John 5:2

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

There is ... The present tense in this has led to the supposition that John was written before the destruction of Jerusalem; but it may be explained (1) by the pool's still being there after the ruin of the city, or (2) by the apostle's vivid memory of it leading to his use of the present tense, speaking of it as what he was actually seeing in retrospect.

By the sheep gate ... The word "gate" is not in the text and was supplied by the translators. The gate was near the temple and was the portal through which the animals were brought to the sacrifices.

Having five porches ... These were colonnaded areas, partially open, under which people could take refuge from rain or strong sunlight. They were ornamental, making this a highly decorated and popular pool; but, for all its reputation, it had not cured the cripple. Hunter tells us that "In 1931-1932, excavators laid bare 100 yards north of the temple what is almost certainly the long lost pool of Bethesda."[2] Hunter's thoughts on why this healing at Bethesda was made one of John's seven signs are interesting:

Possibly because it involved his favorite symbol of water. The water of the pool, though it seemed to offer healing (newness of life), had yet failed to cure a man crippled for thirty-eight years. In the light of the Prologue and the preceding chapters (the water and wine of Cana, the new water which Jesus offered the woman of Samaria), we are perhaps meant to think of "the law given through Moses" and its failure to give life. Over against it, in this miracle, stands the life-giving word of Christ.[3]

Of John's seven signs, the third and the sixth occurred at the pools of Bethesda and Siloam; the first was changing water into wine; and the fifth was walking on the water. In addition, John's "born of water" and "living water" of chapters three and four, make it clear that the apostle did remarkably stress "water" in his Gospel. There is also the "blood and water" of the crucifixion (John 19:34).

[2] A. M. Hunter, The Gospel according to John (Cambridge University Press, 1965), p. 56.

[3] Ibid.