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Jordan River |
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Source:
Earthly Footsteps
of the Man of Galilee, p. 142. |
Place Where Christ
was Baptized
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There has been much speculation concerning the exact spot of the baptism of
Jesus by John. It was either at the Ford of Jordan, "right against Jericho,"
where Israel crossed dry-shod, or, as Dr. Thomson holds, as far up the Jordan as
the Ford of Damiah—nearest point, if Jesus "came from Nazareth of Galilee" by
vale and brook, that leads from Salem to the river ("and John was baptized in
Enon, near to Salem"). The bathing place of the Latin pilgrims is nearly due
east from Jericho in Judea, and beyond the ruined convent of St. John. It is
this part of the Jordan we see in the picture. It is "over against Jericho" and
about four miles above the place where the Jordan empties into the Dead Sea.
John had been baptizing in the River Jordan perhaps about six months, when, in
the winter of A. D. 27, according to the harmony of Dr. Andrews, Jesus left
Nazareth and came to the River Jordan and was baptized. This was a remarkable
period of the world's history. The fullness of time had come. The world was
ready for the new kingdom and for the King. (Source:
Earthly Footsteps
of the Man of Galilee, p. 142.) |
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Bathing-Place of the Latins, on the Jordan |
Source: Galilee and the Jordan, p. 294. |
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. . . the crowds of pilgrims visit the
river . . . near what is called the Helu ford,
though each sect of Christians has a special
spot for the completion of the pilgrimage,
which is maintained as an article of faith to
be the place of our Saviour’s baptism.
Fortunately, as the Latin and Greek Easters do
not fall on the same days, and as Easter is
the prescribed time for the ceremony, there
are no collisions on the banks of the sacred
river. The Greek pilgrims bathe at a spot
where there is a narrow clearing down to the
water’s edge; the Latin sacred place is higher
up, near the ruins of an old convent. The
ceremony is most interesting and picturesque .
. . . Long before sunrise, about three
o’clock, there is a sudden roll of
kettledrums, and lights are struck all over
the plain. . . . [B]y torchlight, in solemn
silence, with the paschal moon hanging forward
out of the deep black sky and dimming the
glare of the torches, the mixed multitude
presses on to the bank of the sacred river.
Just after daybreak the head of the procession
reaches the open space on the river’s bank,
and before the sun has well overtopped the
hills of Moab the first-comers are plunging in
the whirling eddies of the turbid stream.
(Source:
Picturesque Palestine, vol. 1, pp. 165-66.) |
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Source: Matson Collection. |
Jordan River,
Epiphany
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Most . . . of those who have come in families bathe in a long white garment,
which after this Jordan baptism is carefully preserved till it serves as the
winding-sheet of its owner. I have noticed devout families joining hand-in-hand
in a circle in the water, the women having their babes slung round their neck,
and reciting the creed, ducking at each sentence, while they hold on to the
overhanging boughs. One remarkable feature is the number of little children and
infants; but the age of the pilgrim matters not, and the Jordan baptism never
needs to be repeated. Primitive and rude the scene may be called, but there is
no indecorum or irreverence, and very little superstition—nothing like the
ceremonies of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. . . . Who is so utterly devoid
of sentiment as not to sympathize with that pilgrim multitude? and who can look
on the Eastern baptism without feeling how he has reproduced before his own eyes
the scenes and the surroundings that accompanied the preaching and the baptism
on this river-bank of the great forerunner, St. John Baptist. (Source:
Picturesque Palestine, vol.
1, pp. 166-67.) |
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See
Entering the Promised Land,
Jericho,
Jordan River,
Elisha's
Spring in Jericho,
Jordan
River Sources or
Dead Sea |
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