The Definition of the word Beth-le-Aphrah

Beth-le-Aphrah

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 [63]FOUNTAIN;" [64]GIHON.)