BETHABARA:
An unidentified place mentioned in John i. 28. According to Origen's reading, the name is brought into connection with the Hebrew '"abarah" (crossing), and is supposed to refer to one of the many fords of the Jordan. Another reading is "Bethany" (BηιΘανία), but no place of this name east of the Jordan is known. Grove, Wilson, and Cheyne combine both readings into BηΘανάβρα—that is, "Beth-nimra" in the Jordan valley, northeast of the Dead Sea.
