PROBATICA. - The “sheep” gate (προβατική), in Jerusalem. An ancient tradition, Eastern and Western, has identified P., on the basis of certain Greek codices and the Vulgate (“est autem Ierosolymis p. piscina quae cognominatur hebraice Bethsaida” : Io. 5, 1), with the pool where Jesus healed the man who had been paralysed for 38 years. The original Greek text Bethsaida (v.) “near the P. [gate]” (= 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-eastern corner of the walls of the Temple and directly opposite the pool of Bethsaida.
A few supply κολυμβήθρα, “pool,” obtaining the sense: “near [the P. pool] there is another pool...”. Under this hypothesis, P. would be Birket Isrā'il, the large pool likewise 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 (now filled in except for the north-western corner). The pool, which stands opposite that of the paralytic, was used for washing the sheep offered in the Temple. Archaeologists, however, are not agreed as to its origin, since it is not mentioned by Flavius Josephus in his history of the siege of the city. Generally, the reading “near the P. gate” is preferred.