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| Jordan River, courtesy, Wikipedia |
According to
the Old Testament account, the Hebrew patriarch Jacob crossed the Jordan and
its tributary, the Jabbok, in order
to reach Haran (Gen. 22:11, 23-24). His descendants, the Israelites, under
Joshua, again crossed the Jordan, near Jericho
in order to conquer the Promised Land. Later the tribes that chose to settle on
the east side of the river, Gad, Reuben,
and the half tribe of Menasheh, built a large altar on its banks as "a witness" between them and the
other tribes (Josh. 22:10). After the other tribes were allotted its own
territories, the Jordan was found to be straddling several in addition to those
just mentioned: Menasheh (on both sides), Naphtali, Yissasschar, Benjamin, and Judah.
Years later, a part of the tribe of Dan broke off from the main tribal
territory, migrated north, and established their own small territory along the northern reaches of the river. (Today,
this site is marked by a tel and a kibbutz, Dan.) During the Period of the
Judges, Jephtah smote 42000 Ephraimites on the banks of one of the river’s
fords (Judges 23:5-6). It seems that these are the same fords mentioned as
being near Beth Avarah on the
eastern bank, where Gideon lay in wait for the Midianites (Judges 7:24). In the
plain of the Jordan, between Succoth and
Zarthan, is the clay ground where Solomon had his brass-foundries (I Kings 7:46).
The prophets Elijah and Elisha
crossed over the Jordan on dry ground, each of whom dividing the
waters with a stroke of the mantle (II Kings 2:8, 14). Elisha performed two
other miracles at the Jordan: he healed Naaman by having him bathe seven times
in its waters, and he made the ax of one of the children of the prophets, float,
by throwing a piece of wood into the water (II Kings 5:14, 6:6). The Jordan was
crossed by Judas Maccabeus and his brother Jonathan during their war with the
Nabatæans (I Macc. 5:24). A little later it was the scene of the battle between
Jonathan and Bacchides, in which the latter was defeated (I Macc. 9:42-49). In Christian tradition,
the apostle John was baptized at Beth Arava (Matthew 3:5–6; Mark1:5; Luke 3:3; John1:28).
However, Christian pilgrims today tend to go to the site of Qasr al Yahud on the opposite bank as
they do to the site of Yardenit, far
to the north, below the Sea of Galilee, which is believed to be the place where
John baptized Jesus and also where Jesus took refuge when he was pursued by his
enemies. The New Testament speaks several times about Jesus crossing the Jordan
during his ministry (Matthew
19:1; Mark 10:1),
and of believers crossing the Jordan to come hear him preach and to be healed of their diseases (Matthew
4:25; Mark 3:7–8).
Before the coming of the Arabs, many
Jewish farms dotted the Jordan Valley. But due to persecutions by Crusaders and
later by Arabs and other Muslims, the Jews moved away. In the 14th
century however, geographer Ishtori haParhi settled in Bet Shean where he published his work on his explorations of the
Land of Israel, Kaftor Vaferah. Yehoseph Schwarz, a rabbi from Germany who came to reside in Jerusalem
in the 19th century, also explored the Land of Israel and spent several weeks
studying the Jordan.
By
the early 20th century, a small settlement existed in the Jisr al Majami caravanserai, near the bridge of the same name and south of
the Sea of Galilee. According to the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by
the British Mandate authorities, Jisr al
Majami had a population of 121 which included only 4 Jews but also 5 Christians
and 112 Muslims. The village grew with the establishment of the First Jordan Hydro-Electric Power
House nearby by engineer and later politician Pinhas Rutenberg. Further
north, in 1934, during the draining of Lake Huleh as part of a Zionist land
reclamation project, the old Bnot Yaakov Bridge was replaced by a modern one further south. At the end of the 1936–1939 Arab riots in Palestine,
a fortified "tower and stockade" settlement was established adjacent
to Jisr al Majami, Kibbutz
Gesher. On the "Night of the Bridges" between June 16
and 17, 1946, when the Haganah destroyed several bridges linking Palestine with
other countries and used by the British army, the Jisr al Majami Bridge was
destroyed. The Syrians captured the bridge on June 11, 1948, during the War
of Independence, but later withdrew as a result of the 1949 Armistice Agreements between
Israel and Syria when the bridge found itself in the central demilitarized zone
that was established.
After the war,
the western side of the Valley found itself split in two. The northern half,
stretching from Tirat Zvi (est.
1937) north to the Jordan’s headwaters, became part of Israel. The southern
half (as well as the eastern bank) which stretched down to the Dead Sea, was
under Arab occupation. Jews were banned from the southern half for the next 19
years. During that time, the Israeli portion developed in various ways.
Archaeological excavations occurred there between 1950 and 1953 when Philip Guy and Pesach
Bar-Adon excavated a 5th-6th century synagogue. The synagogue was
incorporated into the Beth Yerah
National Park which served as a popular tourist destination during the
1950s and 1960s. In 1953, the Bnot Yaakov Bridge was chosen
as the original location for the water intake of Israel's National Water Carrier project, but
after US pressure the intake was moved downstream to the Sea of
Galilee at Eshed Kinrot, which
later became known as the Sapir Pumping Station
that began diverting water from the Sea of Galilee to the National
Water Carrier. Conflict over the waters of the Jordan River was a
contributing factor to the Six-Day War when,
starting in 1965, Syria attempted to
divert some of its headwaters in collaboration with Lebanon and Jordan, as well
as shelling Israeli villages in the valley below from their positions in the
Golan Heights. During the Six-Day War,
Israel recaptured the Golan and the entire western half of the Jordan Valley
and Jews began to return to the Arab-occupied half immediately after. The first
town established in the Valley was Mechola in 1967 by Bnei Akiva members and named after the biblical city
of Abel-mechola (1 Kings 19:16), which was
located in the area. The village of Argaman
followed, established in 1968 as a Nahal settlement. It was converted to a civilian moshav in 1971. Its name
is an acronym for Arik Regev and Gad Mandel, two Nahal commanders
who were killed while pursuing terrorists. Massua
was established in 1969 as a Nahal settlement, and converted
to a civilian moshav by a HaOved HaTzioni gar'in five years later. Next came Gilgal. Since the founding of Gilgal,
17 other communities sprang up in the Valley, not counting that of Maale Efrayim, which is a separate
local council and “capital” of the Valley. Route 90,
part of which is named after Knesset member Rehavam Zeevi, connects the town of Metulla
in the far north, on the Lebanese border, and traverses the Valley, and reaches
as far south as Eilat and beyond, connecting to the Nuweiba-Taba Road in the Sinai
which passes through Taba.
(For further
information, see postings on the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Degania, DeadSea, Gilgal, Jericho, Jabbok River, and the Huleh Valley.)
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