Intro
In Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, claimed that the miracle of the pool of Bethesda put the prophethood of Jesus in doubt because of the fact an angel was said to frequent this pool every spring (see my essay on this same topic herein)(Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya, part 4, English translation, page 31).
That being said, I want to share some interesting findings in regards to the famous story described in the Bible: The healing of a blind man at the Pool of Bethesda by Jesus Christ found in John 5:2-5. Preached in the churches, and one of the verses they use to prove he’s God. This story is described as one of the 7 miraculous signs in John in describing what Christ did.
Responding to the Christian dogma, and explaining the difference between “true miracles”, and the miracles of past scriptures before the Quran being simple fables and tales, the founder of Ahmadiyya, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, in his fifth preliminary point of part 4 of Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya, mentions this well-known Biblical passage. Within this point, MGA’s objective in this argument is this:
“A miracle which man’s intellect recognizes and testifies to be from Allah is thousands of times better than the miracles that are narrated in the form of mere fables and tales. There are two reasons for this preference. The first is that reported miracles cannot be considered by us—who were born hundreds of years after their occurrence—as witnessed and experienced phenomena. Moreover, since these are reports that have reached us, they cannot be accorded the same degree of credibility as seen and observed phenomena. Secondly, such reported miracles, as are beyond the realm of reason to understand, cannot fully satisfy even those who witness them. This is because there are many wondrous feats which are frequently exhibited by conjurors.” (Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya, part 4, English translation, page 31).
He then continues with his comments on John 5:2-5:
“These doubts have not arisen only in our age; rather, it is quite possible that similar questions may have originated at the time of their occurrence. For instance, it is written in the Gospel of John, chapter 5, verses 2 to 5:
‘Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches.
In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. For 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. And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. When [Yasu‘] Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole? The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me.’
Obviously, when a person who denies the prophethood of Hadrat ‘Isa [Jesus] and his miracles reads this passage of John and discovers the ancient pool in the land of Hadrat ‘Isa, which always had the peculiarity that a single dip could heal every kind of illness—no matter how severe—the strong suspicion would inevitably arise in his mind that if Hadrat Masih [the Messiah] did, in fact, perform any wondrous miracles, he would have certainly done so by using the water from this pool. Many examples of such precedents have always been found in the world and exist even today.”
(Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya, part 4, English translation, pp. 31-32)
MGA claimed this Biblical passage of the healing of the blind man in the pool of Bethesda, puts the Prophethood of Hazrat Jesus within doubt had the Quran not testified to the truth of his prophethood. The problem with MGA’s argument about this miracle is that it’s a fabricated Bible passage, and technically, scholars do not believe that this miracle happened either in early New Testament manuscripts.
Let me expand on this: There was a Jewish legend at the time in which, apparently an angel has been arriving for many centuries during a certain season, healing anyone who was lucky enough to jump into the pool.
Barclay’s Daily Study Bible states on John 5:2-5:
“When Jesus arrived in Jerusalem he was apparently alone; there is no mention of his disciples. He found his way to a famous pool. Its name was either Bethesda, which means House of Mercy, or more likely, Bethzatha which means House of the Olive. The better manuscripts all have the second name, and we know from Josephus that there was a quarter of Jerusalem actually known as Bethzatha. The word for pool kolumbethron (G2861), which comes from the verb kolumban (G2860), to dive. The pool was deep enough to swim in. The passage we have put in brackets is not in any of the greatest and best manuscripts and was probably added later as an explanation of what people were doing at the pool. Beneath the pool was a subterranean stream which every now and again bubbled up and disturbed the waters. The belief was that the disturbance was caused by an angel, and that the first person to get into the pool after the troubling of the water would be healed from any illness from which he was suffering.
To us this is mere superstition. But it was the kind of belief which was spread all over the world in ancient days and which still exists in certain places. People believed in all kinds of spirits and demons. The air was thick with them; they had their abodes in certain places; every tree, every river, every stream, every hill, every pool had its resident spirit.
Further, ancient peoples were specially impressed with the holiness of water and especially of rivers and springs. Water was so precious and rivers in spate could be so powerful that it is not surprising that they were so impressed. In the west we may know water only as something which comes out of a tap; but in the ancient world, as in many places still today, water was the most valuable and potentially the most dangerous of all things.”
(Barclay’s Daily Study Bible, John 5)
Note how the commentary states there was an interpolated verse in brackets. Around the time M.G.A was making his claims, Christian scholars were making newfound discoveries of older Greek manuscripts of the New Testament. The oldest-neither containing the second part of the sentence of John 5:3 as well as the entirety of John 5:4 not being mentioned (Jesus and the Gospels, 2009 edition, pp. 84, by Craig Blomberg) & Misquoting Jesus, pp. 98, by Bart Ehrman).
Therefore, this would mean that the evangelist who wrote the Gospel of John according to the earliest manuscripts of the new testament did not include this verse and the later editions of the Westcott-Hort and Nestle-Aland of the Greek New Testament in which, English Bible translations are based from, either they put John 5:4 in brackets or omitted the verse entirely such as the English Standard Version, New International Version, and New World Translation (Jehovah’s Witness Bible), and thus renders MGA’s argument that Jesus was no different than magicians mute.
The passage under discussion is based on the Textus Receptus, in which the King James Version New Testament is translated from. Now, within 15 years of the publication of Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya, the discoveries of many ancient Greek papyrus of the New Testament only served to backfire in MGA’s attack on this passage.
The passage was proven to be fabricated, and therefore, can MGA be from God if he didn’t know he was using a verse that’s not from the Bible in its earliest manuscripts? After all, Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya is supposed to prove the claim of M.G.A and driven by divine revelation, and yet, his God failed to tell him it’s a fabricated passage and he should not include it?
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Links and Related Essay’s
https://www.alislam.org/book/barahin-e-ahmadiyya-part-iv/
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#ahmadiyya #ahmadiyyafactcheckblog #messiahhascome #ahmadiyyat #trueislam #ahmadianswers #mirzaghulamahmad #qadiani #qadianism
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