Publication
The Tablet
Release Date
Unesco, the U.N. cultural agency, has added Bethany beyond the Jordan, the site the Government of Jordan claims as the place where Jesus was baptised, to its World Heritage Site list. The exact site of the baptism is unknown and Israel has promoted the site Qasr al Yahud on the other bank of the Jordan as the historic location. The United Nations cultural agency did not claim to settle the dispute definitively, but said the Jordanian site was “believed to be the location where Jesus of Nazareth was baptised by John the Baptist.”