Verse 2
2. By the sheep market Market is in italics, indicating that the word is not found in the original, but supplied by the English translators. It should be sheep- gate; so called, because the sheep for sacrifice were driven through it into the city. (See plan of city, vol. i, p. 274.) But the place of this gate and of Bethesda, near it, is very uncertain. Popular tradition had given the name to a pool, which later research has ascertained to have been a fosse, dug for the defence of the Castle of Antonia. (See note on Matthew 22:12.) Dr. Strong, agreeing with Lightfoot and Robinson, identifies Bethesda with the “Fountain of the Virgin;” Dr. Olin, with the pool of Siloam. Dr. Barclay pronounces both these suppositions incredible, as neither will meet the requirements of the passage; but believes himself to have identified the spot, near the sheep-gate, at which this pool will be found, when the rubbish is removed.
Five porches Small apartments, recesses for the diseased, lining the edge of the pool; covered, as some think, upon the top only, but more probably with three sides closed, and the fourth open, like a shed, toward the pool.
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