Al-Maghtas
Al-Maghtas, meaning "baptism" or "immersion" in Arabic, is an archaeological World Heritage site in Jordan on the east bank of the Jordan River, officially known as Baptism Site "Bethany Beyond the Jordan" . It is considered to be the original location of the Baptism of Jesus and the ministry of John the Baptist and has been venerated as such since at least the Byzantine period. Following a suggestion by Origen, the baptism site of Jesus is sometimes also called Bethabara.
Al-Maghtas includes two principal archaeological areas. The remnants of a monastery on a mound known as Jabal Mar-Elias and an area close to the river with remains of churches, baptism ponds and pilgrim and hermit dwellings. The two areas are connected by a stream called Wadi Kharrar.
The strategic location between Jerusalem and the King's Highway is already evident from the Book of Joshua report about the Israelites crossing the Jordan there. Jabal Mar-Elias is traditionally identified as the site of the ascension of the prophet Elijah to heaven. The complete area was abandoned after the 1967 Six-Day War, when both banks of the Jordan became part of the frontline. The area was heavily mined then.
After the signing of the Israel–Jordan peace treaty in 1994, de-mining of area soon took place after an initiative of Jordanian royalty, namely Prince Ghazi. The site has then seen several archaeological digs, four papal visits and state visits, and attracts tourists and pilgrimage activity. In 2015, the site was designated as a World Heritage site by UNESCO, excluding the western side of the river. Approximately 81,000 people visited the site in 2016, mostly European, American, and Arab tourists. Thousands flock to the site on January 6 to mark Epiphany.
Names
Bethany
Two passages from the Gospel of John indicate a place "beyond the Jordan" or "across the Jordan":"Bethany" may come from beth-ananiah, Hebrew for "house of the poor/afflicted". The name "Bethany" is shared with a different town located on the Mount of Olives, mentioned many times in the New Testament. Most English versions of the New Testament refer to "Bethany on the east bank of the Jordan River".
Bethabara
Origen was a 3rd-century Christian scholar from Palestine. Noticing that in his time there was no place called Bethany east of the Jordan, he suggested to amend the name to Bethabara, which did indeed correspond to a site that was located there. His suggestion was picked up by some, and it was used in several translations, including the King James Version."Bethabara" is the name used by some versions of the New Testament for the site "beyond the Jordan" where John the Baptist preached and performed baptisms, where he met with a group of priests and Levites sent by the Pharisees to investigate his ministry, and where he baptised Jesus . The name "Bethabara" also appears on the 6th-century Madaba Map and in the Talmud. The name is used in a number of versions, including the King James Version the place where John the Baptist was baptizing in John 1:28 was not called Bethany, but Bethabara.
It follows the New York and Moscow uncials, corrected forms of Ephraemi and Athos, along with uncial fragments from St Petersburg, Paris, minuscule 1, and family 13, backed up by Eusebius, Cyril, some Byzantine texts and lectionaries, and the Curetonian Old Syriac, Aramaic Peshitta, Armenian, and Georgian manuscripts, among others), ". The reading Bethabara became current owing to the advocacy of both Origen and John Chrysostom, and that same Bethabara is attested in both the 6th-century Madaba Map and in the Jewish Talmud.
G. A. Smith suggests in his "Atlas of the Historical Geography of the Holy Land" that Bethany and Bethabara are names for the same place. The second place may also refer to the more northerly territory of Batanaea.
Bethabara is also mentioned as the location of Jesus' baptism in the Mormons' First Book of Nephi.
Al-Maghtas
Al-Maghtas is the Arabic word for a site of baptism or immersion.Geography
Al-Maghtas is located on the eastern bank of the Jordan River, north of the Dead Sea and southeast of Jericho. The entire site, which is spread over an area of 533.7 hectares, has two distinct zones – Tell al-Kharrar, also called Jabal Mar Elias, and the area close to the river, the Zor area, where the ancient Church of Saint John the Baptist is situated.The site is close to the ancient road between Jerusalem and Transjordan, via Jericho, across a Jordan River ford and connecting to other biblical sites such as Madaba, Mount Nebo and the King's Highway.
While the initial site of veneration was on the eastern side of the River Jordan, focus had shifted to the western side by the 6th century. The term Al-Maghtas itself has been used historically for the area stretching over both banks of the river. The western part, also known under the name Qasr el-Yahud, has been mentioned in the UNESCO proposal, but so far has not been declared as a World Heritage Site.
In November 2015, the site became available on Google Street View.
Religious significance
Israelites' crossing of the Jordan
According to the Hebrew Bible, Joshua instructed the Israelites how to cross the Jordan by following the priests who were carrying the Ark of the Covenant through the river, thus making its waters stop their flow. Ancient traditions identified Al-Maghtas, known in antiquity as bet-'abarah or Bethabara, "House of the Crossing", as the place where the people of Israel and later Prophet Elijah crossed the Jordan River and entered the Promised Land.Prophet Elijah
The Hebrew Bible also described how Prophet Elijah, accompanied by Prophet Elisha, stopped the waters of the Jordan, crossing to the eastern side, and then went up by a whirlwind into the heavens. Elisha, now his heir, again separated the waters and crossed back. An ancient Jewish tradition identified the site of crossing with the same one used by Joshua, thus with Al-Maghtas, and the site of Elijah's ascension with Tell el-Kharrar, also known as Jabal Mar Elias, "Hill of Prophet Elijah".Baptism of Jesus
John probably baptised in springs and brooks at least as much as he did in the more dangerous Jordan River. The concrete example is "Aenon near Salim" of, where "aenon" stands for spring. At Al-Maghtas there is a short brook, Wadi al-Kharrar, which flows to the Jordan, and is associated with the baptism activities of John.Historicity
The Washington Post'' states, "There is no archaeological evidence of Jesus ever having been baptized in these waters"; however, the Jordanian, eastern side of the traditional baptism area of Al-Maghtas has been accepted by various Christian denominations as the authentic site of the baptism of Jesus. ICOMOS in its consideration of "Bethany Beyond the Jordan" as a UNESCO World Heritage Site notes that sites historically associated with Jesus' baptism also exist on the west bank across the river as well and puts forth that their investigation into the Al-Maghtas site for recognition as a World heritage Center does not prove without doubt that the archaeological structures there actually relate historically to Jesus' baptism and further notes that other sites along the Jordan River have historically made similar claims. The Baptism Site's official website shows 13 authentication testimonials from representatives of major international denominations.History and archaeology
Pre-Roman settlement
The archaeological excavations have unearthed antiquities which attest to the conclusion that this site was first settled by a small group of agriculturists during the Chalcolithic period, around 3,500 BC. There are again signs of settlement from the Hellenistic period.Roman and Byzantine periods
The site contains buildings with both aspects of a Jewish mikveh resembling Second Temple period pools from Qumran, and later of Christian use, with large pools for baptism, linking both customs.Possibly in the 2nd-3rd and certainly starting with the 5th-6th centuries, Christian religious structures were built at Tell al-Kharrar. It must be remembered that in the 1st-4th centuries of the Christian Era, Christianity was often persecuted by the Roman state, and only after it became first tolerated and then outright the state religion of the Roman, or now so-called Byzantine Empire, open Christian worship became possible.
Archaeological excavations also established that the hill of Tell al-Kharrar, known as Elijah's Hill, was venerated as the spot from which Prophet Elijah ascended to heaven. In the 5th century, in commemoration, a Byzantine monastery was erected here. The archaeologists have named it the "Monastery of Rhetorios" after a name from a Byzantine mosaic inscription.
The Byzantine emperor Anastasius I Dicorus erected between 491–518 a first church dedicated to John the Baptist on the eastern banks of the River Jordan. However, due to two flood and earthquake events the church was destroyed. The church was reconstructed three times, until it crumbled, together with the chapel built over piers, during a major flood event in the 6th or 7th century.
The pilgrimage sites have shifted during history. The main Christian archaeological finds from the Byzantine and possibly even Roman period indicated that the initial venerated pilgrimage site was on the east bank, but by the beginning of the 6th century the focus had moved onto the more accessible west bank of the river.
During the Byzantine period the site was a popular pilgrimage centre. The Sasanian conquest of Jerusalem in 614, river floodings, earthquakes and the Muslim Siege of Jerusalem put an end to Byzantine building activity on the east bank of the Jordan, particularly in the Wadi al-Kharrar area.
Early Muslim period
The Muslim conquest put an end to Byzantine building activity on the east bank of the Jordan River, but several of the Byzantine structures remained in use during the Early Islamic period. With time worship took place just across the river on the western side at Qasr el-Yahud. After 670 AD the commemoration of the baptism site moved to the western side.Mamluk and Ottoman periods
The structures were rebuilt many times but were finally deserted by end of the 15th century.In the 13th century an Orthodox monastery was built over remnants of an earlier Byzantine predecessor, but how long it lasted is not known. However, pilgrimage to the site declined and according to one pilgrim the site was in ruins in 1484. From the 15th to the 19th century there were hardly any visits by pilgrims to the site. A small chapel dedicated to St. Mary of Egypt, a hermit from the Byzantine period, was built during the 19th century and was also destroyed in the 1927 earthquake.
In the early part of the twentieth century a farming community had occupied the area east of the Jordan River.
Rediscovery after 1994 and tourism
As a result of the Six-Day War in 1967, the river became the ceasefire line and both banks became militarised and inaccessible to pilgrims. After 1982, while Qasr el-Yahud was still off-limits, Israel enabled Christian baptisms at the Yardenit site further north. Following the Israel–Jordan peace treaty in 1994 access to Al-Maghtas was restored after Prince Ghazi of Jordan, who is deeply interested in religious history, visited the area in the company of a Franciscan archaeologist who had convinced him to take a look at what was thought to be the baptism site. When they found evidence of Roman-period habitation, this was enough to encourage de-mining and further development. Soon afterwards, there were several archaeological digs led by Dr. Mohammad Waheeb who rediscovered the ancient site in 1997. The 1990s marked the period of archaeological excavations of the site followed by primary conservation and restoration measures during the early 21st century. Jordan fully reopened al-Maghtas in 2002. This was then followed by the Israeli-run western side, known as Qasr el-Yahud, which was opened for daily visits in 2011 - the traditional Epiphany celebrations had already been allowed to take place since 1985, but only at the specific Catholic and Orthodox dates and under military supervision. In 2007, a documentary film entitled The Baptism of Jesus Christ – Uncovering Bethany Beyond the Jordan was made about the site.The western side attracts larger touristic interest than its Jordanian counterpart, half a million visitors compared to some ten thousands on the Jordanian side. Other estimates put the numbers as 300,000 on the Israeli-occupied Palestinian side and 100,000 on the Jordanian side. To put that into perspective, Yardenit has more than 400,000 visitors per year.
In the millennium year 2000, John Paul II was the first pope to visit the site. Several more papal and state visits were to follow. In 2002 Christians commemorated the baptism of Christ at the site for the first time since its rediscovery. Since then, thousands of Christian pilgrims from around the world annually have marked Epiphany at Bethany Beyond the Jordan. Also in 2002, the Baptism Site opened for daily visits, attracting a constant influx of tourists and pilgrimage activity. In 2015, the UNESCO declared the Al-Maghtas site on the east bank of the River Jordan as a World Heritage Site, while Qasr el-Yahud was left out.