What is the name of the river of Christ's baptism? In what river was Jesus baptized?

A small water artery, lost in the sands and winding among the rocks of the spurs of the Lebanese mountains, is the natural boundary between the Muslim and the Jewish world. Two thousand years ago it became a mystical boundary, dividing the history of mankind into "before" and "after". The name of the Palestinian river has become a household name. "Jordan" means any pond or place where the rite of the Great Sanctification of Water is performed on the Feast of Baptism.

What does the word baptism mean?

In the Slavic tradition, "baptism" means involvement in the life of Christ. In ancient times this word was pronounced - baptism. By this is meant a kind of mystical action, relating to Christ and produced with His participation. The first meaning of the term "baptism" means a church sacrament (not a rite, namely a sacrament), through which a person becomes a member of the society of followers of the life and teachings of Jesus Christ.

In the Hellenic tradition, this action is called the word βαπτίζω (vaptiso), which means "immerse" or "dip". Where it is written in the Slavonic translation of the Gospel that John the Forerunner was baptizing in the Jordan River, one should understand "immersion": "... and the whole of Judah was baptized (immersed, dipped)", etc. The Holy Prophet John did not invent this ceremony himself, But performed these actions on the basis of the Old Testament Jewish religious rite. Similar rituals can be found in many peoples. For example, Hindus perform sacred bath in rivers.

Ancient Jewish custom

The law of Moses prescribed to wash at any desecration: touching the dead, eating forbidden food, a woman after bleeding, etc. According to the rites of the ancient Jews, any person of non-Jewish blood could join the Jewish faith. Such a person was called a proselyte. In this case, a special ritual was adopted for the admission to Judaism of the Gentiles, which included ablution. This can be called modern language the baptism of proselytes.

In all cases, washing was performed by means of a full immersion in the body of water. This was a symbolic act and had a mystical sense of purification from sins. Only "water from God" possessed cleaning properties: flowing from the source or collected rainwater.

The Baptism of John

Jewish rituals were known to John. At a certain time, he comes to the bank of the Jordan River and proclaims that the time of the judgment of God is coming. The righteous will be rewarded with a perfect eternal life in the Kingdom of God, and sinners are subject to eternal punishment. John preached that to be saved from punishment one can only repent of vices and correct his life. "Come to the Jordan," called the Baptist, "come, who wants to be saved!"

John gives a new meaning to the traditional Jewish ritual. Above the people who come to him, he baptizes in the Jordan River: he immerses himself in the water and does not allow him to leave until the person completely cleanses his soul. As God's chosen one, he had the ability to see the secrets of the inner world. Do not confess your crimes required a prophet, and a determined rejection of sinful life. Gradually around John a whole community of new people to be saved is formed.

The Baptism of Jesus Christ

Having penetrated the terrible call of the prophet to repent of his sins, many people came to him from all over Palestine. One day, Christ appeared on the bank of the Jordan. This event is described in detail by all the four evangelists. Jesus did not have a single sin, he did not need confession and purification. The evangelists write about the fact that Christ, immersed in the Jordan, immediately, immediately left the water. The Prophet felt the holiness of the God-man and asked a puzzled question: "I need to be baptized from You, and Do you come to me?". The Savior commands him to perform the rite.

Acceptance of John's baptism by Christ is very important. This confirms the truth of the preaching of the Baptist in the fact that a new era of morality of mankind is coming. After baptism, Christ went to a secluded place in the Palestinian desert, where he spent forty days in prayer and only after that began preaching among the Jews.

Why Jesus was baptized

Some Protestant confessions simplistically perceive the meaning of the event. In their view, Jesus was baptized to give us an example. An example of what? The meaning of baptism is explained in the Gospel of Matthew. In the fifth chapter Christ speaks of himself, that he did not appear in the world to destroy the Old Testament law, but to fulfill it. In the original source, the meaning of this verb has a slightly different connotation. Christ came to fulfill the law, that is, Himself to complete its operation.

Theologians see in baptism several mystical moments:

• The river of Christ's baptism opened new knowledge to people about God. The evangelists testify that when the Savior came out of the water, the Holy Spirit descended in the form of a dove, and all present heard a voice from Heaven, who called Christ the Son and commanded to fulfill His teaching. Christians call this event the Epiphany, since for the first time the world was witnessed of God in three persons.
• By baptism, Jesus symbolizes the spiritual condition of the entire ancient Israeli people. The Jews withdrew from God, forgot His commandments and needed mass repentance. Christ seems to make it clear that the entire Jewish people must make the transition to a new moral state.
• The waters of the Jordan, figuratively cleansing the vices of the people who were immersed in them, bore the spiritual impurity of all mankind. The river in which Jesus was baptized is also a symbol of the restless souls. Christ, immersed in the waters, sanctified and purified them.
• Christ is a sacrifice. The meaning of His ministry on earth is to make Himself a sacrifice for the sins of mankind. According to the Jewish tradition, the sacrificial animal before the liturgical ritual must be washed.

Where did the name "Jordan" come from?

According to the common opinion, the river, where Jesus was baptized, has a Jewish name. In the scientific community there is no consensus on this.

• The most logical was to assume the Semitic origin of the toponym. In this case, the Jordan comes from the Hebrew word "Yered" ("descends", "falls"), and the names of the source Dan - the name of one of the 12 tribes of ancient Israel.
• There is a version of the Indo-European origin of the word. From time immemorial, these Indo-European territories were inhabited by Indo-Iranians, the ancestors of the Philistines. Indo-European root danu means "moisture", "water", "river".
• Russian religious philosopher Dmitry Sergeevich Merezhkovsky in the Odyssey of Homer saw lines that talked about a certain tribe of Kidons who lived along the banks of Yardan. He concluded that the river of the baptism of Jesus was called the Jordan by the people of Crete.

Holy waters of the Jordan

Already 1000 years before the waters of the Jordan River were considered sacred. Chroniclers have preserved a lot of evidence that patients with leprosy were healed after bathing in the river. Other zealots descended into the water in funeral shrouds. The tissue cuts were stored until the day of death, believing that it would help to resurrect.

After the baptism of Jesus, the river was considered a great shrine and without additional ceremonies. Early Christians used water, considering it miraculous and possessing healing properties. When Christianity became the state religion in Byzantium, believers were given the opportunity to move freely around the empire. The river of Christ's baptism became a desired destination for pilgrims.

A lot of pilgrims rushed to the banks of the Jordan, not only to worship sacred places. In addition to reverent veneration, superstitions also appeared. In the waters of the river, the patients were immersed in anticipation of the miracle of healing and old age of people with the belief in rejuvenation. Water began to be used to sprinkle farmland, hoping that this will bring a plentiful harvest. The owners of sea vessels recruited large vessels of water, trying to prevent shipwreck and arrange a safe voyage.

Jordan today

The flow of pilgrims does not cease in our days. According to ancient testimonies, the place on the bank of the Jordan, where John the Baptist performed his mission, is in the territory of modern Israel. The river of Christ's baptism in this area flows through the Palestinian Autonomy and access to it after the 1967 war is impossible.

In order to meet the wishes of Christians, the Israeli government allocated a small stretch of coast at the exit of the Jordan from the Sea of Galilee (Sea of Galilee). With the participation of the Ministry of Tourism, a whole complex of buildings was built. This pilgrimage center is not considered a historical site of evangelical events, but for numerous believers from all over the world it is the only opportunity to immerse yourself in the sacred waters.

Miracles on the Feast of Baptism

On the feast of the Epiphany on January 19, the Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem performs a festive moleben and a great consecration of water. The climax of this worship is the triple immersion of the cross in the water. A lot of those present testify to the annual recurring miracle. At the moment of immersing the cross, the river of Jesus' baptism stops its running, and the waters begin to move in the opposite direction. This phenomenon is recorded by many eyewitnesses on video. The Jordan has a fairly strong current, and it is not possible to explain this phenomenon by a natural factor. Believers believe that in this way God manifests his strength.

The true place of the Savior's baptism

If the question, in which river Jesus was baptized, is already considered resolved, then you can argue with the definition of the place of the event itself. For twenty centuries the riverbed has changed more than once, the states and peoples that existed in biblical times have sunk into oblivion.

In the Jordanian city of Madaba, the ancient temple of the heyday of the Byzantine Empire was preserved. The church of St. George was built in the middle of the VI century. Its floor is decorated with a mosaic geographic map of Palestine. The surviving fragment of this document measures 15 by 6 meters. Among other things, the map of the Savior's baptism is very detailed on the map. This prompted scientists to find an archaeological evidence of evangelical events.

On the territory of Jordan, not far from the confluence of the river to the Dead Sea, in 1996, forty meters east of the current riverbed, a group of archaeologists discovered the true place of the Savior's baptism. Already almost a year from the Israeli side, the river of Christ's baptism in this place is accessible for pilgrims. Everyone can get to the water and bathe or dive.

River of the Baptism of Russia

The Kiev prince Vladimir decided to make Orthodox Christianity the official religion. In historiography, both ecclesiastical and secular, sanctifying these events, it is customary to mention the poll of envoys of different religions arranged by Prince Vladimir. The Greek preacher was the most convincing. In 988 the baptism of Rus took place . The Dnieper River became the Jordan of the Kiev state.

Vladimir himself was baptized in the Greek colony of Crimea - the city of Chersonesos. Upon his arrival in Kiev, he ordered to be baptized all over his court. After this, under pain of reckoning to personal enemies, he made the baptism of Rus. In what river there will be a mass sacrament, there were no doubts. A wooden statue of the most revered pagan god Perun was overthrown into the river, and the Kievites are gathered on the banks of the Dnieper and its tributary Pochayny. The clergymen who arrived with Vladimir from Chersonesos performed the sacrament, and a new era of our state began.