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Bethany beyond the Jordan - location profile

Location and Setting

• "These things took place in Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing" (John 1:28; 10:40). Several sites have been proposed for the location of John’s baptizing, referred to as "Bethany beyond the Jordan."
• The problem is that no known record or tradition indicates that a village by the name of Bethany ever existed on the east side of the Jordan river.
• It is evident that the reference to this Bethany as being beyond (presumably meaning "on the other, the far side of") the Jordan river is intended to distinguish it from the well-known Bethany on the southeastern slope of the Mount of Olives. This distinction is emphasized in comparing John 10:40 with other passages that locate Bethany near Jerusalem. The former reference states that, "And He went away again beyond the Jordan to the place where John was first baptizing. . ." This contrasts with references to Bethany in John 11:1; 12:1; Matt 21:17. The location of this Bethany is confirmed by John, who often visited this village, "Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off" (John 12:18).
• There is a strong tradition from the Byzantine period for locating the place of John’s baptism some fifty yards from the east bank of the Jordan river, just north of where it enters the Dead Sea. There is no archaeological evidence for this site, however.
• In favor of this site in the southern Jordan Valley, is the fact that immediately after His baptism, Jesus went up into the wilderness to be tested by Satan (Luke 4:1-13). The most obvious location of the wilderness would be the barren hills behind Jericho, the "wilderness of Judea." This would place John’s baptism in the traditional location.
• If John baptized near the ford of the Jordan, just north of the Dead Sea, his ministry of preaching the kingdom and calling for repentance would have been very public. Traffic from the land east of the Jordan and from the King’s Highway moving to the west would pass nearby. When these travelers later arrived at Jerusalem, they would spread the news of the unusual events they had witnessed at the Jordan on their way. On the other hand, people from Judea who would be drawn to hear John preach, would have to brave the dangerous road down through the wilderness described in the incident of the Good Samaritan.
• Incidental support for this lower Jordan location comes from the conversion of Zaccheus (Luke 19:1-10). His response to meeting Jesus was to report that he had demonstrated his repentance in the exact terms that John had prescribed (compare Luke 3:11-14 to Luke 19:8). Zaccheus lived in Jericho, virtually within sight of a Bethany beyond the Jordan just north of the Dead Sea. This suggests that John had been baptizing nearby and that Zaccheus had heard him and responded to his message.
• An alternate location for John’s ministry has been proposed by Pixner and Riesner. This view is based on the independent conclusion of several scholars that, in light of variations of spelling in the first century, Bethany should be understood as Batanea. The location then would have been in the region of the Yarmuk River, which drained the Lower Golan (Bashan) area east of the Sea of Galilee. This, of course, would place John’s baptism "beyond Jordan," as the text states.
• This location of Bethany in the north would support the sequence of days John mentions (John 1:19- 2:12). A Batanea location would have placed Jesus closer to Bethsaida, the home of Peter, Andrew and Philip who met Jesus where John was baptizing. Also, this location would have been nearer to Capernaum, the home of John, who, with Andrew, met privately with Jesus. After three days, we find them in Cana of Galilee, about thirty-five miles from Batanea. (This latter time and distance reference is not determinative, however. The three days could also have referred to travel from the lower Jordan area to Cana.)
• An important line of evidence for this location rests on the four day time framework involved in Jesus’ return from where John was baptizing to Bethany. Pixner and Riesner point out that only if this location were in the north could we reconstruct the travel sequence John records (John 10:40; 11:1-17). Since a Bethany opposite Jericho would be only one day’s travel from the Bethany of Mary and Martha, Jesus’ arrival there four days after Lazarus’ death would necessitate his having died and being buried the same day as the messengers arrived, that is, the first day. Jesus then would have waited two days before traveling up to Bethany on the fourth day. On the other hand, a Bethany beyond Jordan in the north, would require a three to four day journey to reach the Jerusalem area. Lazarus would not have died, then, until the moment Jesus announced to His disciples that he had "fallen asleep" (John 11:11).
• Against this view is the fact that representatives of the Pharisees and others from Jerusalem came to investigate John’s baptizing, apparently in great numbers. Although it would have been possible for them to find John in Batanea in the north, a location closer to Jerusalem seems more likely. In addition, Batanea was situated in the largely Gentile Decapolis region of Transjordan, a less likely place for John to announce "the kingdom is at hand," and call Jews to repentance in preparation for it.
• John was also said to have been baptizing at Aenon near Salim (John 3:23), a site probably located about eight miles south of Beth-shan near the west bank of the Jordan River. This would suggest that John probably baptized in several locations, on each side of the river. Since Salim lies about half way between the traditional lower Jordan location of his ministry and Batanea, it is possible that as he moved up the Jordan Valley, he eventually came to the northern location proposed by Pixner and Riesner. The absence of specific site identification in the text usually means that a place was so well known that the reader would require no further indication of its location. This apparently is the case with the designation, "Bethany beyond the Jordan," the sole purpose of the name being to distinguish it from the Bethany near Jerusalem. The location of this site, probably only one of several of John’s ministry, remains an open question although each of the two locations discussed have some support.

Historical and Biblical Significance

• The importance of Bethany beyond the Jordan lies in its being the place where John the Baptist ministered. His role was unique in several ways and of great historical importance. John was the last of the series of prophets who had been predicting Messiah’s coming. He alone could say, "the kingdom is at hand," meaning, the king had arrived in person and therefore the establishment of His kingdom was imminent. He was the forerunner of Messiah, specifically predicated by Malachi (3:1; 4:5,6; Luke 7:27). He was also the "voice crying in the wilderness" prophesied by Isaiah (Isaiah 40:3; Matt 3:3; Mark 1:2,3).
• John’s message was unique. He not only called on his people to repent, as other prophets had done, but he commanded them to be baptized. Observant Jews of Jesus’ day washed, or "baptized" themselves in the many mikvoth (small stone structures that held water, situated near a synagogue or at the south wall of the temple). John’s baptism was different, however. It was administered by a second person (John or, later, by some of Jesus’ disciples). This was the kind of ritual that was required of Gentiles who converted to Judaism, a procedure that demonstrated their total change of identity. In the case of John’s baptism of Jews, it meant that they had renounced their dependence on their Jewish birth as qualifying them to enter the kingdom, that they had come as sinners (like Gentiles!), on the basis of God’s grace.
• The land on the east side of the Jordan river, just north of the Dead Sea, was a silent witness to historical events. If John preached and baptized there, he would have been doing so in the same place where God swept Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind hundreds of years earlier (2 Kgs 2:5-11). This may have accounted, in part, for his being asked, "Are you Elijah?" (John 1:21,25). This question may also have been related to Malachi’s prophecy of Elijah’s coming (Malachi 4:5,6), a prediction also given by Gabriel to Zacharias when he announced John’s birth (Luke 1:17). Fourteen hundred years before, this site was known as the Plains of Moab. Here, Israel gathered to cross the Jordan into Canaan, and here Moses delivered his message recorded in the book of Deuteronomy.

Bibliography

1. Bimson, John J., ed. Baker Encyclopedia of Bible Places. Leicester: Inter-Varsity Press, 1995.
2. Pixner, Bargil. With Jesus through Galilee According to the Fifth Gospel. Rosh Pina: Corazin Publishing, 1992.
3. Riesner, R. "Bethany beyond the Jordan (John 1:28)" Tyndale Bulletin. (Vol. 38, 1987): 26-33.
4. Rousseau, John J. and Rami Arav. Jesus and His World: An Archaeological and Cultural Dictionary. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1995.