AEnon
Encyclopedia
John the Baptist
John the Baptist was an itinerant preacher and a major religious figure mentioned in the Canonical gospels. He is described in the Gospel of Luke as a relative of Jesus, who led a movement of baptism at the Jordan River...
baptized
Baptism
In Christianity, baptism is for the majority the rite of admission , almost invariably with the use of water, into the Christian Church generally and also membership of a particular church tradition...
(John
Gospel of John
The Gospel According to John , commonly referred to as the Gospel of John or simply John, and often referred to in New Testament scholarship as the Fourth Gospel, is an account of the public ministry of Jesus...
3:23). Its probable location was near the upper source of the Wadi Far'ah, an open valley extending from Mount Ebal
Mount Ebal
Mount Ebal is one of the two mountains in the immediate vicinity of the Palestinian city of Nablus in the West Bank , and forms the northern side of the valley in which Nablus is situated, the southern side being formed by Mount Gerizim...
to the Jordan River which is full of springs. There is a now place called Ainun four miles north of the springs.
It is found only once in the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
, and in reference to baptism. The name is commonly used amongst Baptist
Baptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...
organizations and churches.
The Madaba Map
Madaba Map
The Madaba Map is part of a floor mosaic in the early Byzantine church of Saint George at Madaba, Jordan. The Madaba Map is a map of the Middle East. Part of it contains the oldest surviving original cartographic depiction of the Holy Land and especially Jerusalem...
shows the location of Ænon, symmetrical with the location of Bethabara
Bethabara
This entry incorporates text from the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia with some modernisation.Bethabara , in modern-day Jordan: According to the King James Version This entry incorporates text from the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia with some modernisation.Bethabara...
(the other place where John the Baptist baptized), across the Jordan.
- Αίνών ένθα νύν ό Σαπσαφάς: Ænon, where now is Sapsaphas
- Βέθαβαρά το τού άγίου Ιωάννου τού βαπτίσματος: Bethabara, the place of baptism of St. John