Belonging - Day 15
John 5:1 Afterward Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holy days. 2 Inside the city, near the Sheep Gate, was the pool of Bethesda, with five covered porches.3 Crowds of sick people—blind, lame, or paralyzed—lay on the porches.
You have probably heard this story, and if you have a bit of imagination, you have created what this structure might look like in your head. I have seen artist's renderings and it seems that this area would have been a very beautiful place to come and hang out and to sit by the pools. The porches were colored, which is something we never really get to see in the ancient ruins of things. But during the Roman times, they had a generous use of paint to make their buildings look beautiful.
When you are at the ancient ruins of this place you realize how nice it must have been. It is in a lower area of the city, that place where the Via Dolorosa begins (The Way of the Cross). It is a large portico that opens to a wide veranda with pools that would have been great to swim in, sit next to, and generally relax by. The added beauty of the columns would have made it a wonderful experience.
While these texts are just the precursor, or the context for what is about to happen, the last verse reminds us that in this beautiful area were a bunch of people that might not have belonged there on a day-to-day basis. Rather, these people were the blind, lame, and paralyzed, those who would not be let into the temple area as they were not whole people, and they were considered less than the rest of society. However, there was a reason they were hanging out in this beautiful place.
Some manuscripts include verse 4, which states: 4: waiting for a certain movement of the water, 4 for an angel of the Lord came from time to time and stirred up the water. And the first person to step in after the water was stirred was healed of whatever disease he had.
This may be something that you are familiar with as it might be in the translations that you usually read. The NLT has chosen to leave it out as it can’t be verified in some of the earlier transcripts that have been discovered. However, it does give us some background information into why they were there, waiting for the water to be stirred.
Let us be honest, that is a bit of a strange miracle for everyone to be waiting for. The idea is that an angel will come and stir the water, and then there is a competition for the healing that would ensue for the person who first made it into the pool. I can imagine there would be a bunch of false starts and weird anomalies that would make people run and jump into the water. It almost seems comical, and perhaps it wasn’t put in until later due to the fact that it might not be historically accurate.
This actually doesn’t altar the story at all, so I am fine with it being left out of the most current and accurate texts. Even without it, it sets the stage for a miracle of belonging.
You have probably heard this story, and if you have a bit of imagination, you have created what this structure might look like in your head. I have seen artist's renderings and it seems that this area would have been a very beautiful place to come and hang out and to sit by the pools. The porches were colored, which is something we never really get to see in the ancient ruins of things. But during the Roman times, they had a generous use of paint to make their buildings look beautiful.
When you are at the ancient ruins of this place you realize how nice it must have been. It is in a lower area of the city, that place where the Via Dolorosa begins (The Way of the Cross). It is a large portico that opens to a wide veranda with pools that would have been great to swim in, sit next to, and generally relax by. The added beauty of the columns would have made it a wonderful experience.
While these texts are just the precursor, or the context for what is about to happen, the last verse reminds us that in this beautiful area were a bunch of people that might not have belonged there on a day-to-day basis. Rather, these people were the blind, lame, and paralyzed, those who would not be let into the temple area as they were not whole people, and they were considered less than the rest of society. However, there was a reason they were hanging out in this beautiful place.
Some manuscripts include verse 4, which states: 4: waiting for a certain movement of the water, 4 for an angel of the Lord came from time to time and stirred up the water. And the first person to step in after the water was stirred was healed of whatever disease he had.
This may be something that you are familiar with as it might be in the translations that you usually read. The NLT has chosen to leave it out as it can’t be verified in some of the earlier transcripts that have been discovered. However, it does give us some background information into why they were there, waiting for the water to be stirred.
Let us be honest, that is a bit of a strange miracle for everyone to be waiting for. The idea is that an angel will come and stir the water, and then there is a competition for the healing that would ensue for the person who first made it into the pool. I can imagine there would be a bunch of false starts and weird anomalies that would make people run and jump into the water. It almost seems comical, and perhaps it wasn’t put in until later due to the fact that it might not be historically accurate.
This actually doesn’t altar the story at all, so I am fine with it being left out of the most current and accurate texts. Even without it, it sets the stage for a miracle of belonging.
- Is there a place where you love to hang out and swim?
- What is it like, where is it, and how often do you go?
- If you were writing this story, would you include or exclude verse 4?
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