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New
Testament events
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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-Kharrar and Elijah's Hill
(Tell Mar Elias in Arabic). This site
has long been identified as the same place
from which traditions 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 discoveries
since 1996 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 1st century AD, during the time
of Jesus and John the Baptist. The extensive
architectural remains visible on the main
site are from a 5th-6th century Byzantine
monastery, with churches, baptism and
water storage pools, water systems and
chapels. A 3rd century (Roman era) building
with fine mosaics has been called an early
Christian "prayer hall". If
this identification is correct, this may
be one of the earliest Christian prayer
facilities identified anywhere in the
world. Also identified here is the cave
where, according to numerous Byzantine
pilgrims' 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 (early 4th to early 7th
centuries AD). 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 5th-6th centuries AD. These facilities
were mentioned in texts 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 6th
century AD by several different names
in different languages, including Bethabara,
Bethania, Ainon and Saphsaphas. The site
is depicted and named on the 6th century
AD mosaic map of the Holy Land located
in Madaba. Today the area is called in
Arabic al-Maghtas ("the place of
baptism"). New roads and visitor
facilities now make the site easily accessible
from Amman, the Jordan Valley and the
Dead Sea.
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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 (Luke 3:20).
We know from the writings of the 1st century
AD Roman-Jewish historian Josephus that
the Herodian palace/fort where John was
imprisoned and beheaded was the awe-inspiring
site of Machaerus (modern Mukawir), 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).
Like its sister site of Masada on the
opposite side of the Dead Sea, Machaerus
was also the scene of a Roman siege of
local troops during the First Jewish Revolt
against Rome.
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