Bordeaux Pilgrim - Text 8a: Jericho and the Dead Sea

Pilgrims who visited the Holy Land between the IV and VII century

THE ANONYMOUS PILGRIM OF BORDEAUX (333 A.D.)

25.
Jesus raises Lazarus 26.
The Jericho area in the Madaba Mosaic map 27.
The desolate landscape of the Dead Sea

The Text: 8a. The surroundings of Jerusalem (Jericho and the Dead Sea)

A mile and a half to the eastward is the village (villa) called Bethany. There is a vault (crypta) in which Lazarus, whom the Lord raised, was laid ( John 11:1-44) [pct.25].

From Jerusalem to Jericho (Ariha) [pct.26] - miles xviii.

On the right hand side, as one descends from the mount, behind a tomb, is the sycamore tree into which Zacchaeus climbed that he might see Christ ( Luke 19:1-10). A mile-and-a-half from the town is the fountain of Elisha. Formerly if any woman drank of it she did not bear children. Beside it lies an earthenware vessel. Elisha threw salt into it, and came and stood over the fountain and said, 'Thus saith the Lord, I have cleansed these waters, and if any woman drink of this fountain she shall bear children.' ( 2 Kings 2,1-22).

Above the same fountain [597] is the house of the harlot Rahab, to whom the spies came, and she hid them( Jos 2:1-21; Heb 11:17-40), and alone was saved when Jericho was destroyed. Here stood the city of Jericho, round whose walls the children of Israel circled with the Ark of the Covenant, and the walls fell down ( Jos 6:1-25). Nothing is to be seen of it except the place where the Ark of the Covenant stood, and the twelve stones which the children of Israel brought out of Jordan ( Jos 4:1-24). There Jesus, the son of Nave (Joshua the son of Nun), circumcised the children of Israel and buried their foreskins ( Jos 5:2-9).

From Jericho (Ariha) to the Dead sea [pct.27]- miles ix.

The water of it is very bitter, and in it there is no kind of fish whatever, nor any vessel; and if a man casts himself into it in order to swim, the water turns him over.

[598] From thence to the Jordan, where the Lord was baptized by John ( Matt 3:13-17) - miles v.

There is a place by the river, a little hill upon the further (left) bank, from which Elijah was caught up into heaven ( 2 Kings 2:1-15). [follows]

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