As regards this last site there is, of course, much difference of opinion. Bethesda could not be at Siloam, for that pool is mentioned by its old name in the same Gospel.[289] Bethesda in Hebrew means “the house of the stream,” and all we know about it is that it was near the “Sheep Place,” and that it had “five cloisters.” Here the blind, halt, and withered lay “waiting for the disturbance of the waters.” It is remarkable that the text of the three oldest manuscripts of the fourth Gospel--the Alexandrian, Vatican, and Sinaitic uncials--here differs in several respects from that of later copies; and the three differ from one another. The Alexandrian alone has the words, “for an angel of the Lord washed at a certain season in the pool,” instead of the verse as it stands in our English Bible. The Sinaitic text calls it “a sheep pool,” and names it Bethzatha. The Vatican reads Bethsaida; and, strangely enough, all three uncials omit the words “waiting for the disturbance of the water,” for it is very unlikely that this remarkable indication was not given in the original. It evidently existed in some text as early as 330 A. D. (that is, earlier than either of the uncials), for the first pilgrim, who places Bethsaida at the “Twin Pools,” says that “they have five porches where those who had been ill for many years were healed, and the water was perturbed as though boiling.” A fifth-century writer speaks of the water as being red, and probably follows Eusebius and Jerome, who say: “Twin pools are shown, one of which is usually filled by the winter rains, but the other in wondrous wise is red, as though the bloody water testified to the ancient use; for they say that the victims used to be washed therein by the priests, for which cause it was named”--that is, “the Sheep Pool.”[290]