I'm sure that christian apologists could invent all kind of reasons for Jesus to enter such a temple, but this story also
begs the question, as to why so many Jews were waiting in that temple for Asclepius to heal them?
But we should read the account in John 5:1-4 first:
"After this there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
2 Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda,
having five porches. 3 In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the
moving of the water. 4 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."
Here's a model of the pool, the remains of which have been found.
Most of western Asia (including Palestine and Judah if you wish a distinction) had long been in the hands of
conquerors (Babylon, Iran, Greece and Rome), all of whom left their mark on the religion of the Jews, the last two
most of all.
Asclepius, the divine son of Apollo (whom some scholars suggest may have been a model for Jesus, that is, the
divine Jesus, (in contrast to the human Jesus), was the Greek god of healing. Healing temples (called Asclepion)
were built through the domains of both the Greek Empire and the succeeding Roman Empire.
Here's a representation of Asclepius:
You'll likely see straight away his staff, encircled with a serpent is still used today as a symbol used by healingservices.
Apollo, Asclepius's father was also a healer, but in Hellenistic mythology, Asclepius surpasssed his father, to the
point where he could bring others back to life from the brink of death and beyond. That helps explain why the gospel
accounts place such an emphasis that their writers imagined Jesus healing and resurrecting the dead.
Even his daughters names are still with us today. One daughter was Hygieia, from which we derive the word hygiene,
and another daughter named Panacea, which name we use for substances thought to be universal remedies.