Jordán

Bible Dictionary

Jordan
(the descender), the one river of Palestine, has a course oflittle more than 200 miles, from the roots of Anti-Lebanon tothe head of the Dead Sea. (136 miles in a straightline

schaff.) It is the river of the "great plain" ofPalestine--the "descender," if not "the river of God" in thebook of Psalms, at least that of his chosen people throughouttheir history. There were fords over against Jericho, to whichpoint the men of Jericho pursued the spies. (joshua 2:7) comp.Judg 3:28 Higher up where the fords or passages of Bethbarah,where Gideon lay in wait for the Midianites, (judges 7:24) andwhere the men of Gilead slew the Ephraimites. ch. (judges 12:6)These fords undoubtedly witnessed the first recorded passage ofthe Jordan in the Old Testament. (genesis 32:10) Jordan wasnext crossed, over against Jericho, by Joshua. (joshua 4:12,13)From their vicinity to Jerusalem the lower fords were muchused. David, it is probable, passed over them in one instanceto fight the Syrians. (2 samuel 10:17; 17:22) Thus there weretwo customary places at which the Jordan was fordable; and itmust have been at one of these, if not at both, that baptismwas afterward administered by St. John and by the disciples ofour Lord. Where our Lord was baptized is not stated expressly,but it was probably at the upper ford. These fords wererendered so much more precious in those days from twocircumstances. First, it does not appear that there were thenany bridges thrown over or boats regularly established on theJordan; and secondly, because "Jordan overflowed all his banksall the time of harvest." (joshua 3:15) The channel or bed ofthe river became brimful, so that the level of the water and ofthe banks was then the same. (dr. selah merrill, in his book"galilee in the time of christ" (1881), says, "Near Tarichaea,just below the point where the Jordan leaves the lake (ofgalilee), there was (in christ s time) a splendid bridge acrossthe river, supported by ten piers."--ED.) The last featurewhich remains to be noticed in the scriptural account of theJordan is its frequent mention as a boundary: "over Jordan,""this" and "the other side," or "beyond Jordan," wereexpressions as familiar to the Israelites as "across thewater," "this" and "the other side of the Channel" are toEnglish ears. In one sense indeed, that is, in so far as it wasthe eastern boundary of the land of Canaan, it was the easternboundary of the promised land. (numbers 34:12) The Jordan risesfrom several sources near Panium (banias), and passes throughthe lakes of Merom (huleh) and Gennesaret. The two principalfeatures in its course are its descent and its windings. Fromits fountain heads to the Dead Sea it rushes down onecontinuous inclined plane, only broken by a series of rapids orprecipitous falls. Between the Lake of Gennesaret and the DeadSea there are 27 rapids. The depression of the Lake ofGennesaret below the level of the Mediterranean is 653 feet,and that of the Dead Sea 1316 feet. (the whole descent from itssource to the dead sea is 3000 feet. its width varies form 45to 180 feet, and it is from 3 to 12 feet deep. -schaff.) Itssinuosity is not so remarkable in the upper part of its course.The only tributaries to the Jordan below Gennesaret are theYarmuk (hieromax) and the Zerka (jabbok). Not a single cityever crowned the banks of the Jordan. Still Bethshan andJericho to the west, Gerasa, Pella and Gadara to the east of itwere important cities, and caused a good deal of trafficbetween the two opposite banks. The physical features of theGhor, through which the Jordan flows, are treated of under[754]Palestina And Palestine.

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