The Jordan River has such an important role in bibical history that many visitors to the Holy Land ask to be baptized
in its waters near Jericho, where Jesus was baptized by John
(Matt. 3:13).
The famous river begins as a small stream in the foothills of Mount Hermon near Caesaraea Philippi
(now called Banias), then passes through the Sea of Galilee, and finally ends in the Dead Sea in southern Palestine. Popularly,
the name Jordan is thought to mean "Decender" or "The River That Rushes Down", which it does at the rate of 25 feet per mile
along its twisting 100-mile journey. Its descent ranges from about 1,200 feet above sea level to about 1,286 feet below sea
level. The place where it enters the Dead Sea is the lowest point on earth.
Through the centuries, the Jordan has served as a natural boundary between Palestine and other nations.
In the period between the Old Testament and the New Testament, the Jordan formed the main eastern boundary of the Persian
and Greek province of Judea. The Decapolis, a federation of ten Greek cities, was formed on the eastern side of the Jordan
in the Greek period.
The Old Testament speaks of the Jordan as the site of the land favored by Lot (Gen
13:10,11); the place where Israel would cross into the land of Canaan in Joshua's time (Deut. 3:20,
25, 27); and the scene of events in Elijah's and Elisha's lives (1Kin. 17:2-5; 2Kin. 2:13-15).
Because the Jordan is a short and rather shallow river, it was compared unfavorably by Naaman the
leper to the two larger rivers in his homeland of Syria. When the prophet Elisha directed him to dip in the Jordan to be healed
of his leprosy, he replied, "Are not the Abanah and the Pharpar, the rivers of the Damascus, better than all the waters of
Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?" (2Kin. 5:12). But his servants persuaded him to
do as Elisha asked, and Naaman was healed.
