I dropped by one of our Connect Groups this week – just a quick “hello”, then intending to move on. But, before I left, they asked if I could answer a question that emerged from John’s Gospel, concerning the lame man at the Pool of Bethesda. Many of you will recall the story. Jesus approached this man who had lain at this pool for 38 years. He was an invalid and, basically, on his own – there was no social welfare back then, and he had no one. Thirty-eight years lame is a very long time of incapacity. And alone.
Who had set the man down here, we are not told. Neither are we told all that much about the pool, itself. We don’t know whether it was a hot pool fed by some underground thermal spring, or whether it was a cold-water pool, we don’t know. All we do know is what we have in John’s narrative, and it was considered a place of healing - for some reason it had gained a reputation for having medicinal properties. Maybe it did, maybe it didn’t. If it did have medicinal properties why did these only work when the water was stirred? Well, we don’t know, either. Here’s John’s take …
John 5:2-5 (NIV)
“Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralysed. 5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.”
John 5:2-5 (KJV)
“Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches. 3 In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. 4 For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. 5 And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years.”
You’ll notice that the King James Version includes a “verses 3b- 4” (as does the TLB, and ASV in italics, meaning it is a later interpolation) whereas all modern translations omit a “verses 3b-4” reference to an angel “troubling” or “stirring” the water. The KJV inclusion points to some divine moment of healing that was apparently divinely (and randomly) available – but only if you were first into the water as the stirring started. Is God that arbitrary about us human beings? Really? Why is the verses 3b-4 reference omitted in the modern translations? That’s an interesting question!
In 1604, King James I authorised a new translation of the Bible. His purpose was to settle some complex religious differences in his kingdom, contrary to romantic notions of the scriptures suddenly being available to the masses. That was only partly true, and partly, he was keen to shore up his own power – which is a whole other story I haven’t space to discuss here. But, in attempting a version of the scriptures that reinforced his kingship, he actually succeeded in democratising the Bible instead. In other words, one key aim of the translation was for political purposes, and not necessarily the faithful translation of the ancient texts.
Be that, as it may, at the time the KJV of the bible was created, many of the manuscripts and advanced linguistic tools that became available three centuries later, such as the discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls, were not available. The earliest manuscripts do not have what we now call verses 3b-4 with mention of an angel. All we do have is an allusion to an expectancy of invalids waiting for the water to stir, viz.,
John 5:6-7 (NIV)
When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, He asked him, "Do you want to get well?" 7 "Sir," the invalid replied, "I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me."
That’s it. No appearance of any angel. The vast majority of modern scholars hold to the view that later manuscripts included “verses 3b & 4” (or what we now know as verses 3b-4) in an attempt to explain the invalid’s response to Jesus which, by itself didn’t appear to make a lot of sense. C. K. Barrett, for example, argues that later copyists were attempting to “free the text from difficulties” (presumably any embarrassment concerning unexplained superstition). The stirring of the waters reference, if left unexplained, could look as if Jesus (who didn’t mention it) was condoning some kind of superstition. And so the invalid’s reply was “explained” in some respectful way. But the facts are the earliest manuscripts of John’s gospel never mentioned any angel stirring anything. The later emendation of the text as we have it today was revealed as earlier and more reliable and unaltered texts were discovered. (The other issue was that later copies of manuscripts had different versions of the interventionist angel, i.e. “it was thought that an angel of the Lord” etc.)
So, where does all this leave us? One of John’s points with the man’s response was that he was relying on legend, myth and superstition for healing – and this was not working and had led to profound disappointment and loss of hope. Enter Jesus. He sees the invalid, learns his story and determines to do something about it. John is not at all “embarrassed” that Jesus is even in such a place of alternative healing! I mean, where would we expect Jesus to be?
John contrasts (among other things) the stark difference between desperately holding on to superstition for physical healing, and the real and available healing power of Jesus, which is not arbitrary and random.
The later copyists in their (probably) sincere efforts to “free the text from problems” have obscured this aspect of the narrative and create more problems than they think they solve! God is not at all embarrassed at finding us in the darkness and hopeless bondage of our condition and deeply desiring to prompt us to trust Him for something New Age or alternative therapies and superstitions can never accomplish. While an angel in the legend was thought to have stirred the waters for some lucky soul, Jesus approaches in compassion and stirs faith and hope – and that always leads to life – for all. And there’s nothing random about it.
Think on these things …
Ps Milton
(Sources: The Gospel of John, by C. K. Barrett; King James Bible; Halley’s Bible Handbook; Interpreters Dictionary of the Bible; Greek New Testament Textual Commentary; collected file notes)