BET 



Tlie etymology, therefore, of thofe who derive " Bethefda" 

 from n~tDn n'3' ^^^ ^°"fi of m:rcy, is much more jull and 

 appropriate; becaufe it exprefied the kind defign with which 

 this bath was conftrufted, and the falutary purpofes to 

 which it xvas appHtd. The hiftory informs us, that this 

 pool had five porches, porticoes, or cloyfters, which might 

 very reafoiiably have been the cafe, nrtwithltanding its 

 oblong figure ; one being on each hand of the entrance in 

 the middle of one fide, and three on the other fides. Dr. 

 Ijightfoot fuggefts, that the bafon itftlf might be in the 

 form of a pentagon, and that thefe cloyfters might corref- 

 pond to its five fides. Mr. Maunc-rell (Journey, p. 107.) 

 %cbo took a view of this pool, in 1696, informs us, that it is 

 120 paces long, 40 broad, and 8 deep; but without water; and 

 that at the well end he found fome old arches, then dammed 

 up, which, though only three in number, were fuppofed to 

 be the five porches, in which fat the lame, halt, and blind. 

 This pool, he adds, is contiguous, on one fide, to St. Ste- 

 phen's gale, and on the other to the area of the temple. In 

 thefe porticoes difeafed and debilitated perfons lay, " waiting 

 for the moving of the water ;" for at the time of a certain 

 fcaft, which iomc have fuppofed to be the paffover, and 

 others the pentecoit, or rather, according to the feafon, 

 i. e. occafionally, at certain intervals of time, " an angel de- 

 fcended into the pool, and troubled the water ; whofoever 

 then tirft, after the troubling of the water, ftcpped in, was 

 made whole of whatever difcafe he had." Some have fup- 

 pofed that the miraculous cure, recorded in this iiillory, was 

 rellriiled to the feafon of the particular fcaft mentioned in 

 the firil vcrfc of the chapter ; ar.d thus they account for the 

 filence of Philo and Jofephus with regard to this miracle. 

 But thofe, who imagine that thefe waters had a fanative 

 quahty on other ofcafions, think the filencc of thefe Jewifh 

 ■writers to be of little importance ; as thev have omitted the 

 mention of other more impo'-tant occurrences in our Lord's 

 hiftory, which they had an opportunity of knowing ; fuch 

 as the variety and multitude of fignal miracles which he per- 

 formed in thecourfe of his minillry. The majority of wri- 

 ters have regarded the cures wrought at this place as a Hand- 

 ing m.iracle among tlie Jews, and yet they have been fur- 

 prifcd that Jofephus, in particular, fliould om.it to mention 

 a fact fo honourable to his nation. Others have, therefore, 

 conceived, that the miraculous healing quality of thefe waters 

 was a peculiar honour cunferred on the perlonal apoearance 

 of the Son of God upon earth. To this purpofe l)r. Dod- 

 dridge (in loc.) after Calvin, obferves, that God, to add the 

 greater luftre to his Son's miracle.-i, as well as to fhcw that his 

 ancient people were not entirely forgotten by him, had been 

 pleafed of late to perform fome fupernatural cures at this 

 place. With refpeft to the delcent of the angel into the 

 pool, nnd the efFeCl produced by his llirring the water, dif- 

 ferent hypothefes have been propofed. Grotius thinks, that 

 the angel is faid to have defcen.ded, not becaufe he was ever 

 feen to do fo, butbecaule the Jews were perfuaded that God 

 brought fuch things to pals by the miniftration ot angels ; 

 fo that from the violent motion of the water, and the effect 

 produced by it, the prefence of an angel was reafonably 

 fijppofcd. Dr. Hammond (in loc.) fuppofes, that the blood 

 of the great number of facrifices, walhed in this pool, com- 

 municated a falutary efficacy to the v.ater, upon its being 

 ftirrcd up by an angel, or meflcnger, deputed for this pur- 

 pofe by the high-pricft ; which iiypothefis Dr. Doddridge 

 reprefents to be as unphilofophical, as it is unfupported by 

 hillory and aiitiquity. Mr. Fleming (Chriftology, vol. i. 

 p. 13^11;.) in order to avoid the apparent difficulties of the 

 literal interpretation, rejects the latter part of the ihhd and 

 the whole of i\\tfwrtlj vcrfe, as a fpurious addition of fome 

 Vol. IV. 



BET 



ignorant monk in the 8th or 9th century ; becaufe that part 

 is wanting in the Cambridge, or Bcr.a's MS. and is written 

 by a later hand in the margin df that in the French king's 

 librar)', highly extolled by Lamy in his " Harmony." But, 

 this paffagt is found in all the other moft celebrated MSB., 

 in the Syriac verfion, and in the other verfions of the Poly. 

 glott. Kufler's obfervations, relating to the genuinenefs of 

 this text, in the preface to his edition of Mill's New Tefta- 

 ment, deferve to be confidered. But with regard to the 

 fubjeft in difpute, it (hould be recoUecled, that the fevcnth 

 verfe, which none queftion, implies, that the water, after being 

 troubled, had a miraculous virtue, which extended only to 

 the firft that went in, and cured his difeafe, whatever might 

 be its nature. Dr. Doddridge fuggefts the following folu- 

 tion of this difficulty ; the greatell, as he acknowledges, that 

 occurs in the hiftory of the cvangehfts, and with refpeil to 

 which none of the numerous writers who have replied to Mr. 

 Woolfton had given him fatisfadion. He fuppofes thi» 

 pool might be remarkable for fome mineral virtue attending 

 the water ; and this circumftance, together with its being fo 

 near the temple, where a bath was fo much needed for re- 

 ligious purpofes, may account for the ftately clovllers erected 

 around it. Som.e time before this paflbver, an extraordmary 

 commotion had been probably oblerved in the water; and 

 Providence fo ordered it, that the next perfon who acciden- 

 tally bathed here, being under fome great diforder, experi- 

 enced an immediate and unexpefted cure. The like pheno- 

 menon, m fome other defperate cafe, was probably obferved 

 in a fccond commotion. Thefe commotions and cures might 

 happen periodically, perhaps every fabbath, for fome weeks 

 or months. This the Jews would naturally afcribe to fome 

 angelic power, as they did afterwards the voice from heaven, 

 (John xii. 29.) though no angel appeared. On account of 

 their ingratitude to Chrift for this miracle, and thofe wrought 

 at the former paffover, and in the intermediate fpace, this 

 ccleftial vifitant probably returned no more ; and therefore, it 

 may be obferved, that though the evangelift fpeaks of the 

 pool as ftill at Jerufalem, when he wrote, yet he mentions 

 tlie defcent of the angel, as a thing which had been, but not 

 as ftill continuing. This may account for the filence of Jo- 

 fephus, who was not born when it happened ; and whc, if 

 he heard the report of it, would oppole fpeculation and hy- 

 pothefis to fact, and recur to fome indigelled and unmean- 

 ing harangues on the unknown force of imagination ; or if 

 he fecretly fufpeCted it to be true, his dread of the mar\-el- 

 lous, and his fear of difgufting his Pagan readers with it, 

 might as well lead him to lupprefs this, as to difguife the 

 paifage through the Red fea, and the Divine Voice from 

 mount Sinai, in fo mean and foolilh a manner, as it is known 

 he does. Befidts, the relation which this fact bore to the 

 hiftoiy of Jefus, would make him peculiarly cautious io 

 treating upon it, as it would have been difficult to handle it 

 at once with decency and fafety. The ingenious and learned 

 bilhop Pearce, in his excellent " Vindication of Chri'.t's 

 Miracles," p. 68, &c. agrees with Dr. Doddndge in the 

 moll material circumftances of his hypothefis. 



BETH-GAMUL, the boufi of the mcaned, or ef the 

 camel, a city of the Moabites in the tribe of Reuben. Jer. 

 xlviii. 23. 



BETH-JESHIMOTH, the houfe of defolation, or, of 

 pofitinv, or, of denow'mathn, a tity of Reuben (Jolh. xiii, 20.) 

 aiterwards polfcncd by the Moabites. Ezek. xxv. 9. 



BETH LEBAOTH, the houfe of liomjhs, a city of Si- 

 meon, (Jofh. xix. 6.) lometimcs called Lebaoth. Jo(h. 

 XV. 32. 



BETHLEHEM, the houfe of head, a city of Judah, 

 (Jofh. xvii. 7,) generally called " Dtfthlchem of Judah,'' 



M m ta 



