Al-Maghtas ( ), officially known as Baptism Site "Bethany Beyond the Jordan", is an archaeological World Heritage Site in Jordan, on the east bank of the Jordan River, reputed to be the location of the Baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist and venerated as such since at least the Byzantine period. The place has also been referred to as Bethabara () and historically Bethany () or Bethany Beyond the Great Jordan (see below).
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 the area soon took place at the initiative of Jordanian Prince Ghazi. The site has since then seen several archaeological digs, visits by Popes John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Francis and by many other heads of state, and attracts tourists and pilgrimage activity. In 2015, the eastern side of the site was designated as a World Heritage Site of Jordan by UNESCO, excluding the western side of the river which is part of the tentative list of World Heritage Sites in Palestine since 2015. 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": : These things took place in Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptising. This is the only mention of this "Bethany on the East bank of the Jordan" in the New Testament. : He [Jesus] went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing earlier, and he remained there.
"Bethany" may come from bēṯ ‛ăniyāh (), 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" (including the Douay-Rheims, NIV, NASB, NLT, RSV, IBS, and Darby).
Bethabara
Origen was a 3rd-century Christian scholar from the Roman Empire. Noticing that in his time there was no place called Bethany east of the Jordan, he suggested amending the name to Bethabara, an existing place at the time. His suggestion was picked up by some, and it was used in several translations, including the King James Version.Bethany beyond the Jordan on baptismsite.com, accessed January 2025
"Bethabara" ( ; ; ; ) is the name used by some versions of the New Testament for the site "beyond (i.e. east of) 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 (Yeshua) (). The name "Bethabara" also appears on the 6th-century Madaba Map (though west of the Jordan River) and in the Talmud. The name is used in a number of versions, including the King James Version (following the Textus Receptus and in the Geneva Bible of the New Testament) the place where John the Baptist was baptizing in John 1:28 was not called Bethany, but Bethabara.Sloyan, Gerard Stephen (1987). John. . p. 11.
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,Cited in The Greek New Testament, 4th ed. (1983) ". The reading Bethabara became current owing to the advocacy of both Origen (3rd century)Bethany Beyond the Jordan - Catholic Encyclopedia article and John Chrysostom (4th century),Bruce Metzger, Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, 2nd ed. (1994), 171 and n. 5. and that same Bethabara is attested in both the 6th-century Madaba MapHarper's Bible Dictionary (1985), 105 and in the Jewish Talmud.Raymond Brown, Gospel According to John I-XII, Anchor Bible (1968), 44-45.
G. A. Smith suggests in his The Historical Geography of the Holy Land (HGHL; 1915) that Bethany ('House of the Ship') and Bethabara ('House of the Ford') are names for the same place. The second place may also refer to the more northerly territory of Batanaea.Carson, D. A. (1991). Gospel According to John. . pp. 146–47.
Al-Maghtas Al-Maghtas is the Arabic word for a site of immersion, and implicitly of baptism.
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 , has two distinct zones – Tell al-Kharrar, also called Jabal Mar Elias (Elijah's Hill), and the area close to the river ( to the west), 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, the focus had shifted to the western side by the 6th century.Alliata (1999), p. 122. 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 (Joshua 3, mainly ). Ancient traditions identified Al-Maghtas, known in antiquity as bet-'abarah or Bethabara, "House of the Crossing" (see Madaba Map), 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 3500 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 (ritual bath) 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 and 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 throughout 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 capture of Jerusalem in 637 put an end to Byzantine building activity on the east bank of the Jordan, particularly in the Wadi al-Kharrar area.Mohammad Waheeb: The Discovery of Bethany Beyond the Jordan River (Wadi Al- Kharrar) Dirasat Human and Social Sciences, Volume 35, No.1, 2008– 115 -
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.