, let's get started! A few meters away from the Lions' Gate we find the entrance to Bethesda, or as it is pronounced in Aramaic "Beit Chesda" - which means the House of Mercy.
In the pool where the healing of the paralytic took place, this pool is also known as the Sheep Pool or the Probationary Pools, but to better understand this miracle, we have to understand what this place was at that time. So come with me, because we are going to take a trip back in time, a trip for more than two thousand years ago! We arrived at the oldest part of this complex, this is what we call the North Pools, they were built no more and no less than two thousand and eight hundred years ago.
They were a rainwater dam, and from here water was carried to the city. So this place already existed long before the arrival of Jesus. And this here is the South tank, it will be built around the year two hundred B.
C. , and it is very well preserved as you can see; the side, all this part here is original, people, including the plaster that made the tank waterproof, and at this time the tank also begins to be called Sheep Tank. Why is this?
Where are the sheep? The tradition says that here the sheep that were taken to the Temple to be sacrificed were washed, since we are very close to the Temple in Jerusalem. Now, there's a little problem with this theory: the pool, it's 14 yards deep and it is not easy to wash the sheep in such a deep pool!
So maybe the correct theory is that water was taken from here to wash the sheep, and it is also believed that this is where of the people did their purification baths, the "Mikve" before going up to the Temple in Jerusalem. And the water that came out of here was essential for Jerusalem in Biblical times. The water was taken to the city, but also to the Temple in Jerusalem, and we can see here part of the canals that went towards the Temple.
Now there is a very important building very close to here which is the Fortress of Antonia, we knew a little bit about it in another video, because the Fortress of Antonia is where Jesus' trial took place. It was a Roman fortress, where they had many and many Roman troops. Now the Romans, what religion were they?
They were pagans, they believed in many gods, among them in Asclepius, Asclepius was the god of medicine and healing. And they build healing pools very close to here. Behind me now are these pagan pools of Asclepius.
Now, we are talking about Jerusalem at the height of the Jewish period! The Temple of Jerusalem, folks, was a few hundred meters away from here, how can it be that there is a pagan temple in Jerusalem? We have to remember a few things: the first is that Jerusalem at that time, and all Israel, was not free but was dominated by the Romans who were then pagans.
And second, this area here was outside the walls. As the Book of John 5 tells us: the Tank of the Sheep was near the Sheep Gate. But in this case we are talking about outside the walls, near the gate, so imagine, folks, that there were pools here, which worked as a pagan mini temple, inside Jerusalem, at the time of the Temple.
But the most impressive, and maybe a little sad, is that these healing pools start to become popular also among some Jews. And then we start to get to Jesus' time; when Jesus arrives here, they had Jews gathered around: paralytics, handicapped people, lepers, and they were here for what? Because of the influence of pagan Roman culture.
Now it's time for us to do the Bible reading together from the book of John Chapter 5: "Sometime later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie —the blind, the lame, the paralyzed.
And they waited for the moving of the waters. From time to time an angel of the Lord would come down and stir up the waters. The first one into the pool after each such disturbance would be cured of whatever disease they had.
One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, "Do you want to get well? " "Sir," the invalid replied, "I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred.
While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me. " Then Jesus said to him, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.
" At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. " So we understand that this paralytic was standing here hoping for what? Expecting healing by water, a tradition again influenced by Roman paganism.
But look how interesting, Jesus comes to him and asks: Do you want to be healed? And what is he going to answer, Instead of answering: "Yes, of course. " He's going to answer, "I don't have anyone to put me in the water.
" He is clearly associating healing with water. And so when Jesus heals him, Jesus is not only healing him but teaching a lesson, a lesson to everybody who was here; that healing does not come by water. And so when Jesus heals this man, he goes and says "get up, take your bed and walk", and he doesn't put him into the water.
And this is a very clear message to everyone who was here, that healing does not come through the waters, but that healing only comes from God. And one of my favorite parts here at Bethesda is the one we are going down now. We are in the North Pool area and look how cool it is: "Roman cistern", that is, we are going down now into an original cistern from Roman times.
And it is full of water to this day. Guys, imagine the two thousand year old water system working, it is really amazing! So come on, let's go on our adventure!
A cistern is a reservoir of water. As we saw, this reservoir is from the Roman period and was adapted in later periods, since we know that in Jesus' times this area was open-air swimming pools, and as we can see, this one is closed. And it even has a little bit of a mysterious air, it is very dark as you can see, but we can see water at the bottom of it.
Since it is now summer in Israel, the water level is very low. But during the winter, which is the rainy season, the level goes up a lot So the reservoir is still working until today. Although nowadays this water is no longer used for the city and not even for the temple, since the Temple is no longer there either.
But it is interesting to see the reservoir working. What will be done in this place then after Jesus' time? Do you think that people have learned their lesson?
Not everyone. Here a temple will be built to Asclepius, the god of medicine, again. So those small pagan healing pools will become an even greater temple.
Perhaps precisely because of the influence of the healing that Jesus did here, the importance of water healing became even greater. We can see the irony in this, but then here Hadrian, in the year one hundred and thirty, after Christ, will build a great temple to Asclepius. But this temple will later be replaced by something else, by what?
A Byzantine church. The Byzantine Period is the first Christian period of Israel, and we can clearly see the remains of it. These large and very high arches that we are seeing are precisely from this period.
This church will be destroyed and rebuilt several times, and the last church built here is from the crusader period that we can see, it is up here; all this high part. So we have different historical phases. The oldest is the pools, the pool of Bethesda.
After that, pagan Roman pools were built here, above that, is where Jesus is going to do his miracle. The temple of Asclepius will be built. And then the Christians will come and build the first Byzantine church here, then the Crusader church, but what's here these days?
Is what we are going to see now, and this French flag here is a tip, come on! Why is there a French flag here in the middle of Jerusalem? Because of the Turkish Ottomans.
Why is Turkey in this story? What happens is that Israel was part of the Turkish Ottoman Empire for four hundred years. And they, as a Muslim empire, didn't see much value in that place; religious and historical value.
And so when the Crimean War happens, France helps the Ottoman Turks to win. And as a thank for helping them in the war, They're going to take this place, this whole Bethesda area, and this church and give it to France. So, legally, we are now in France and not in Israel.
It is like an embassy. It is one of the different things that we have here in Jerusalem, but let's go together now, into this church quickly, and understand what it is. This is a Crusader church, I mean, it is about nine hundred years old and it is one of the few churches from that time that has survived practically intact until today, and the name of this church is Saint Anne, because in the Catholic tradition and in the Orthodox tradition, Anne was Jesus' grandmother and here she lived with Joaquim.
And one more amazing thing about this church is that the echo, the acoustics are preserved. And now an American Christian group is coming, and they will sing and we will be able to hear the acoustics. [Songs] And here by the pool of Bethesda, I want to say goodbye to you.
But before, remind you to subscribe to the channel and to leave that like, a big kiss and until next time here in Israel!
