The Pool of Bethesda and its five porticoes
An architectural detail that looked like a symbolic flourish turned out to be an accurate description of a real building.
Vom Boden bestätigtAusgrabungsstätte1st century BC–1st century AD
John describes a pool by the Sheep Gate with five covered colonnades — an odd number that was long read as symbolic invention, since porticoes normally came in fours. Excavation found two adjacent pools separated by a central partition: a colonnade on each of the four sides, and a fifth across the middle.
Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool… having five porches.
- Gefunden
- By St Anne's Church, north of the Temple Mount, Jerusalem, 1888 — Excavations begun by the White Fathers; continued through the twentieth century
- Heute in
- In place, Jerusalem
- Wie es zu uns kam
- Ausgegraben oder noch dort stehend, wo es errichtet wurde.
Was er zeigt
The twin-pool layout is established. Precisely which structures John's five porticoes refer to, and their date relative to his account, are matters of ongoing discussion.
Wie Historiker es nutzen
A standard site in the archaeology of Jerusalem, excavated over more than a century.
In der Schrift
Verbunden mit
Quellen
- Pool of Bethesda — overview and bibliography
- Charlesworth (ed.), Jesus and Archaeology (2006)
Diese Texte liegen vorerst auf Englisch vor. Übersetzungen folgen.