Bethawara - the true place of Baptism on the Jordan River
© Photo by Tour Guide Paul, December 12, 2013

 
The museum of mosaics called the Museum of the "Good Samaritan" is unique and one of the largest museums in the world with a collection of unique mosaics of different periods found in the Holy Land. The museum opened relatively recently on June 4, 2009, but since then it has become very popular in tourist and pilgrimage routes. The exposition of the museum is filled with unique artifacts of mosaics found in the ruins of ancient synagogues, churches and monasteries in the territory of Judea, Samaria and Gaza. In the Byzantine period, this place was an inn, which is mentioned in the "Parable of the Good Samaritan" (Luke 10: 25-37). The museum is in a convenient location near the highway on the way from Jerusalem on its way to the site of the Epiphany on the Jordan River.

Qumran is a unique archaeological park one and a half kilometers from the northwest coast of the Dead Sea on the west bank of the Jordan River, not far from the Israeli kibbutz Kalia. The first settlements during the time of the Hasmonean reign of John Hyrcanus were known as early as the period 134-104 BC. Qumran became world famous after finding a cache with scrolls in caves in steep cliffs and in lower marl benches. Scrolls of the Dead Sea or the Qumran scrolls are the subject of close study of scientists. Between 1947 and 1956, around 900 scrolls of varying degrees of preservation were found here, mostly written on parchment, as well as on papyrus, as well as elements of kilns for ceramics and a tower. Some scholars associate the ruins of the Qumran archaeological complex with the Jewish sect of the villages that lived here in the 2nd century BC.

Monastery of St. Gerasim of Jordan is located on the site of the ancient Byzantine Kalamon Lavra, known since the 5th century AD. In the Monastery, by the renewed efforts of the Jerusalem Orthodox Church in the second half of the XIX century, mosaics and frescos of different periods survived. The fortress walls of the monastery have been preserved since the 12th century, when the monastery was rendered by the Byzantine emperor Manuel Komnin. In the monastery there is the miraculous image of the Mother of God of the Mammal in the lower church.

Bethwara - (Hebrew בית עברה - house of the crossing, place of the ford) - a place on the Jordan River, 10 kilometers north of the confluence of the Jordan River to the Dead Sea, where the ferry crossed the river. According to an ancient tradition, in this place the sons of Israel crossed the Jordan together with Joshua, leaving an altar of twelve stones at the site of passage, according to the number of the tribes of Israel, and then entered the promised land.

The Old Testament describes this event in the book of Joshua in the following way:

"So when the people moved from their tents to cross the Jordan, and the priests carried the ark of the covenant to the people, then only those who carried the ark entered the Jordan, and the feet of the priests carrying the ark sank into the water of the Jordan - the Jordan stands out from all the shores all the days of the harvest of wheat, the water flowing from above, stopped and became a wall for a very long distance, to the city of Adam, which is near Zartan; and the current in the sea of ​​the plain, in the Salty Sea, has left and dried up. And the people passed over against Jericho; But the priests, who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord, stood on dry land in the midst of the Jordan with a firm foot. All the Israelites crossed overland until all the people crossed the Jordan. (Rev. 3: 14-17) "

This place in the Christian tradition is revered as a true place of Epiphany on the Jordan River.

The New Testament tells about the baptism of Jesus Christ as follows:

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