Pool of Bethesda — Tony Maritis

There are two main pools mentioned in Biblical accounts, the Pool of Bethesda and the Pool of Siloam, also called the Pool of Shiloah (Isaiah 8:6), has a history, which involves an ancient king of Judah, a famous sermon, and one of Christ’s great miracles. The word Siloam means “Sent” (John 9:7). Several rabbinic traditions identified the Pool of Siloam as the Messiah’s Pool. It was the only source of fresh water within the walls of ancient Jerusalem.

The Pool of Siloam was built by King Hezekiah in the 8th century BC (2 Kings 20:20) in order to provide water to Jerusalem, even in the event that the city were besieged. The pool was fed by a tunnel Hezekiah cut through almost 2,000 feet of solid rock from the Gihon Spring, also called the Virgin’s Spring. The spring, which produced a flow of water about twice a day, was located on the east side of Jerusalem, outside of the wall and on a slope leading down to the Kidron Valley. Hezekiah’s Tunnel channeled the water from Gihon to the pool, located in the southeast part of the city in the Tyropoeon Valley. The original Pool of Siloam was about 53 feet long, 18 feet wide, and 19 feet deep and was made of part hewn rock and part masonry.

Jerusalem and the Pool of Siloam were destroyed by the Babylonians about 600 BC. Seventy years later, Nehemiah rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem, and part of the job was to repair the Pool of Siloam: “(Shallun son of Kol-Hozeh, ruler of the district of Mizpah) also repaired the wall of the Pool of Siloam, by the King’s Garden, as far as the steps going down from the City of David” (Nehemiah 3:15).

During the reign of Herod the Great, improvements were made to the Pool of Siloam. The pool itself was enlarged, and a large arcade (a set of arches) was built around the pool. Another arcade divided the pool to create separate areas for men and women. During this time, the poor and sick people would often come to the Pool of Siloam to bathe.

It is during the time of Christ that the Pool of Siloam finds its true significance. Because the pool was near the temple, its water was used for a special ceremony during the Feast of Tabernacles. Every morning during the feast, a priest would take a golden vessel to the Pool of Siloam, fill it with water from the pool, and bring it back to the altar amid the shouts of the people. Then, as the crowd chanted the Hallel (Psalms 113–118), the priest poured out the water on the west side of the altar, and another priest poured a drink offering of wine on the east side of the altar. This ritual was to illustrate Isaiah 12:3, “With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.”

On the eighth and final day of the feast, the ritual was not repeated. And that is exactly when Jesus chose to make an announcement: “In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.”John 7:37–38

On the one day of the feast when no water was poured, Jesus stood up and filled the gap. The “water” He offers (the Holy Spirit, verse 39) is better than the waters of Siloam. In offering the water of life, Jesus identified Himself with the rock in the wilderness that gave water to the Hebrews (1 Corinthians 10:4).

In John 9, Jesus meets a man born blind. To show that He is the “light of the world” (John 9:5), Jesus heals the man. “When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.”John 9:6–7

Pool of Siloam — Tony Maritis

The blind man was sent to a pool called “Sent” by the One who was Himself sent by God into the world (John 3:17; 10:36). The site of the original Pool of Siloam has been excavated, and there is still a pool there, but it is hardly the splendid place that it once was. Still, we have the biblical record of the Pool of Siloam, a place that was used by kings and priests and by the Messiah Himself.

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Tony — Antonakis Maritis

Tony is an Executive Consultant for Research on Biblical Antiquities for Academia.edu and is published by WIPF and Stock Publishers, Amazon and Barnes & Noble