A Memorial Unto the Children
In a recent podcast, Sister Camille Fronk Olson spoke about the miraculous crossing of the Israelites over the Jordan River. She said , “Sometime along the way, there was a community named Bethabara along that river. Bethabara in Hebrew means literally house of the fording. We might more easily call it the place of the crossing. I can’t imagine any other crossing but this one that would warrant naming a community that. We know, especially from restored gospel scripture in the Book of Mormon and also Joseph Smith translation of Matthew that Jesus Christ was baptized in the River Jordan next to the community called Bethabara, the place of the fording.” Indeed, Nephi wrote about the teachings of his father concerning John the Baptist who would come: “And my father said he should baptize in Bethabara, beyond Jordan; and he also said he should baptize with water; even that he should baptize the Messiah with water” (1 Nephi 10:9). The account in John reads this way in the King James version:...
