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(John 9) As he passed by he saw a man blind from birth.
His disciples asked him, "rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"
Jesus answered, "neither he nor his parents sinned; it is so that the works of God might be visible through him.
We have to do the works of the one who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work.
While I am in the world, I am the light of the world." When he said this, he spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva, and smeared the clay on his eyes, and said to him, "Go wash in the Pool of Siloam" (which means Sent). So he went and washed, and came back able to see.
The original Pool of Siloam has been discovered in Jerusalem, according to the LA Times. The pool pictured above is of the reconstructed one, built by Empress Eudocia in the early 5th Century. (So this is not the Siloam Pool of the time of Jesus)
The pool of Siloam (of the time of Jesus) was excavated during the summer of 2004. Discovered while crews were working on new sewer lines. A pool where those entering the temple would come to cleanse themselves. This would make it an important gathering place for those making pilgrimages to the temple.
You see that the pool is at a low level of the present city. A staircase leads down for present day visitors. It is hard to tell how much of the pool exists as over the centuries much rebuilding and destruction of Jerusalem has occured. But, this pool is too narrow for the large number of people that would have come to cleanse themselves before entering the temple. Where was/is a pool large enough? Does it still exist?
The Book of John then relates how the blind man's neighbors question and argue over the healing and is this really the blind man. He is then taken to the Pharisees. A possible model of the pool of Siloam...read the rest of John 9 to see their trickery.
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