The Pool of Siloam

The Pool of Siloam lay undiscovered until 2004. Then a drainage repair crew, working on pipe maintenance south of the Old City of Jerusalem, uncovered large stone steps that had led to an ancient pool dating from the first century BC. Until then, a much smaller pool 50 metres north-west, at the end of Hezekiah’s Tunnel, had been regarded as the Pool of Siloam.

Josephus describes the waters of the Pool of Siloam as "sweet and abundant."

The Gospel of John tells how: "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."

This poem is about the pool, and the angel, and healing. It was written in 2004. The window is the stained glass window on the healing at the pool seen at St Aubin Methodist Church.

The Pool of Siloam

Wait, beside the still waters of my pool
Here come all, the believer and the fool
On paving, they lay down in pain to wait
For the hour to come, come not too late
I see them stretched out, aching limbs
Those with failing sight, vision dims
Simple folk, of understanding poor,
But seeking a way, to grasp my lore
Those possessed by inner demons bad
And those who have been driven mad
Come to my pool, seek healing here
Within this sacred place, I co-inhere
Then the time has come, I move unseen
And my touch heals where I have been
None more so, than sacred waters now
I touch them, they move not anyhow
But with ripple reaching out and on
With healing in motion thereupon
My appointed task, upon this spot
I bring restoration, cast not by lot
But by hidden providence behind
That which I show to humankind.