Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - John 5:2 - 5:2
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Sheep-market (τῇ Ï€Ïοβατικῇ)
The word is an adjective pertaining to sheep, which requires to be completed with another word, not with ἀγοÏᾷ, market, but with πυÌλῆ, gate. This gate was near the temple on the east of the city. See Neh 3:1, Neh 3:32; Neh 12:39. Some editors join the adjective with the following κολυμβηÌθÏα, pool, making the latter word κολυμβηÌθÏᾳ (the dative case), and reading the sheep-pool. Wyc., a standing water of beasts.
Pool (κολυμβηÌθÏα)
In the New Testament only in this chapter and Joh 9:7, Joh 9:11. Properly, a pool for swimming, from κολυμβαÌω, to dive. In Ecc 2:6 (Sept.) it is used of a reservoir in a garden. The Hebrew word is from the verb to kneel down, and means, therefore, a kneeling-place for cattle or men when drinking. In ecclesiastical language, the baptismal font, and the baptistery itself.
Called (ἐπιλεγομεÌνη)
Strictly, surnamed, the name having perhaps supplanted some earlier name.
Bethesda (βηθεσδὰ)
Commonly interpreted House of Mercy; others House of the Portico. The readings also vary. Tischendorf and Westcott and Hort give βηθζαθαÌ, Bethzatha, House of the Olive. The site cannot be identified with any certainty. Dr. Robinson thinks it may be the Fountain of the Virgin, the upper fountain of Siloam. See Thomson's “Land and Book,†“Southern Palestine and Jerusalem,†pp. 458-461.
Porches (στοὰς)
Cloisters, covered porticoes.