Good Saturday morning! Yowch! I saw three digits on the temperature a couple of times yesterday. I mentioned to God that I really didn't think we needed any more of that this summer, but His will be done. I didn't get out a whole lot yesterday afternoon, and I did pity the folks out in the heat in Omaha for the College World Series.
Today, we have a bit of disagreement in some of our Bibles. How can this be?
John 1:28 - This encounter took place in Bethany, an area east of the Jordan River, where John was baptizing.
My NKJV names Bethabara as the place where this took place. What is the problem here? How can God's own Word say two different places? Perhaps they are not different places. When I say the CWS is played in Omaha, another person might say Nebraska, and still another might get more specific and say Rosenblatt Stadium. My concordance says that Bethabara is translated from the Greek as 'ferry-house' which would name a specific place on the Jordan River.
This would make some sense as John would have been sent to a place on the river where people came often already. River crossings even on a small-ish river such as the Jordan would not be safe at just any point along the banks. John came to preach to those waiting for the ferry. The New Living Translation uses: "Bethany, an area east of the Jordan". This is like the person who names Nebraska, an area west of the Missouri, as the location of the ball game - a more general area rather than the specific place on the river. Both locations are correct, and by going to the area, Bethany, a person would certainly find someone who could point out John's specific location.
What does this verse mean to us though? The encounter with the junior Pharisees is over, and our lesson from their conversation is done. What purpose does naming the place serve? Imagine if about 2,000 years later you and I wanted to find the place John baptized without a location. We couldn't look for artifacts; John lived in nature as they say, eating locusts and wild honey, and dressed in natural garb. John's lifestyle wouldn't have left any artifacts to find. On the other hand, a ferry-house might have a ferry or two sunken in storms or through accident; some tools that were used to repair the ferries, and even stuff that people might have dropped overboard during the crossings. A location is also something we could look up on old maps, lending a place and time to all of this.
The footnotes within the text become very important in this regard. John the gospel writer gives us historical clues to follow by naming locations and times. We know the location in our future time and we know that Jesus began his ministry here. We can know that this event happened at this place named in the Bible on this same Earth that we live on. Jesus is no myth, and his baptizer, John, lived and worked right there at Bethabara in Bethany on the Jordan River.
Praise the name of God!
Bucky
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