In the Swim...

One of the most beautiful passages in the astonishingly beautiful Gospel of St. John is Christ's healing of the man born blind:

"And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. ...

"And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam. He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing."

Some Biblical scholars have interpreted the pool of Siloam as purely metaphorical. But Christianity Today reports that archeologists have found what appears to be that very pool.

"'To dismiss John as not historically important is absurd,' [Princeton Theological Seminary Professor James] Charlesworth said. 'Now it becomes clear that the Gospel of John does have reliable historical information. We have found there is such a pool, precisely as John describes it.'

"Tradition has always located the Pool of Siloam near the end of Hezekiah's water tunnel, which dates to the eighth century B.C. The pool under excavation is just a few yards from a much smaller Byzantine-era pool that visitors to the area had been calling the Pool of Siloam."