PROBATICA. - The "sheep" gate (προβατική), in Jerusalem. An ancient tradition, both Eastern and Western, has identified, on the basis of certain Greek codices and of the Vulgate ("est autem Ierosolymis p. piscina quae cognominatur hebraice Bethsaida": Jn. 5, 1), the P. with the pool where Jesus healed the paralytic of 38 years. The original Greek text, however, locates the pool Bethsaida (v.) "near the [gate] P." (= ἐπὶ τῇ προβατικῇ). Exegetes usually supply, in the Greek text, the noun "gate = πόλη," that is, "near [the gate] P." or "of the sheep" mentioned in Neh. 3, 1. 21; 12, 8, situated at the north-east corner of the walls of the Temple and directly opposite the pool Bethsaida.
A few supply κολυμβήθρα, "pool," obtaining the sense: "near [the pool] P. there is another pool..." In this hypothesis the P. would be Birket Isrā'īl, the great pool also situated north of the Temple or of the northern wall of the Haram cō-Serif, 109.73 m. long, 38.4 wide and 25 deep (today filled in except for the north-west corner). The pool, which is opposite that of the paralytic, served for the washing of the sheep that were offered at the Temple. Archaeologists, however, do not agree on its origin, since it is not mentioned by Flavius Josephus in the history of the siege of the city. Generally the reading "near the gate P." is preferred.
Bibliography2 works
Donato Baldi