out. There were hundreds at the pool, holding their breath, looking for the moment a celestial being might descend and fan the sacred waters with angel’s wings. At least, this was the legend. It was a fool’s hope, but that was all they had left. In The Gospel According to John, D. A. Carson writes that historians have found that the water of this natural fountain was fed by “underground, intermittent springs, which caused the water to turn red at times and [it was] thought to be medicinal (chalybeate).”3