When Jesus travelled from Galilee to Judea, it is likely He traveled the Jordan Rift Valley. This was the easiest route (without going through Samaria) to get from Galilee to Judea.
The Jordan River flows through the valley and gives it its name, and runs from north of Lake Huleh to the Dead Sea. The valley itself is part of a larger geologic feature called the Great Rift Valley that runs 3,700 miles, from northern Syria to northeastern Africa. At the Dead Sea, the valley is the lowest place on land at more than 1,200 feet below sea level.
The climate of the Jordan Valley changes dramatically as it moves from north to south. In the north, near Lake Huleh, the valley is fertile, and plentiful rainfall allows substantial agriculture. South of the Sea of Galilee, the valley rapidly dries out and increases in temperature. Agriculture here is only possible by using the Jordan River for irrigation. Near the Dead Sea, the temperature is too high for most agricultural activity, although some palm crops are grown, like dates and bananas.
Humans have occupied the valley for thousands of years. Jericho, at the southern end of the valley, is considered by some to be the oldest inhabited city in the world. Other cities include Bethany Beyond the Jordan, Scythopolis (Beth Shean), Bethsaida, and Caesarea Philippi. John the Baptist ministered in the valley as well. As mentioned, it is also a major thoroughfare, allowing relatively easy travel from north to south. In the New Testament, Jesus traveled the valley several times, going from Galilee to Jerusalem and back, and was baptized in the Jordan River.
The Jordan River
Site Study
| Hershel Wayne House
The Jordan River is the only major waterway between the Mediterranean and the Euphrates River. It runs north to south 223 miles through the Jordan Rift Valley, from its headwaters in the foothills of Mt. Hermon, through Lake Huleh, through the Sea of Galilee, and on to where it empties into the Dead Sea. Over its course it falls 2885 feet in elevation, from 1500 ft. above sea level at its headwaters to 1385 feet below sea level at its mouth.
Due to the geography and climate of the area, the Jordan was subject to rapid fluctuations in flow during ancient times. From the Sea of Galilee south, the climate of the Jordan River Valley dries dramatically. With very little vegetation to hold excess water, heavy rains resulted in flash flooding in the canyons prevalent along the slopes of the valley. These flash floods swelled the amount of water flowing into the Jordan, and in turn the Jordan’s water level rapidly rose. Because of this, crossing the River ranged from fairly easy to very dangerous.
Although there are no major cities at the Jordan river, several important towns were located in the valley near the river, including Jericho in the south and Scythopolis (Beth Shean) further north, Bethsaida north of the Sea of Galilee, and Caesarea Philippi near one of the streams that form the headwaters of the Jordan.
Although there are few cities in the region of the Jordan River, it has been the scene of countless historical events. In the New Testament, it is the region where John the Baptist ministered, and the site of Jesus’ Baptism. Jesus undoubtedly traveled the route along the Jordan River valley between Galilee and Jerusalem.
1Therefore you shall love Yahweh your God, and keep his instructions, his statutes, his ordinances, and his commandments, always. 2Know this day—for I don’t speak with your children who have not known, and who have not seen the chastisement of Yahweh your God, his greatness, his mighty hand, his outstretched arm, 3his signs, and his works, which he did in the middle of Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt, and to all his land; 4and what he did to the army of Egypt, to their horses, and to their chariots; how he made the water of the Red Sea to overflow them as they pursued you, and how Yahweh has destroyed them to this day; 5and what he did to you in the wilderness until you came to this place; 6and what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben—how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households, their tents, and every living thing that followed them, in the middle of all Israel; 7but your eyes have seen all of Yahweh’s great work which he did.
8Therefore you shall keep the entire commandment which I command you today, that you may be strong, and go in and possess the land that you go over to possess; 9and that you may prolong your days in the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers to give to them and to their offspring, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10For the land, where you go in to possess isn’t like the land of Egypt that you came out of, where you sowed your seed and watered it with your foot, as a garden of herbs; 11but the land that you go over to possess is a land of hills and valleys which drinks water from the rain of the sky, 12a land which Yahweh your God cares for. Yahweh your God’s eyes are always on it, from the beginning of the year even to the end of the year. 13It shall happen, if you shall listen diligently to my commandments which I command you today, to love Yahweh your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, 14that I will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil. 15I will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and you shall eat and be full. 16Be careful, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn away to serve other gods and worship them; 17and Yahweh’s anger be kindled against you, and he shut up the sky so that there is no rain, and the land doesn’t yield its fruit; and you perish quickly from off the good land which Yahweh gives you. 18Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul. You shall bind them for a sign on your hand, and they shall be for frontlets between your eyes. 19You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 20You shall write them on the door posts of your house and on your gates; 21that your days and your children’s days may be multiplied in the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers to give them, as the days of the heavens above the earth. 22For if you shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you—to do them, to love Yahweh your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cling to him— 23then Yahweh will drive out all these nations from before you, and you shall dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourselves. 24Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even to the western sea shall be your border. 25No man will be able to stand before you. Yahweh your God will lay the fear of you and the dread of you on all the land that you tread on, as he has spoken to you. 26Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse: 27the blessing, if you listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, which I command you today; 28and the curse, if you do not listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, but turn away out of the way which I command you today, to go after other gods which you have not known. 29It shall happen, when Yahweh your God brings you into the land that you go to possess, that you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim, and the curse on Mount Ebal. 30Aren’t they beyond the Jordan, behind the way of the going down of the sun, in the land of the Canaanites who dwell in the Arabah near Gilgal, beside the oaks of Moreh? 31For you are to pass over the Jordan to go in to possess the land which Yahweh your God gives you, and you shall possess it and dwell in it. 32You shall observe to do all the statutes and the ordinances which I set before you today.
