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Joshua 13 (WEB)

Jericho — Healing of Blind Men on the Road to Jericho·City

It is certain Jesus traveled the road from Jericho to Jerusalem several times on his trips between the Holy City and Galilee, as Jericho was a major stop over on the way through the Jordan Valley between the two. Although by no means the easiest route, the Jordan Valley-Jericho-Jerusalem road was one of the only ways to travel from Galilee to Jerusalem without having to go through Samaria. Many Jews famously avoided the Samaritans.

The road from Jericho to Jerusalem in the first century A.D. was a steep one, rising from 770 feet below sea level to 2,500 feet above sea level in only about twenty miles, a grade of about 3%. It was also located in an arid, rugged desert with few sources of water.

The route followed the Wadi el-Qelt, running along the ridge above the canyon. Herod had built several aqueducts along the way to channel water from the springs in the wadi to Jericho, including the spring of Parat, a few miles from Jerusalem. He also built several bridges to aid travel along the wadi.

As shown by Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan, the road could be dangerous, with the wilderness areas between Jericho and Jerusalem a perfect place for brigands. The area was very difficult to patrol with so many hiding spots among the canyons and hills, and it remains so to this day. Sometime after Jesus’ time, the Romans paved much of the road and built a fort along the route, at a place referred to in the Bible as the “Ascent of Adumim” (Josh 15:7), a pass in the mountains about thirteen miles east of Jerusalem and a strategic spot on the route. As a testament to the area’s lawlessness, there has been some fortification there ever since, including a police station there today watching over the extremely politically sensitive East Jerusalem area. It was also in this area that early Christians remembered Jesus’ story about the Good Samaritan. In about A.D. 480 a monastery was built on an earlier pilgrimage site, the ruins of which are in the courtyard of the modern police station.

Also along the route is the ancient monastery of St. George. Although the monastery was built in the fifth century by John of Thebes, it was first occupied much earlier by local desert hermits. It is named for a sixth century resident of the monastery – George of Koziba. It is built into the cliffs of the Wadi el-Qelt, and is said to be the spot where Elijah stayed on his journey to the Sinai. It was destroyed in the Persian invasion of A.D. 604, rebuilt in 1179, abandoned after the Crusader era, and finally rebuilt from 1878-1901. 

See also Jericho

Jack Finegan, The Archaeology of the New Testament: The Life of Jesus and the Beginning of the Early Church, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1992), 145, 152. Finegan discusses the road from Jericho to Jerusalem and the ruins along the way.

Todd Bolen, “Jesus’ Final Journey to Jerusalem” Jerusalem Perspective Online, March 17, 2004. Online: http://www.jerusalemperspective.com/Default.aspx?tabid=27&ArticleID=1850 (accessed April 27, 2010).

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Joshua 13 (WEB)

1Now Joshua was old and well advanced in years. Yahweh said to him, “You are old and advanced in years, and there remains yet very much land to be possessed.

2“This is the land that still remains: all the regions of the Philistines, and all the Geshurites; 3from the Shihor, which is before Egypt, even to the border of Ekron northward, which is counted as Canaanite; the five lords of the Philistines; the Gazites, and the Ashdodites, the Ashkelonites, the Gittites, and the Ekronites; also the Avvim, 4on the south; all the land of the Canaanites, and Mearah that belongs to the Sidonians, to Aphek, to the border of the Amorites; 5and the land of the Gebalites, and all Lebanon, toward the sunrise, from Baal Gad under Mount Hermon to the entrance of Hamath; 6all the inhabitants of the hill country from Lebanon to Misrephoth Maim, even all the Sidonians. I will drive them out from before the children of Israel. Just allocate it to Israel for an inheritance, as I have commanded you. 7Now therefore divide this land for an inheritance to the nine tribes and the half-tribe of Manasseh.” 8With him the Reubenites and the Gadites received their inheritance, which Moses gave them, beyond the Jordan eastward, even as Moses the servant of Yahweh gave them: 9from Aroer, that is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, and the city that is in the middle of the valley, and all the plain of Medeba to Dibon; 10and all the cities of Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon, to the border of the children of Ammon; 11and Gilead, and the border of the Geshurites and Maacathites, and all Mount Hermon, and all Bashan to Salecah; 12all the kingdom of Og in Bashan, who reigned in Ashtaroth and in Edrei (who was left of the remnant of the Rephaim); for Moses attacked these, and drove them out. 13Nevertheless the children of Israel didn’t drive out the Geshurites, nor the Maacathites: but Geshur and Maacath live within Israel to this day. 14Only he gave no inheritance to the tribe of Levi. The offerings of Yahweh, the God of Israel, made by fire are his inheritance, as he spoke to him. 15Moses gave to the tribe of the children of Reuben according to their families. 16Their border was from Aroer, that is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, and the city that is in the middle of the valley, and all the plain by Medeba; 17Heshbon, and all its cities that are in the plain; Dibon, Bamoth Baal, Beth Baal Meon, 18Jahaz, Kedemoth, Mephaath, 19Kiriathaim, Sibmah, Zereth Shahar in the mount of the valley, 20Beth Peor, the slopes of Pisgah, Beth Jeshimoth, 21all the cities of the plain, and all the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon, whom Moses struck with the chiefs of Midian, Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba, the princes of Sihon, who lived in the land. 22The children of Israel also killed Balaam the son of Beor, the soothsayer, with the sword, among the rest of their slain.

23The border of the children of Reuben was the bank of the Jordan. This was the inheritance of the children of Reuben according to their families, the cities and its villages.

24Moses gave to the tribe of Gad, to the children of Gad, according to their families. 25Their border was Jazer, and all the cities of Gilead, and half the land of the children of Ammon, to Aroer that is near Rabbah; 26and from Heshbon to Ramath Mizpeh, and Betonim; and from Mahanaim to the border of Debir; 27and in the valley, Beth Haram, Beth Nimrah, Succoth, and Zaphon, the rest of the kingdom of Sihon king of Heshbon, the Jordan’s bank, to the uttermost part of the sea of Chinnereth beyond the Jordan eastward. 28This is the inheritance of the children of Gad according to their families, the cities and its villages.

29Moses gave an inheritance to the half-tribe of Manasseh. It was for the half-tribe of the children of Manasseh according to their families. 30Their border was from Mahanaim, all Bashan, all the kingdom of Og king of Bashan, and all the villages of Jair, which are in Bashan, sixty cities. 31Half Gilead, Ashtaroth, and Edrei, the cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan, were for the children of Machir the son of Manasseh, even for the half of the children of Machir according to their families.

32These are the inheritances which Moses distributed in the plains of Moab, beyond the Jordan at Jericho, eastward. 33But Moses gave no inheritance to the tribe of Levi. Yahweh, the God of Israel, is their inheritance, as he spoke to them.

World English Bible · public domain · ebible.org

Jericho