Jordan

JORDAN (Heb. Yardēn; Arabic al-Urdunn). - The most important and perennial river of Palestine, formed by the confluence of 3 watercourses that have their sources at the foot of snow-capped Hermon.

The most famous spring gushes from a cave, now blocked, in ancient times dedicated to the god Pan, whence the name of the present-day village of Banjās (329 m. above sea level), which in turn gives rise to Nahr Banjās; the other, the most copious, is near Tell el-Qāḍī (154 m. above sea level), ancient Dan-Lais, and produces the Nahr el-Leddān; the third is at Ḥaṣbejjah (563 m. above sea level), with the river el-Ḥasbānī. The three confluents join to form the G., which after lingering for about 10 km. amid the reeds, rushes and papyruses of the marshy Ard el-Hūleh, collects in the swampy lake of Hūleh or Semachonite. It then becomes noisy and plunges along a narrow valley, in which, over 17 km. of course, it descends from 2 m. above sea level (the height of the lake of Hūleh) to 208 m. below, flowing into the lake of Galilee. From here to the Dead Sea the straight-line distance is 109 km., but the Jordan runs so tortuously through the meanders of the valley (Gōr) as to triple the distance (320 km.), descending a further 200 m. Of the numerous tributaries that feed it, the principal are the Jarmuk and the Jebbōs; on the left, the Nahr Galūd and the Wādī Fāsah or de tra. In the first 20 km. the Gōr, 2-3 km. wide, extends 15-20 km. in the vicinity of Jericho. The river's bed, from 500 m. to 3 km. wide, is marked by evergreen shrubs and flooded in the months of high water; the current is 40-50 m. in the months of low water. Near the tributaries there is a luxuriant tropical vegetation and in the oases, in ancient times and today, cities and villages, such as Beisan and Jericho; but in general it is desolate because of the torrid climate.

Not navigable, the J. constitutes more a barrier than a means of communication between peoples. In the Bible it is remembered above all as a frontier (Num. 34:12; Ezek. 47:18), both of enemies who had forded it (II Kings 7:15; Judg. 12:5) and of Israelites who took refuge on the other bank (I Sam. 13:7; II Sam. 2:20; 17:22).

In the lower part, opposite Jericho, the J. is associated with the memory of the miraculous crossing of the Israelites (Josh. 3:1), with the prophets Elijah and Elisha (II Kings 2), with the ministry of St. John the Baptist (John 1:28) and with the Baptism of Jesus. This memory made the J. always frequented and visited by the faithful, who out of devotion bathe in it, especially on the solemnity of the Epiphany.

Donato Baldi

ICONOGRAPHY

The depiction of the river J. occurs frequently on Christian monuments, because of the events of which it was witness, principally the Baptism of Jesus. It is well known how the ancients, in order to express particular features of landscape, often made use of personifications. Rivers are represented by an old god, reclining and leaning on an urn or a vessel, from which the water gushes forth. This custom is found also in early Christian art. In the mosaic decoration of the baptistery of St. John in Fonte at Ravenna (5th century) the central disk of the cupola with the scene of the Baptism of Christ bears the image of the J. with the attribute of the green reed: rising from the waters, it offers the Savior a cloth to dry himself. Again at Ravenna, in the baptistery of the Arians, of contemporary date, the decoration of the center of the vault with the same scene has the figure of the J. seated on a rock and furnished with the attributes of an ancient river deity. In the catacomb frescoes and on the sarcophagi the anthropomorphization is generally not found, but well-defined landscape features appear. In all cases the waters of the J. are visible, which symbolize the spiritual purification obtained through Baptism. With regard to the Old Testament, the personification of the J. is on the fresco of the lunette of an arcosolium in the cemetery of Domitilla (second half of the 4th century) with the scene of the assumption of Elijah into heaven (II Kings 2:1 ff.; Ecclus. 48:1-13): it appears moreover in the Werden casket and in the "Joshua roll," preserved in the Vatican Library, and precisely in the episode of the crossing of the river by the Hebrew people led by the successor of Moses (Josh. 3:7; 4:14, 23).

Luigi Maria Catteruccia