Be·thes·da /bəˈθɛzdə/



 Bethesda
    house of mercy, a reservoir (Gr. kolumbethra, "a swimming bath")
    with five porches, close to the sheep-gate or market (Neh. 3:1;
    John 5:2). Eusebius the historian (A.D. 330) calls it "the
    sheep-pool." It is also called "Bethsaida" and "Beth-zatha"
    (John 5:2, R.V. marg.). Under these "porches" or colonnades were
    usually a large number of infirm people waiting for the
    "troubling of the water." It is usually identified with the
    modern so-called Fountain of the Virgin, in the valley of the
    Kidron, and not far from the Pool of Siloam (q.v.); and also
    with the Birket Israel, a pool near the mouth of the valley
    which runs into the Kidron south of "St. Stephen's Gate." Others
    again identify it with the twin pools called the "Souterrains,"
    under the convent of the Sisters of Zion, situated in what must
    have been the rock-hewn ditch between Bezetha and the fortress
    of Antonia. But quite recently Schick has discovered a large
    tank, as sketched here, situated about 100 feet north-west of
    St. Anne's Church, which is, as he contends, very probably the
    Pool of Bethesda. No certainty as to its identification,
    however, has as yet been arrived at. (See FOUNTAIN; GIHON.)



 Bethesda, house of pity or mercy