The Mouniks in the Jordan 'Vali-ey.— All over the Jordan Valley moumis or ' Tells ' are found, of arlilicial formation, from 50 to ItK) ft. in height. They stand at the entrance to every wftdy where there is a passage for trallic, and appear in these cn-ies to nave ijeen placed there to guard the dwellers in the jdain from marauders from the hill-country. They appear usually to be formed of remains of sun-dried bricks, probably in some cases the ruins of ancient walls and castles, and in other ciuscs the sites where the bricks were moulded and dried. Near Beisnn alone there are 20 of these tells, apparently of the same character as those at .lericho. They usually occur in the vicinity of water.
The mounds of Jericho were examined by the present writer in Feb. 1S68. Nine mounds were cut tlirough— two at Winhj Kelt, three at '/lin m- Siiltiln, and four within a short distance of the sjiring head. The trenilie.s were cut across from eiisl lo west to get shelter from tin! sun a^ much
as possible. During the daj'time the sun wa« scorching, at night it was bitterly cold. After the trenches were cut 8 ft. deep, the work was con- tinued by shafts 8 ft. sijuare at intervals of 4 to 6 ft., as the clay composing the mounds would not stand the cutting of one deep trench. Very little was found except pottery jars, and stone mortars for grinding corn. The general result was that the mounds were artilicial, of sunburnt brick in a very fiia'ule condition, abounding in fragments of pottery. A few solid-lookin" jars were found (now in the PEF Museum). The pottery in the u[)per portion of these mounds was Roman and later (illT iii. 225).
Scene OF ouu Lokd's Baptism. — When John tlis Baptist was preaching in the wilderness ofJudiea, ' Tlien went out to him Jerusalem and all Jiida?a, and all the region round about Jordan, and were bajitized of him in the river Jordan. Then coiiieth Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John to ijc bap- tized of him.' ' These things weredone in Bethabara (RV Bethany, in some MSS Betharabah *), beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing ' (Jn 1*'). 'Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil ' {Mt4'). 'And straight- way the Spirit driveth him forth into the wilder- ness' (Mk 1'-').
There is not sufficient information here to fix the position on the Jordan of the scene of the baptism, but it leads to the inference that it was on the east side of the Jordan opposite to the desert of Juda'a, and not so far north as Samaria. This place, Bethabara [which .see] (or Bethany), beyond Jordan, was again visited by our Lord, anil He abode there (Jn lO"). The word 'dbdrdh occurs in the OT in connexion with the Jordan. In 2 S 19'" KV tr. it * ferry-boat' (Gesenius 'a ferry-boat' or 'raft'); 2S 15'-^ 11" AV reading (n3-i;) 'in the plains,' RV reading (m^y) 'at the fords,' Ewald, Gesenius, Gratz, 'at the fords'; Jg 7** Beth- barah, ' house of passage,' (?) Gesenius. There are also three ca.ses in which the word inabdrdh ('a ford ' ; Gesenius, from the root dhar, ' to pass over ') is tr'' ' the fords' (of the Jordan), Jg 3'-"* 12', .los 2'. The inference is that Beth-ubarah is the resting-place on the other side.
Stanley (Sin. and Pal. p. 311) gives 'the house of a ship' (i;;.;;) as the meaning of Bethania (Bethany) ; the meaning given by Sinionis is pre- ferred by many, viz. ".'JJ,';, locus dcpressinni.'i, which seems to agree exactly with the conditions, a de- pressed plain beyond the fords of Jordan. The other word is Beth-arabah (the name of a town west of Jordan, Jos 15* etc.). The Arabah, however, is the term used for the desert plain of the Jordan, exteniang from near Jericho to the (!ulf of Al^abah ((Jesen.) and -4 rnA(irA = desert. Conder proposes (PEFSt, 1S7G-77) to identify Bethania (Bethany) with Batanea or Bashan, ami the ford of the .Ionian east of Bi'isan called 'Abdra with Bethabara, or at least with the jdace of baptism, and points out that annmg the lifty fords of the .lordan this is the only one retaining the ancient name.
This ford of 'Abara is north of the Samaritan border, about Iti miles south of Lake Til>eria.s and a day's journey from Nazareth, and '22 miles from Ke/r Kcna ((?ana). It docs not, however, fulfil the conditions of being near to the wiKlcmess of Judiea, and so placed lui to l>e accessible to the multitudes from Jeru.salem and the parts about Jud.ea.
The line of route taken by king David in his pa.s-uge from Jerusalem across. lordan to Mahanaim and back dws not give much as-sisiance, but is cer- tainly against the 'Artibah ford site. It appear!
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766
JORDAN
JORDAN
probable, however, that he would pass over Jordan, when in flight, by the very nearest ford, viz. that over against Jericho, eitlier the Makluidet Ilnjlah or the Ghuraniyeh ; in comiri"; hack he maj' liave used any crossing most convenient, and thus have had recourse to the ferryboat. There appears therefore to be nothing against the traditional site of our Lord's ]ilace of baptism being placed on the Jordan near Kasr el-JehCld, and not far from the 'Ain el-Kliairar on the eastern side of the Jordan, as has been current since 4th cent. Beth- nimrah ('house of the panther'?), Nu 32*", identified as Ximrin, lies about 8 miles to the east of the Ghtirantj'eh ford, and is sui)poscd by some to be the site of Bethabara: in the LXX (l5) it takes the form Boitfava/Spd, and Eusebius calLs it Bijtfi'o^/Spl! ; lie also speaks of a town called Nabara (or Abara) as identical with Nimrah near He.shbon. Epi- phanius reads Bethaiuara for Bethabara (Rel. Pal. p. 627). The Bordeaux Pilgrim (A.D. 333) places it east of Jordan, 5 miles north of the Salt Sea, close to the hill where Elijah was caught up to heaven (Itin. Hierus.). Jerome (Per. S. Pauley) identifies the place of baptism with the spot where the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan (Jos 3"), and also the spot where Elijah and afterwards Elislia smote the waters and passed over dry-shod. The following also speak of the |ilaoe of baptism at this spot : Theodosius, An- toninus, and Arculf.