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beth-ab´a-ra בּית עברה, beÌ„th‛ăbhaÌ„raÌ„h; ΒηθαβαÏαÌ, BeÌ„thabaraÌ, “house of the fordâ€): According to the King James Version (following Textus Receptus of the New Testament) the place where John baptized (). the Revised Version (British and American) (with Tischendorf, Westcott and Hort, The New Testament in Greek following Codex Sinaiticus, Codex Vaticanus, Codex Alexandrinus, Codex Ephraemi) reads BETHANY. It is distinguished from the Bethany of Lazarus and his sisters as being “beyond the Jordan.†The reading “Bethabara†became current owing to the advocacy of Origen. Various suggestions have been made to explain the readings. G. A. Smith (HGHL) suggests that Bethany (“house of the shipâ€) and Bethabara (“house of the fordâ€) are names for the same place. Bethabara has also been identified with Bethbarah, which, however, was probably not on the Jordan but among the streams flowing into it (). It is interesting to note that lxxB reads , Baithabara for Massoretic Text BeÌ„th-‛ăraÌ„bhaÌ„h, one of the cities of Benjamin (). If this be correct, the site is in Judea.
Another solution is sought in the idea of a corruption of the original name into Bethany and Bethabara, the name having the consonants n, b and r after Beth. In (Septuagint, Codex Vaticanus) we find , Baithanabra for Bethnimrah (Massoretic Text), and Sir George Grove in DB (arts. “Bethabara†and “Beth-nimrahâ€) identifies Bethabara and Beth-nimrah. The site of the latter was a few miles above Jericho (see BETH-NIMRAH), “immediately accessible to Jerusalem and all Judea†(compare ; , and see article “Bethany†in EB). This view has much in its favor.
Then, again, as Dr. G. Frederick Wright observes: “The traditional site is at the ford east of Jericho; but as according to , , it was only one day's journey from Cana of Galilee, while according to ; , , it was two or three days from Bethany, it must have been well up the river toward Galilee. Conder discovered a well-known ford near Beisan called Abarah, near the mouth of the valley of Jezreel. This is 20 miles from Cana and 60 miles from Bethany, and all the conditions of the place fit in with the history.†See also BETHANY (2).