Passage

John 5.2

Book: John · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

After these things there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

2. Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porches.

In these lay a multitude of them that were sick, blind, halt, withered. (John 5:1-4, ASV)

WEB

After these things, there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

2. Now in Jerusalem by the sheep gate, there is a pool, which is called in Hebrew, “Bethesda”, having five porches.

In these lay a great multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, or paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water; 4. for an angel went down at certain times into the pool, and stirred up the water. Whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was healed of whatever disease he had. (John 5:1-4, WEB)

KJV

After this there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

2. Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches. ^{market: or, gate}

In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. 4. For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. (John 5:1-4, KJV)

YLT

After these things there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem,

2. and there is in Jerusalem by the sheep -[gate] a pool that is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porches,

in these were lying a great multitude of the ailing, blind, lame, withered, waiting for the moving of the water, 4. for a messenger at a set time was going down in the pool, and was troubling the water, the first then having gone in after the troubling of the water, became whole of whatever sickness he was held. (John 5:1-4, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: John, the narrator
Audience: the readers of the Fourth Gospel
Location: Jerusalem, by the sheep gate
Time period: at "a feast of the Jews" (John 5:1), during Jesus' ministry, c. AD 28-30

Theological reading

"Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches." (John 5:2, KJV).

The five porches found. Excavations near the Church of St Anne in Jerusalem uncovered two large pools separated by a central wall. Four colonnades around the sides and one across the middle give the "five porches" John describes. See Pool of Bethesda.

A writer who knew the city. John describes Jerusalem as it stood before the Roman destruction of AD 70. Details like this are hard to explain if the Gospel were invented far from the places it names. See NT Geographical Reliability.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

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Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Concepts:

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.