The Bible records three moments at the Jordan river when charismatic authority gets transferred from one leader to another.

1. There is the transfer from Moses to Joshua. Moses is a hard act to follow. Yet God performs for Joshua, at the point of entry to the Promised Land, a miracle very like the one He had performed for Moses at the point of departure from Egypt:

2. Several centuries later we find a transfer of charismatic authority from Elijah to Elisha. Again, the water of the Jordan is stopped:

3. If we now travel about 800 years forward, we again find a transfer of authority at the Jordan. The place is the same: near Jericho. For Matthew 3:1 and 3:6 locate the Baptist in the desert of Judea -- at the Jordan River. (Cf. John 3:23, although we are not sure where Aenon was.) Since the desert of Judea was bounded in the north by Jericho (then an irrigated oasis eight miles long) this would have had to be somewhere on the short stretch between Jericho and the Dead Sea. John the Baptist had a movement behind him. He was enough of a celebrity to receive a paragraph in Josephus. (See An ancient source on John the Baptist). (That is why the Church preserved Josephus' works.) But like Moses and Elijah before him, the mantle was to be given to another. And as with them, this happened at the Jordan (Matthew 3:16-17):

© 2003 Near East Tourist Agency (NET)

Text © 2003 Stephen Langfur