The Jordan River
Scripture first
Loading the passage…
The Jordan, overflowing all its banks at harvest, stands still in a heap while the carry the ark into the water, and the whole nation crosses on dry ground into the land God promised.
The other passages, in full
Joshua 4:19-24
Loading the passage…
2 Kings 2:6-14
Loading the passage…
2 Kings 5:10-14
Loading the passage…
Matthew 3:1-6
Loading the passage…
Matthew 3:13-17
Loading the passage…
John 1:28-34
Loading the passage…
John 10:40-42
Loading the passage…
Scripture's first long look at the Jordan is a boundary. It marks the eastern edge of the inheritance in Numbers 34:10-12, and Moses is told plainly that he will not cross it. To be on the far side was to be outside the land; to cross was to enter what God had promised.
Joshua 3 tells the crossing carefully. The carrying the ark step into the water first, and only then do the waters cut off. The text notes the season: the Jordan overflows all its banks at harvest. Israel passes over on dry ground, and twelve stones are taken from the riverbed and set up at Gilgal for one stated purpose, so that when children ask what these stones mean, the story is told again.
The river then keeps reappearing. The fords become a place of tribal judgment in Judges 12. David recrosses it to be restored as . Elijah strikes it with his mantle and walks through, and after he is taken, Elisha strikes the same water and asks where the God of Elijah is. Naaman, a Syrian commander, is told to wash in it seven times, resents the ordinariness of the command, obeys, and is clean.
In the New Testament John the Baptist preaches at the Jordan and baptises those confessing sin, and Jesus comes to that water to be baptised. The heavens open, the Spirit descends and the voice speaks. Later, under pressure in Jerusalem, Jesus goes back across the Jordan to the place where John first baptised, and John 10:41-42 says many there.
The boundary river of the promised land, and the one place Scripture returns to across a thousand years: Israel's crossing, Elijah's departure, Naaman's washing, John's preaching and the baptism of Jesus.
- the Jordan, this Jordan, the river, the plain of the Jordan
- Aulon (in Greek writers, of the rift valley), al-Urdunn (in Arabic)
- The Jordan River · Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Palestinian territories
The Jordan runs from the slopes of Hermon down through the Sea of Galilee and on to the Dead Sea, falling from around two hundred metres above sea level to over four hundred metres below it. That is the deepest rift valley on the earth's land surface. The river is not wide, but it sits in a trench, and the descent is why it runs fast and muddy rather than broad and calm.
Because it is a small river in a deep valley, crossing it depended on fords, not bridges. That single fact drives several passages: the fords in Judges 12, David's crossing in 2 Samuel 19, the traffic to John's baptism in Matthew 3. A place where people could actually get across became a place where people gathered.
Joshua 3 says the crossing came when the river was in flood at harvest, which is when the winter and spring water off Hermon comes down. The text is not describing a shallow season. It sets the miracle against the river's hardest month.
The valley floor either side of the river is a thicket and marsh in places and dry, salted ground in others. Lot's choice in Genesis 13:10-11 was for the well watered part of that plain, and the Dead Sea below it, into which the Jordan drains with no outlet, is why the southern end of the valley is barren.
- Joshua 3:14-17 The Jordan, overflowing all its banks at harvest, stands still in a heap while the priests carry the ark into the water, and the whole nation crosses on dry ground into the land God promised.
- Genesis 13:10-11 Lot looks over the Jordan valley and chooses it, well watered like the garden of the Lord
- Genesis 32:10 Jacob remembers crossing the Jordan with only his staff
- Numbers 34:10-12 The Jordan set as the eastern boundary of the inheritance
- Deuteronomy 3:23-27 Moses is told he will not cross this Jordan
- Joshua 3:14-17 The waters stand still and Israel crosses at flood stage
- Joshua 4:19-24 Twelve stones set up at Gilgal so that children will ask
- Judges 12:5-6 The fords of the Jordan become a place of judgment between tribes
- 2 Samuel 19:15-18 David crosses back over the Jordan to be restored as king
- 2 Kings 2:6-8 Elijah strikes the water with his mantle and crosses with Elisha
- 2 Kings 2:13-14 Elisha takes up the mantle: Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?
- 2 Kings 5:10-14 Naaman washes seven times in the Jordan and is clean
- 2 Kings 6:1-7 The borrowed axe head recovered from the water
- Psalm 42:6-7 The psalmist remembers God from the land of Jordan
- Matthew 3:1-6 John preaches repentance and baptises in the Jordan
- Matthew 3:13-17 Jesus is baptised, the Spirit descends, the voice speaks
- John 1:28-34 John testifies beyond the Jordan: behold the Lamb of God
- John 10:40-42 Jesus withdraws to the place beyond the Jordan where John first baptised
God keeps his promises in the same place he set the boundary. He said the Jordan would be the edge of the inheritance, and it was through the Jordan that he brought Israel in.
God stops the water for the sake of his own name and reputation, so that all the peoples of the earth may know his hand is strong.
God gives his people memory aids on purpose. The twelve stones exist so that children will ask and be told.
God is not bound to one prophet. The same water parts for Elisha, and the question at the bank is answered.
God heals on his own terms, and those terms can be humbling and unimpressive.
God publicly identifies his Son at this river, with the Spirit descending and the Father speaking.
We choose land by what looks well watered, and Scripture lets us see how that choice turned out.
We measure God's faithfulness by places we have been. Jacob prays from the memory of a crossing.
We forget quickly, which is why God commands stones and questions and retelling.
We resent small commands more than hard ones. Naaman wanted something worthy of his standing.
is where God's work in a life becomes public. The crowds came to the river confessing, not performing.
What we know
Certain
- The Jordan's course from the slopes of Hermon through the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea, and its depth below sea level, are established geography.
- Scripture presents the Jordan as the eastern boundary of the inheritance and as the river Israel crossed to enter the land.
- Joshua 3-4 presents the waters standing still while the priests carrying the ark stood in the riverbed, and twelve stones set up at Gilgal.
- 2 Kings presents Elijah and Elisha crossing the Jordan, and Naaman being cleansed in it.
- The Gospels present John baptising in the Jordan and Jesus being baptised there.
Probable
- The Joshua 3 crossing is generally placed in the lower Jordan opposite Jericho, which is where the narrative's geography points.
- The river's banks are known to have been liable to collapse and to block the channel temporarily in the region above Jericho, which is often noted in discussions of the crossing account; how far that bears on Joshua 3 is a matter of interpretation, not proof.
- Gilgal lay east of Jericho, in the plain, though the exact site is not securely identified.
Disputed
- The exact site of Jesus' baptism. Locations on both the east and the west bank are proposed, and both banks have long traditions.
- The location of Bethany beyond the Jordan named in John 1:28, which is a traditional identification rather than a settled one.
- The location of Aenon near Salim in John 3:23.
- The exact site of Gilgal and of the twelve stones.