B Whalin (@BWhalin)

Israel Launches Preparations For 2,000th Anniversary Of The Baptism Of Jesus In The Jordan River Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has begun preparing for 2030, when Christians across the globe will mark 2,000 years since the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River, one of the defining events in Christian tradition. Minister of Foreign Affairs Gideon Sa’ar has ordered the creation of a dedicated working group, led by Ambassador George Deek, Israel’s Special Envoy to the Christian World, to coordinate with churches worldwide and prepare the country to host what officials expect will be millions of Christian pilgrims. Where And When The Baptism Took Place Christian tradition places the baptism of Jesus at a site along the Jordan River near Jericho, where John the Baptist was preaching and immersing followers as a rite of repentance. The location has been venerated by Christian pilgrims since antiquity and is identified today with Qasr al-Yahud on the Israeli side of the river, directly across from the site known as Al-Maghtas, or Bethany Beyond the Jordan, on the Jordanian bank. Al-Maghtas was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2015. Byzantine-era churches, monasteries and baptismal pools have been excavated on both banks, confirming the site’s standing as a place of Christian worship for over 1,500 years. Christian scholars generally date the baptism to around 29 CE, based on the Gospel of Luke’s placement of John the Baptist’s ministry in the fifteenth year of the reign of the Roman emperor Tiberius and its description of Jesus as approximately thirty years old at the time. The event is understood in Christian tradition as the beginning of Jesus’s public ministry. For Christians, the anniversary carries significance well beyond a historical date. It is treated as one of the foundational moments of their faith, and 2030 is being positioned by both Israeli and Jordanian officials as the first in a series of millennial commemorations expected to culminate in 2033, when Christians will mark 2,000 years since the crucifixion. –By Valerie Lock, Israel 365 News #Faith #God #Jesus #Bible