Now in this post, which we should have posted long time ago as it has been on our to-do-list for a while. We are going to look at the length and areas of the River Jordan opposite Jericho, the Jordan of the East so to speak. And we will inspect an area that could have been the place of the city and Town of Jericho. This town was visited by uMsindisi and He preformed many miracles there. Now, we believe that we already know and have identified Orange River as River Jordan, a river that cut the Promised Land in half back then, which it also does today. Mountains and rivers are hard to move. And it is so, that on the East side of the Jordan (Vaal River), you will even to this day find Jericho and the Valley of Jericho, known as Mmatopa-a-Seretsana (small muddy place - but English is a poor language to translate this - meaning is well watered down), it sounds better and fuller in SePedi (Southern Sotho). Remember we have (kinda) 4 ways of speaking Sotho. Just like Nugnis, Sothos kinda spread into 4 main branches to the North, South, East and West. Talking about language now, not necessarily migration. And please don`t get offended by that comment. We know tribal history gets complicated and personal, quickly. We are just trying to simplify. Now Today, Jericho is a small village in the Northwest province in South Africa. And in this area we find Jericho and Gauteng even, would have been referred to back in the day as the Valley of Jordan, or Jordan Valley. It used to be a very well watered area, as the Garden of SoNiNi, not so much today. Remember this now, Jordan Opposite Jericho was to the East, and Jerusalem was said to be towards the west. In the areas that today are not exactly blessed with too much rainfall.
We know the stories about Joshua, and the Battle of Jericho, the battle was led by the same man. This siege led to the fall of the Kanaanite city of Jericho (Joshua 5,13-6,23). Now this city is very old, and its location in ancient times would be comparable to that of Johannesburg today, in terms of being a trading location with a main road inland to the rest of what we call Southern Africa today. For future reference, think of this for other locations, as the parable is described in Luke 10,30, the good Samaritan went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. Something to chew on. For sure. Mountains must be nearby, as you would be coming down from them, a reference to the mountains of Juda?
Now Jericho is described as being kind of a fertile and spring-fed area, East of the Jordan, and said to be close to The Dead Sea (a good candidate here is Lake Magkadigkadi). Jericho was called and known as The City of Palms, because of its abundant Palm Trees (Deuteronomy 34,1-3):
Then Moses climbed Mount Nebo from the plains of Moab to the top of Pisgah, across from Jericho. There SoNiNi showed him the whole land—from Gilead to Dan, 2 all of Naphtali, the territory of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as The Great Sea, 3 the Negev and the whole region from the Valley of Jericho, the City of Palms, as far as Zoar.
So then, referring to our old post of Mount Nebo being in the Limpopo area in South Africa, we see that from there Moses was able to pretty much see the fullness of the land from these mountains close to Pisgah. And Jericho would have been kinda in the middle of this whole show, where Promised Lands meets the all the different nations around, controlling trade routes between the east and west, and north and south. Now the town of Jericho ended up belonging to the allotment of land to the Tribe of Benjamin (Joshua 18,12). But it did not always belong to Benjamin, which makes for difficulty in precise mappings.
After Moses death on Mount Nebo, Joshua came forth as Moses had laid his hands upon him, and the Son of Nun led the people under SoNiNis directions. The absolute first city as they entered Kanaan, was the fabled Jericho with its HIGH walls, formidable fortress walls they could be called. And here follows the story of Rahab the prostitute, a march of silence for six days then a shout on the seventh, with spies, plots and twists - a script worthy of any action movie. Go on, read it in its entirety.
Now, as Jericho fell this event and city siege was devoted to SoNiNi (Joshua 6,17), and no spoils of war was to be taken. Jericho was to be a tithe to SoNiNi. But there was one called Achan who violated this command and he brought nothin but ruin to his household and himself. Now Joshua placed a curse on anyone who rebuilt the city (Joshua 6,25), so it was for a while until Elijah and Elisha, which some time later. Hiel of Bethel rebuilt the city and lost both his two sons (1 Kings 16,24).
Moving on we find Jericho also mentioned in Judges, where it is said Jericho was a provincial outpost for The King of Moab, King Eglon, who ruled there for 18 years (Judges 3,13). Other mentions are some men Kind David told to stay there until their beards had regrown and this place also seems to have a mysterious place called home of the school of the prophets (2 Kings 2,4-18). A spring was purified there by Elisha (2 Kings 2,19-22), and finally Jerichos last mention in the Old Books is that of the capture of King Zedekia after he escaped the Chaldean army (2 Kings 25,2-7 and Jeremia 39,5 ; 52,8).
Now Herod, or King Herod as he wanted to be seen as, had his run-ins with Jericho and a Palace (Royal Estates, and there were actually 3 different Jericho palaces) he had built there. Sources actually say that at one point in time, Herod actually leased the estate back to Queen Cleopatra, but then she and Mark Antony had their joint suicide, and the successor Octavian got control of the Roman Empire then gave Herod rule over Jericho and other areas of the Promised Land. Now for you guys who are history buffs like us, you can read in Josephus's books about the murder of Aristobulus III, a man that was found floating belly up a swimming pool at Herods winter Palace, during a banquet that was all organized by Herods mother-in-law (nice family). Now after all these lavish palaces had been constructed, it became both agricultural centre and a crossroads, kind of like Johannesburg or the East Rand today, and the city also saw the elites from Jerusalem at her doorstep. The aristocrats. People who held high positions. Like Pharisees and teachers of the Law, politicians and philosophers, and your Kings and Queens of Africa. What a scene. And Jerusalem was the hub of all this, not far from Jerusalem according to some sources, very close. Remember SoNiNi was known on African lips, as was His teachings, people would flock to the Temple, all with different intentions in their hearts. And just like today, some are good, some are bad.
Now, we do have historical descriptions of Jericho, one sound one is from Strabo and his work Geographies:
"Jericho is a plain surrounded by a kind of mountainous country, which in a way, slopes toward it like a theatre. Here is the Phoenicon, which is mixed also with all kinds of cultivated and fruitful trees, though it consists mostly of palm trees. It is 100 stadia in length and is everywhere watered with streams. Here also are the Palace and the Balsam Park."
And if you have been up there in the so-called Highveld areas, they are just as described in our Bibles. But is this the same Jericho as from ancient times? The lands do fit, except the bodies of water, which SoNiNi seems to fulfilled in the promise that Jerusalem and these areas would become like an utter wasteland. This means, in our opinion, lack of water.
Now if we read our Gospel stories, Immanuel of Nazareth, went through Jericho and healed a blind man (Matthew 20,29), and inspired a Tax collector named Zacchaeus (this could have been Matthew himself but people argue about this). The story is best told in Luke 19,1-10. So a frequented location for sure.
Now on this road, between Jericho and Jerusalem, we find the set and setting of The Good Samaritan. Jericho would have been full of Pharisees and Levite priests, like a city before the big city. So whatever miracles where done there, news would have spread quickly to Jerusalem. And looking closer into the geography and topography of the Jordan River, we see that historically this river should have the Sea of Galilee not far from it. Now the Bible does not give this information, as there are few verses that do, so we can only try to map what we know. What we know is there are two lakes or seas we need to account for. Along with two very important valleys, Jordan Valley and Bethsaida Valley.
So then Jordan Valley, which deserves an article of its own, was said to me a source of fertility and a large plain, that was well watered (Genesis 13,10). And not far from this Jordan Valley would be Jordan cutting through it, and being a demarcation line between two tribes and the halt tribe that settled to the east (Numbers 34,15) and the nine tribes and the half tribe of Manasseh, led by Joshua, settled to the West (Joshua 13,7). And with that information aBantu, let the mappings begin.
Now, the ancient Hebrew etymology of the word Jordan, can literally kinda mean to go down to, the descender or the Judger of waters. And from its peaks in Lesotho, and from the highveldt in Gauteng, it does descend, until it pours out into the Great Sea to the west in Namibia and South Africa. Interestingly the River Jordan or judger of waters, might be close to the real name meaning of the river as another translation the river is the judge, brings it closer to its purpose and that was a divider of the Promised land and the Tribes.
Now the Jordan was said to have several sources, which the Orange River indeed does have also. Now if we read Josephus (Wars Against the Hebrews III. x.7 IV. i. 1) we see that he calls a lake in the area for Lake Semechonitis, which could be waters of Merom (Joshua 11,5) but needs more research. Now the Jordan was said to encounter Lake Galilee at some point, called Chinneroth in our Old Testament books. Was this an inland lake somewhere there in the Highveldt areas of Gauteng, northwest and Free State? Or was it further up, the Biblical Sea of Galilee. Now thinking along these lines. If you look closely at the map above, you will see a massive lake inland in the Southern African called Septentrio, on this map. Below this lake, you will see another smaller lake.
Now if you investigate this old map we recommended a few years back in a post we made called Talking Maps 1.0. We can find this made by Duth cartographer Willem J. Blaeu (1571-1638), published in 1635, however this was more then likely collated and source collected much much earlier than that. We do find very interesting names on this map, like the area of Agag, several lakes inland in Africa, and among them a specific lake that seems to be in the area of Botswana, now a gone from all maps we have looked. On this lake, we find a small town by the lake called Galila. Admittedly this lake is a little bit high up from the Jordan, unless the River Jordan is the Zambezi, then we will have a different mapping altogether. But the lake might just be mapped a little to high, easy mistake for Mr. Blaeu to make. In fact he was most likely never in Africa himself, but was writing off earlier maps and sources. But take heed and do study the mountain range that goes all the way along the Southern Africa coast, from the East, down South and towards the West. These set much of the boundaries for the Promised Lands. Very difficult to get to. We will do a study of the region called Galilee later, as it needs more research, but just remember it was a large area or even full region with north and south. And we would not be surprised if it spanned a several provinces or even a large piece of a country today. All of these locations will be mapped out rest assured. So we keep digging. Truth will come to light.
Now back to the Jordan, and when investigating ancient Jericho in South Africa, a lot of interesting points come up. Its name would seemingly be from a Kanaanite moon god Jari or Jerre, (in Afrikaans this deity is called upon daily) making out the citys name Jericho, Yerecho or Yericho. The Greek is fairly straight forward, and does not give many traces in terms of etymology (Ιερειχώ). Jerocho is talked about a lot in Joshua 3-8, and we can very clearly how it fell. The People would have crossed the Jordan not far from there, as the waters did not flow so heavily there. Not far from Jericho we should find the city of Hazor, although we have not yet found this city on the ancient maps. Now Jericho would have been close enough to the Moabites and their lands, as they did inhabit the city for a while (Josh 6,26), and this coincides with Moab / Mozambique area being not to far, to the east. We also mentioned earlier during the reign of King Ahab, we had Hiel of Bethel attempted to rebuild the city, and that did not go to well for his descendants (I Kings 16,34). And also in these areas there will be a spring purified by Elisha, to this day, that will have healing abilities. Consult your local Sangoma / Ngakaphokobye, they will tell you about these healing springs. Kodwa, you have to pay them first right? Haibo. Bavalwe amehlo Baba.
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