The Pool of Siloam

Okay, I haven’t posted anything on here in over a month. It is a bit difficult to get back in rhythm after all the holidays.  By the way, a happy belated new year, 2016, to all. Now, I suppose we can get back into writing a bit. I don’t really have any special commentary or essay at this time, but whenever that happens, I can always share something I recently read that I feel would be worthwhile for all to read, so here is something. I suppose that many of us know the story in the Gospel of John in which Jesus heals a man that was blind from birth by spitting on the ground, making clay with it, putting the clay in the man’s eyes, and later telling him to wash in the Siloam Pool. Well, in case you don’t know it, I am sharing John 9: 1-11below, so you can read it for yourself.

[1] As he passed by, he saw a man blind from his birth.

[2] And his disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"

[3] Jesus answered, "It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be made manifest in him.

[4] We must work the works of him who sent me, while it is day; night comes, when no one can work.

[5] As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world."

[6] As he said this, he spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle and anointed the man's eyes with the clay,

[7] saying to him, "Go, wash in the pool of Silo'am" (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.

[8] The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar, said, "Is not this the man who used to sit and beg?"

[9] Some said, "It is he"; others said, "No, but he is like him." He said, "I am the man."

[10] They said to him, "Then how were your eyes opened?"

[11] He answered, "The man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and said to me, `Go to Silo'am and wash'; so I went and washed and received my sight (RSV Bible)."

There is more to the story in context, but this gives a basic understanding of it. You probably thought that I was going to give some sort of exposition on the story, but I am not. This post is just a bit of archeological apologetics. That pool was not some fictional place. It was a real place in history for which we have archeological evidence. I wanted to share this article on the pool from the Biblical Archaeology Society titled: The Siloam Pool: Where Jesus Healed the Blind Man. I hope you enjoy reading and getting more acquainted with the historical background of the pool which dates about eight centuries before Jesus. Blessings and the article is below!

The Siloam Pool: Where Jesus Healed the Blind Man - Biblical Archaeology Society

References:

http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-sites-places/biblical-archaeology-sites/the-siloam-pool-where-jesus-healed-the-blind-man/?mqsc=E3824051.

RSV Bible