New Testament 258

Commercial indeed. — The popular baptismal site at Yardenit
(Click to enlarge.)

In the preceding installment (New Testament 257: “Jesus at the Feast of Dedication in Jerusalem”), Jesus was on the western side of the Jordan River, high up on the north-south mountain ridge that runs through Judea, in the city of Jerusalem.

Now, he withdraws “across the Jordan to the place where John [the Baptist] at first baptized.”

This verse is one of many suggesting that the popular baptismal location up northwards at Yardenit, just south of the Sea of Galilee, cannot possibly be the site of Jesus’ baptism by John. (If you’ve been to Israel, the odds are very good that you’ve been there; tours routinely pull in there, and it is, admittedly, a pretty and peaceful spot, well-developed by the Jewish kibbutz that runs it, charges for admission, and has a very well-stocked and very profitable gift shop on the scene.)

The Jordanian baptismal site — Jesus may actually have been baptized right here. The Jordan River is much smaller than it once was (owing to much larger populations and much more intensive agriculture on both of its banks, siphoning off much of its water, and to a decades-long drought that has reduced both the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea), so the specific place is currently dry. But the river is directly adjacent to it.
(Click on this image, created by “High Contrast” and kindly placed for fair use on Wikimedia Commons, to enlarge it.)

I’m quite confident that John baptized much further south, and that he was on the eastern bank of the river, in what is now the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Very old local traditions identify a specific location, and I see no obvious reason to reject the idea that they’re more or less correct.

Jordan's Bathabara, a church — A modern church at the Jordanian baptismal site
(Click to enlarge.)
Intriguingly, the site is also strongly associated by tradition with the ministry of the Prophet Elijah.

I first went to that site from the Jordanian side many years ago, in company with the then-president of BYU, Elder Merrill J. Bateman, and the president of the University of Jordan who was showing us around. Since then, the site has been considerably developed on both the Jordanian and Israeli sides of the river, and increasing numbers of tours and tourists visit it. If you visit Israel (or Jordan), that’s where you should go.

Madaba Map detaill — The sixth-century “Madaba Map” shows Bethabara (Βέθαβαρά το τού άγίου Ιωάννου τού βαπτίσματος: “Bethabara, the place of St. John’s baptizing”) as very close to the Dead Sea, much further south than Yardenit.
(Click to enlarge.)