Gospel Doctrine: Baptismal Symbolism of the Crossing of the Red Sea and the Jordan River

Baptismal Symbolism of the Crossing of the Red Sea and the Jordan River
By John A. Tvedtnes

[Supplement to Gospel Doctrine New Testament lesson 4]

According to John 1:28-29, Jesus came to “Beth-abara beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing.” The traditional site of Christ’s baptism is a portion of the Jordan River near Jericho and just north of the Dead Sea.

Some Greek New Testament manuscripts name Bethany in place of Beth-abara, [1] but the Book of Mormon confirms that the Messiah would be baptized in Beth-abara (1 Nephi 10:9). This is evidently the same place called Beth-barah, Beth-arabah, and Arabah in the Old Testament.

In the biblical book of Judges, we find that Beth-arabah was on the border between the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, near the Dead Sea (Joshua 15:5-6, 61; 18:21-22). [2] From the description in Joshua 18:18-20, it is clear that Arabah is the same place. [3] Arabah means “ford” or “crossing,” while Beth-Arabah means “house of the crossing.” It was probably so called because it was a shallow part of the river, an ideal place to ford the river or to enter the water to baptize.

This suggests that Jesus was baptized in the place where the Israelites in Joshua’s day crossed into the land of Canaan that had been promised to their ancestors. The Hebrew verb rendered “go/pass/bring over” is used many times in the Old Testament in reference to crossing the Jordan River. [4]

When Gideon led an Israelite army against the invading Midianites and their allies, they fled to the Jordan river, intending to cross at Bethbarah, where men from the tribe of Ephraim intercepted them. The Ephraimites captured two of the Midianite princes and executed them. Oreb was slain on a rock that thereafter bore his name (Judges 7:24-25). The event was later mentioned by Isaiah in his prophecy of the Assyrian invasion of 701 B.C.:

And the Lord of hosts shall stir up a scourge for him according to the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb: and as his rod was upon the sea, so shall he lift it up after the manner of Egypt (Isaiah 10:26, also cited in 2 Nephi 20:26).

There are other parallels between crossing the Jordan River and the Red Sea. [5] When Israel crossed the latter, Moses held aloft the staff he had used to call down the plagues on Egypt, and the waters parted, allowing the Israelites to pass (Exodus 14:16-31). Four decades later, when the priests bearing the ark of the covenant into the waters of the Jordan, the waters parted, allowing all of the people to enter the land of Canaan (Joshua 3:11-17).

On his last day in mortality, the prophet Elijah left Jericho, accompanied by his successor Elisha, and parted the Jordan river by striking the water with his rolled-up mantle (2 Kings 2:4-8). Returning to the river after Elijah’s ascension into heaven, Elisha used the same mantle to part the river so he could cross over into Jericho.

The Apostle Paul compared the crossing of the Red Sea to baptism, saying, “I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea” (1 Corinthians 10:1-2). The Encomium on John the Baptist, falsely attributed to John Chrysostom (died A.D. 407), cites an apocalypse by James, the brother of Christ, in which the Savior tells the apostles that John the Baptist lives in the third heaven and ferries those who honor him on earth across a river of fire in a golden boat. [6]

The Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran, who claim to be descendants of the disciples of John the Baptist, believe that the soul of a righteous person enters into a ship of light and is taken over a river to the celestial world of light. [7]

Psalm 95:8-11 compares the Israelite crossing of the Jordan into the Holy Land to “the rest of the Lord.” [8] The passage was cited in Hebrews 3:8-11 and followed by the explanation that those who were denied the privilege of entering into the Lord’s rest were the ones who lacked faith (Hebrews 3:16-19). The epistle then notes that the Lord’s rest is more than just entering into the promised land; it is passing into God’s presence, i.e., the Sabbath or seventh day on which God rested and, by implication, the millennial era and, ultimately, the celestial realm (Hebrews 4:1-11).

This is confirmed in Moroni 7:3:

Wherefore, I would speak unto you that are of the church, that are the peaceable followers of Christ, and that have obtained a sufficient hope by which ye can enter into the rest of the Lord, from this time henceforth until ye shall rest with him in heaven.[9]

The Lord’s explanation is found in D&C 84:23-24:

Now this Moses plainly taught to the children of Israel in the wilderness, and sought diligently to sanctify his people that they might behold the face of God; But they hardened their hearts and could not endure his presence; therefore, the Lord in his wrath, for his anger was kindled against them, swore that they should not enter into his rest while in the wilderness, which rest is the fulness of his glory (see also D&C 19:9; 121:32).

The Jordan River of the Bible became an instrument of healing from mortal diseases (as in the case of the leprous Naaman of Syria, 2 Kings 5:9-14) and from sins (e.g., Matthew 3:4-6). The Mandaeans, who regularly perform rebaptism for both the living and the dead, earthly rivers are symbolic of the heavenly Jordan, which cleanses the soul. [10]

In modern times, the Jordan River plays an important role in various hymns and spirituals, such as “Michael, Row the Boat Ashore.” The spiritual “Deep River” imcludes the lyrics, “My home is over Jordan” and “I want to cross Over into Campground.” Another well-known spiritual is “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” which draws on the story of Elijah, who crossed the Jordan and was then taken up in a chariot of fire: “I looked over Jordan and what did I see coming for to carry me home? A band of angels coming after me, coming for to carry me home.” “Roll, Jordan, Roll” includes the words “I want to get to heaven when I die, to see that Jordan roll.”

The Israelites who survived the forty years in the wilderness entered into the Lord’s rest by crossing the Jordan River into the Promised Land. Because the land of Israel is symbolic of the celestial kingdom, it is significant that Jesus should be baptized at the same ford crossed many centuries before his time by the Israelites. Nephi wrote that baptism is the gate into the kingdom (2 Nephi 31:4-18; cf. D&C 22:1-4), [11] while his brother Jacob declared that Christ is the gatekeeper (2 Nephi 9:41). [12]

For additional material relating to this lesson, see:

John A. Tvedtnes, “John the Baptist and the Keys of Baptism,” Insights 19/6 (June 1999), posted on the Maxwell Institute web site at http://farms.byu.edu/display.php?table=insights&id=69
John A. Tvedtnes, “John the Baptist,” posted on the Meridian web site at http://www.ldsmag.com/gospeldoctrine/nt/070119nt4sf.html

For an introduction to the books of the New Testament and in-depth discussions of each verse in the New Testament, see Kevin L. Barney (ed.), John H. Jenkins, and John A. Tvedtnes, “Footnotes to the New Testament for Latter-day Saints,” go to: http://feastupontheword.org/Site:NTFootnotes

[1] Elsewhere, Bethany is known as the village where Lazarus and his sisters, Mary and Martha, lived, as well as Simon the Pharisee, sometimes mistakenly called a “leper.” (The term “Pharisee” means “separatist.” Lepers were not allowed to live among those who did not have the affliction.)

[2] In the Bible, it is usually called the “salt sea” (Genesis 14:3; Numbers 34:3, 12; Deuteronomy 3:17; Joshua 3:16; 12:3; 15:2, 5; 18:19.

[3] In modern Israel, the entire rift valley from the Sea of Galilee south to the Dead Sea and beyond is called the Arabah. The valley actually continues through the red sea and down into eastern Africa, and is one of the great evidences for continental drift. The deepest portion of the valley, from the Sea of Galilee southward, is all below sea level, with the surface of the Dead Sea being the lowest spot on earth.

[4] For example, see Genesis 32:10; Numbers 32:5, 21, 29, 32; 33:51; 35:10; Deuteronomy 2:29; 3:25-28; 4:21-22, 26; 9:1; 11:31; 12:10; 27:2-4; 30:18; 31:2-3, 13; 32:47; Joshua 1:2, 11.

[5] The Hebrew text reads “sea of reeds.” It was identified by the Greek Septuagint version of the Bible with the Red Sea and thus rendered in most or all translations of Exodus 13:18 and other passages.

[6] Montague Rhodes James, The Apocryphal New Testament, 37. Compare Apocalypse of Paul 23, where Paul, during his heavenly visit, is taken across “the lake Acherusa . . . in a golden ship” (ibid., 538). A number of ancient pseudepigrapha note that one must cross a river or lake of fire to reach the Lord’s presence; the righteous succeed, while the wicked are consumed in the flames.

[7] E. S. Drower, The Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran (photomechanical reprint, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1962), 199.

[8] See also Exodus 33:14; Deuteronomy 3:20; 12:9-10; Joshua 1:13-15; 22:4; and JST Exodus 34:2.

[9] Other Book of Mormon passages that discuss the Lord’s rest include Jacob 1:7-8; Alma 12:33-37; Alma 13:5-6, 13-16, 29; 16:16-17; 60:13; 3 Nephi 27:19.

[10] Similarly, the ancient Egyptians believed that the Nile River came from the heavenly river known to us as the Milky Way.

[11] The concept of baptism as a gate is known from the writings of an early Ethiopic clergyman, Bakhayla Mika’el, also called Zosimas, which were not available in English until more than a century after the publication of the Book of Mormon. In explanation of the “open door” of Revelation 3:8, he wrote, “there is a door which is opened and no one is able to close it; what he saith meaneth baptism” (E. A. Wallis Budge, The Book of the Mysteries of the Heavens and the Earth and Other Works of Bakhayla Mika’el Zosimas [Oxford, 1935], 100). He also referred to Christ’s statement to John in Revelation 3:20, “Behold, I stand at the door,” noting that “when he saith that he stood in the gate, the gate is baptism” (ibid., 55).

[12] The concept of baptism as a gate is known from the writings of an early Ethiopic clergyman, Bakhayla Mika’el, also called Zosimas, which were not available in English until more than a century after the publication of the Book of Mormon. In explanation of the “open door” of Revelation 3:8, he wrote, “there is a door which is opened and no one is able to close it; what he saith meaneth baptism” (E. A. Wallis Budge, The Book of the Mysteries of the Heavens and the Earth and Other Works of Bakhayla Mika’el Zosimas [Oxford, 1935], 100). He also referred to Christ’s statement to John in Revelation 3:20, “Behold, I stand at the door,” noting that “when he saith that he stood in the gate, the gate is baptism” (ibid., 55).