Bethabara

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Bethabara

This entry incorporates text from the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia is a public domain Biblical encyclopedia. This encyclopedia was published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co....
with some modernisation.

Bethabara (beth-ab´a-ra; ???? ????; beth?abharah; ???aßa??; Bethabará; “house of the ford”): According to the King James Version (following Textus Receptus

Textus Receptus

Textus Receptus is the name subsequently given to the succession of printed Greek language texts of the New Testament which constituted the translation base for the original German Luther Bible, for the translation of the New Testament into English by William Tyndale, the King James Version, and for most other Reformation-era New Testament t...
of the New Testament

New Testament

The New Testament is the name given to the second major division of the Christianity Bible, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
) the place where John the Baptist

John the Baptist

John the Baptist was a mission preacher and a major religious figure who led a movement of baptism at the Jordan River in expectation of a divine apocalypse that would restore occupied Israel....
baptized those who came to him (John

Gospel of John

The Gospel of John is the fourth gospel in the Biblical canon of the New Testament, traditionally ascribed to John the Evangelist. Like the three synoptic gospels, it contains an account of some of the actions and sayings of Jesus of Nazareth, but differs from them in ethos and theological emphases....
).

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Bethabara (beth-ab´a-ra; ???? ????; beth?abharah; ???aßa??; Bethabará; “house of the ford”): According to the King James Version (following Textus Receptus

Textus Receptus

New Testament

The New Testament is the name given to the second major division of the Christianity Bible, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
) the place where John the Baptist

John the Baptist

Gospel of John

Tischendorf

Tischendorf may refer to:-PeopleConstantin von TischendorfPlacesTischendorf, Thuringia in Germany....
, Westcott

Brooke Foss Westcott

Brooke Foss Westcott was an England churchman and theology, serving as Bishop of Durham from 1890 until his death....
and Hort

Fenton John Anthony Hort

Fenton John Anthony Hort was an Irish people theology and editor, with Brooke Westcott of a critical edition of the The New Testament in the Original Greek....
, The New Testament in Greek following Codex Sinaiticus

Codex Sinaiticus

Codex Sinaiticus ]]The story of how von Tischendorf found the manuscript, which contained most of the Old Testament and all of the New Testament, has all the interest of a romance....
, Codex Vaticanus

Codex Vaticanus

Codex Alexandrinus

The Codex Alexandrinus is a 5th century manuscript of the Greek Bible,The Greek Bible in this context refers to the Bible used by Greek-speaking Christians who lived in Egypt and elsewhere during the early history of Christianity....
, Codex Ephraemi) reads "Bethany." It is distinguished from the Bethany of Lazarus

Lazarus

Lazarus is the name of two separate men mentioned in the New Testament. The more famous one is Lazarus of Bethany, the subject of the miracle recounted only in the Gospel of John, in which Jesus raises him from the dead....
and his sisters as being beyond the Jordan. The reading Bethabara became current owing to the advocacy of Origen

Origen

Origen was an Early Christianity scholar, theology, and one of the most distinguished of the early Church father of the Christian Church. According to tradition, he is held to have been an Ancient Egypt who taught in Alexandria, reviving the Catechetical School of Alexandria where Clement of Alexandria had taught....
. Various suggestions have been made to explain the readings. G. A. Smith (HGHL) suggests that Bethany (house of the ship) and Bethabara (house of the ford) are names for the same place. Bethabara has also been identified with Bethbarah, which, however, was probably not on the Jordan River

Jordan River

The Jordan River is a river in Southwest Asia which flows into the Dead Sea. It is considered to be one of the world's most sacred rivers. It is 251 kilometers long....
but among the streams flowing into it (Judges

Book of Judges

The Book of Judges is a Books of the Bible originally written in Hebrew language. It appears in the Tanakh and in the Christian Old Testament. Its title refers to its contents; it contains the history of Biblical judges , who helped rule and guide the ancient Israelites, and of their times....
). It is interesting to note that lxxB reads, Baithabara for Masoretic Text

Masoretic Text

The Masoretic Text is the Hebrew language text of the Jewish Bible . It defines not just the Development of the Jewish Bible canon, but also the precise letter-text of the biblical books in Judaism, as well as their niqqud and cantillation for both public reading and private study....
Beth-?arabhah, one of the cities of Benjamin

Benjamin

Benjamin in the Book of Genesis, is a son of Jacob, the second son of Rachel, and the founder of the Israelites Tribe of Benjamin; in the Biblical account, unlike Rachel's first son - Joseph , the father of Ephraim and Manasseh - Benjamin was born after Jacob and Rachel arrived in Canaan....
(Joshua

Book of Joshua

The Book of Joshua is the sixth book in both the Hebrew Tanakh and the Old Testament of the Christianity Bible. This book stands as the first in the Former Prophets covering the history of Kingdom of Israel from the possession of the Promised Land to the Babylonian Captivity....
). If this is correct, the site is in Judea

Judea

Judea or Jud?a is the name given to the mountainous southern part of the historic Land of Israel , an area now divided between Israel and the West Bank ....
.

Another solution is sought in the idea of a corruption of the original name into Bethany and Bethabara, the name having the consonants n, b and r after Beth. In (Septuagint

Septuagint

The Septuagint , or simply "LXX", is the Koine Greek version of the Hebrew Bible, translated in stages between the 3rd century BC and 1st century BC in Alexandria....
, Codex Vaticanus

Codex Vaticanus

The Codex Vaticanus, , is one of the oldest and most valuable extant Biblical manuscript of the Greek Bible. The codex is named for its place of housing in the Vatican Library....
) we find, Baithanabra for Bethnimrah (Massoretic Text), and Sir George Grove in Dictionary of the Bible (arts. "Bethabara" and "Beth-nimrah") identifies Bethabara and Beth-nimrah. The site of the latter was a few miles above Jericho

Jericho

Jericho is a city located near the Jordan River in the West Bank of the Palestinian territories. It is the capital of the Jericho Governorate, and has a population of over 20,000 Arabs....
(see Beth-nimrah

Beth-nimrah

Beth-Nimrah was a town in ancient History of ancient Israel and Judah.The town was located east of Jordan River and was assigned to the Tribe of Gad....
), immediately accessible to Jerusalem and all Judea (compare Matthew

Gospel of Matthew

The Gospel of Matthew is one of the four canonical gospels in the New Testament and is a synoptic gospel. It narrates an account of the New Testament view on Jesus' life and Ministry of Jesus of Jesus of Nazareth....
; Mark

Gospel of Mark

The Gospel of Mark is the second of the four canonical gospels in the New Testament and was probably the first of the three synoptic gospels to be written....
). This view has much in its favor.

Then, again, as G. Frederick Wright observes: "The traditional site is at the ford

Ford (crossing)

A ford is a place in a watercourse that is shallow enough to be crossed by wading, on horseback, or in a wheeled vehicle. A ford is mostly a natural phenomenon, in contrast to a low water crossing, which is an artificial bridge that allows crossing a river or stream when water is low....
east of Jericho; but as according to , , it was only one day's journey from Cana

Cana

In the Christian New Testament, the Gospel of John refers a number of times to a town called Cana of Galilee....
of Galilee

Galilee

Galilee , is a large region in northern Israel which overlaps with much of the administrative North District of the country. Traditionally divided into Upper Galilee , Lower Galilee , and Western Galilee , extending from Dan to the north, at the base of Mount Hermon, along Mount Lebanon to the ridges of Mount Carmel and Mount Gilboa t...
, while according to ; , , and , it was two or three days from Bethany, it must have been well up the river toward Galilee. Conder

Conder

A conder , in fishing, was someone who stood on the shore ? usually on high ground ? and signalled fishing boats as to the direction and location of shoals of fish, such as herrings, mackerel and pilchards....
discovered a well-known ford near Beisan called Abarah, near the mouth of the valley of Jezreel. This is 20 miles from Cana and 60 miles from Bethany, and all the conditions of the place fit in with the history."

Bethabara

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