THE BIBLICAL JORDAN
New Testament Events

More than eight centuries after the time of Elijah and Elisha, John the Baptist would be the next major biblical figure to appear in the land of Jordan. He first appears in the Bible in the wilderness around the lower Jordan Valley, where he lived an ascetic life, preached a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, and told people to prepare for the coming of the Messiah. The Bible reports that John preached and baptized in a place called Bethany beyond the Jordan, which Byzantine and Medieval texts as well as modern archaeology identify as the site called Tell al-Kharra and Eliha's hill. This site has long been identified as the same place from which tradition says Elijah ascended to heaven. It was appropriate for John the Baptist to appear and begin his mission at the same place from where Elijah ended his own, for both of these leading biblical prophets played similar theological and spiritual roles: they confronted the religious laxity of their times, challenged political authority, announced the imminent arrival of the Messiah, and urged people to repent and live a righteous life.

The area around the large loop in the Jordan River opposite Jericho has been identified for nearly two millennia as the area where Jesus Christ was baptized by John the Baptist. Stunning archaeological discovers since 1997 between the Jordan River and Tell al-Kharrar have identified this area as Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was living when he baptized Jesus (John 1:28). John 10:40 refers to this same place when it says that, fleeing for his safety after being threatened with stoning in Jerusalem, “Jesus went back across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing in the early days”.

Pottery, coin, stone objects and architectural remains confirm the site was used in the early 1 st century AD, during the time of Jesus and John the Baptist. The extensive architectural remains visible on the main sire are from a 5 th -6 th century Byzantine monastery, with churches, baptism and water storage pools, water systems and chapels. A 3 rd century building with fine mosaics has been called an early Christian “prayer hallo”. If this identification is correct, this may be on of the earliest Christian prayer facilities identified anywhere in the world. Also identified here is the cave where, according to numerous Byzantine pilgrim's texts, John the Baptist lived and baptized. The pilgrims noted that fresh water flowed out of the cave, and John drank the water and used it for baptism. The cave was turned into a church in the Byzantine period. The church built around the cave, and a water channel emerging from the cave, have been recently excavated and can be visited today.

Closer to the Jordan River are four other Byzantine churches and large pools with an extensive water system, archaeologically dated to the 5 th -6 th centuries AD. These facilities were mentioned in text by Byzantine writers, who linked them with the tradition of Jesus' baptism on the eastern bank of the river.

This area and its settlements was known in the period from Jesus' time to the 6 th century AD by several different names in different languages, including Bethabara, Bethania, Ainon and Saphsaphas. The site is depicted and named on t he 6 th century AD mosaic map of the Holy Land located in Madaba. Today the area is called in Arabic al-Maghtas. New roads and visitor facilities now make the site easily accessible from Amman, the Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea.

John the Baptist, who started and ended his mission in Jordan, is the patron saint of Jordan for Roman Catholic Christians. Herod Antipas imprisoned John. We know from the writings of the 1 st century AD Roman-Jewish historian Josephus that the Herodian palace/fort where John was imprisoned and be headed was the awe-inspiring site of Machaerus, a hilltop fortified palace overlooking the central Dead Sea region and the hills of Palestine and Israel. The site is easily reached by car in 25 minutes from Madaba. Here John the Baptist was beheaded after Salome's fateful dance (Matthew 14:3-11).