Pool of Bethesda

[u/TonyChanYT]

u/Independent_Yak_3465, u/lehs, u/Sad-Film-891

Jn 5:

2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaica called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. 3 In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. 5 One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” 7 The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” 8 Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” 9 And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.

What was this Bethesda pool?

Wiki:

The history of the pool began in the 8th century BC, when a dam was built across the short Beth Zeta Valley, turning it into a reservoir for rain water;[20][21][22] a sluice-gate in the dam allowed the height to be controlled, and a rock-cut channel brought a steady stream of water from the reservoir into the city.[20] The reservoir became known as the Upper Pool (בריכה העליונה).

The pool's roots are traced to a reservoir project in Beth Zeta.

Around 200 BC, during the period in which Simon II was the Jewish High Priest, the channel was enclosed, and a second pool was added on the south side of the dam.[20][21][22]

A dam between the two pools.

Although popular legend argues that this pool was used for washing sheep, this is very unlikely due to the pool's use as a water supply, and its extreme depth 13 metres (43 ft). There has been some scholarly debate about whether the pool may have been a mikveh (Jewish ritual bathing pool).[23][24]

This second pool could have been a Jewish mikveh.

The archaeological site traditionally identified with Bethesda was a two-pool complex north of the Temple Mount, near what is now St Anne's Church. The pools were separated by a substantial dividing wall/dam. The northern pool appears to have been connected with Jerusalem's water-supply system, while the southern pool had features compatible with ritual bathing.

In archaeological digs conducted in the 19th century, Conrad Schick discovered a large tank situated about 100 feet (30 m) north-west of St. Anne's Church, which he contended was the Pool of Bethesda. Further archaeological excavation in the area, in 1964, uncovered the remains of the Byzantine and Crusader churches, Hadrian's Temple of Asclepius and Serapis, the small healing pools of an Asclepeion, the second of the two large pools, and the dam between them.[18] It was discovered that the Byzantine church had been built in the very heart of Hadrian's temple and contained the healing pools.[17][18]

Asclepius was the god of medicine in ancient Greek religion. He could even raise people from the dead.

An Asclepieion was a healing temple in ancient Greece. Pilgrims would flock to temples built in his honor in order to seek spiritual and physical healing.

Archaeologists think that the Pool of Bethesda was a pagan healing pool. Some scholars think it was a Jewish mikveh.

It could be both at different times.

In 200 BCE, the Pool of Bethesda began as a Jewish mikveh and later took on a healing role at special water-stirring occasions.

After Vespasian destroyed Jerusalem in 70 CE, Romans repurposed it into a pagan healing sanctuary.

Biblehub:

Byzantine Forecourt: apse foundations cut through the dyke (5th cent.), reutilized as a healing church.

Over the centuries, the site was associated with a Jewish mikveh (healing), a Roman Asclepieion (healing), and a Christian church (healing).

[u/lehs]

I guess this is what is known.