BETHABARA. — A name which Origen (PG 14, 270) substituted for “Bethania” in John 1:28, since he could not find any locality of that name on the eastern bank of the Jordan, from which river the well-known Bethania is 180 stades distant. The name Βηθαβαρά was probably suggested to him by Bethdera in Judges 7:24, a locality which Origen imagined to be on the other side of the river because of verse 25. On the Madaba map, B. is indicated on the right bank of the Jordan opposite Jericho. Origen’s textual correction, accepted by many Fathers and introduced into the Greek codices of the textus receptus, is today commonly rejected.
Enciclopedia Cattolica