NEWS FEATURE: Pope Visits Controversial Site Some See As Place Jesus Was Baptized

c. 2000 Religion News Service WADI AL KHARRAR, Jordan _ Against the backdrop of a biting desert sandstorm, Pope John Paul II Tuesday blessed the waters of a spring-fed tributary of the Jordan River in an area celebrated by early Christians, apparently as the site of Jesus’ baptism. The pope’s visit here, just prior to […]

c. 2000 Religion News Service

WADI AL KHARRAR, Jordan _ Against the backdrop of a biting desert sandstorm, Pope John Paul II Tuesday blessed the waters of a spring-fed tributary of the Jordan River in an area celebrated by early Christians, apparently as the site of Jesus’ baptism.

The pope’s visit here, just prior to his Tuesday evening arrival in Israel,was a poignant moment for Jordanians. They are hopeful that new archaeological finds linking this area to the baptism story may eventually help transform Jordan into a major Holy Land pilgrim destination.


“Let us pause in contemplation on the banks of the Jordan, this sacred place in the history of salvation. Here John performed his baptism of repentance,” intoned the pontiff, standing under the stone arch of an ancient Byzantine church, partially restored and bedecked with white flowers and a canopy.

Eastward in the distance rose Mount Nebo, the site of Moses’ death that the pope visited Tuesday at the outset of his pilgrimage. Westward, on the other side of the Jordan River, were the mountainous approaches to Jerusalem, where the pope will reside for the remainder of his weeklong Holy Land journey.

Jordanian historians and archaeologists say that a string of ancient baptismal pools found here along a stream bed known as Wadi Al Kharrar suggest that early Christians celebrated Jesus’ baptism on the east bank of the Jordan River.

The pope, in a short homily, avoided a direct endorsement of the Jordanian claims, which have caused a stir among Palestinians who traditionally revere a site directly opposite, on the West Bank side of the river.

“Here, at the River Jordan, where both banks are visited by hosts of pilgrims honoring the baptism of the Lord, I too lift up my heart in prayer,” John Paul said in his reflection. Wednesday morning he will make a brief private visit to the traditional West Bank baptismal site, which is under Israeli military control.

But even as he tried to avoid taking sides, the pontiff’s presence at this elaborate public ceremony, attended by thousands of rank-and-file Jordanians as well as the government’s elite, was clearly a sort of testimony for the new site.

“Let us pause in contemplation on the banks of the Jordan, this sacred place in the history of salvation. Here John performed his baptism of repentance,” the pontiff said in one reflective moment.


“This is a confirmation of the baptismal site as an authentic site,” declared Jordan’s minister of tourism, Akel Biltaji, at the ceremony. “We’ve got great respect for what is a symbolic and traditional site (on the West Bank) that has been there for hundreds of years, but this site goes back even further to Roman times.”

A series of four baptismal pools and seven churches have been discovered along the 1 1/2 mile-long Al-Kharrar valley, a fresh water stream bed feeding the Jordan. The Jordanian archaeologists also believe the stream itself may have been the site of Jesus’ baptism, rather than the muddy Jordan River, with its dangerous currents.

In particular, the remains of three ancient churches were found clustered precisely where the stream meets the river. Pilgrims from the sixth and seventh centuries apparently described the churches as marking the baptism site before the structures were destroyed by an earthquake in 747.

“In the eighth century, after the earthquake, people stopped coming here,” Biltaji said. “Also, more pilgrims started coming from the west, from Jerusalem, and it was thus easier for them to reach the symbolic site on the West Bank.”

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The potential Jordanian antiquities site was first noted by archaeologists in the early part of the century and was even scheduled for excavation in the late 1960s, when the 1967 Arab-Israeli war broke out, added the minister.

For nearly 30 years, this stunning desert landscape of golden-sculpted hills and gentle valleys covered with green brush and reeds served largely as a minefield and a front line in the Arab confrontation with Israel. Only after the Israeli-Jordanian peace treaty was signed in 1994 were Jordanian archaeologists able to start surveying and digging.


“Had it not been for the peace process, we would not have been able to develop this site,” said the minister.

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A Jordanian team led by a Muslim archaeologist, Dr. Mohammed Al Waheeb, and an Armenian Christian engineer, Rustom Mikhijian, has spent nearly three years uncovering and mapping the site.

A prominent Israeli expert on the Byzantine era who has visited the site also regards it as a likely locale for the New Testament baptismal story.

“The excavations at Wadi Al-Kharrar are a wonderful discovery,” said Yizhar Hirschfeld of the Hebrew University. “It is a moving site that integrates the historical literature of the pilgrims’ accounts with the geographical evidence and archaeological finds. I, too, would prefer to locate the site where John himself lived and baptized on the eastern part of the Jordan River.”

Along with excavating the site of the thrice-built and destroyed St. John’s Church, which today stands quite near the river bank, the team excavated another archaeological site on higher ground farther to the east. It was here, in this more accessible terrain, that Tuesday’s papal ceremonies were staged.

The archaeologists believe the settlement grew up around a monastic cave, or hermits’ cell, that may have been John the Baptist’s home when he took refuge in what the Bible calls the “wild country” of the Jordan. They identify it as the “Bethany-beyond-the-Jordan” of the New Testament book of John.


“Generally speaking, people think of the Holy Land as being west of the River Jordan,” said Mikhijian. “But that’s not true; this is also the Holy Land.

“That is why the pope is visiting here, following in the footsteps of the patriarchs and prophets from east to west.”

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