JORDAN RIVER WATER

Description

The Jordan River plays an important role in the Old Testament as the border of the land that God gives to the Israelites. In the New Testament, John’s baptism of Jesus forms a seminal moment in the life of Christ and marks a defining event in the Christian Church. The baptism also altered the spiritual status of the water of the Jordan River. Early Christian writers asserted that Christ’s immersion in the Jordan sanctified the river’s water, which in turn made all water holy. The Jordan was seen as the prototypical “river of life,” but also the site of a divine manifestation of God, for just as water had been the primeval element that witnessed God’s creation, the Jordan had witnessed the beginning of the Gospels.