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Bethesda(bĕthĕz`də, –thĕs`–), pool in Jerusalem, perhaps the one discovered under the Crusaders' Church of St. Anne near St. Stephen's Gate in the northeast corner of the city. According to the Gospel of St. John, its healing properties, which made it the resort of the sick, were the result of an angel's visits.
Bethesda,uninc. city (1990 pop. 62,936), Montgomery co., W central Md., an affluent residential and commercial suburb of Washington, D.C. The area was settled in the late 17th cent. and takes its name from the 1820 Bethesda Presbyterian Church. The National Institutes of Health (1939), the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center are there, along with many private research facilities.
Jerusalem pool, believed to have curative powers. [N.T.: John 5:2–4]
1. New Testament a pool in Jerusalem reputed to have healing powers, where a paralytic was healed by Jesus (John 5:2)
2. a chapel of any of certain Nonconformist Christian sects