308 Jeremy M. Hutton The verb kataskeuavzw is used in LXXB in contexts of “creating” (arb; Isa 40,28; 43,7), “fashioning” (vrj; Prov 6,14 [only in B2]), “forming” (rxy; Isa 45,7.9), “establishing” (ˆwk hitpolel; Num 21,27), “making” (hc[; 2 Chr 32,5; Prov 23,5), and “refining” (πrx; Isa 40,19). Likewise, only once does LXXB utilize the related form ajposkeuavzw to render the Heb. verb hnp in the piel (Lev 14,36), but the context there demands that the nature of the “preparation” is one in which the leprous house is emptied. Moreover, although there is a contextual basis for Origen’s connection between the site of the baptism and the “voice calling in the wilderness” as a voice calling for preparation, there seems to be little or no specific linguistic or textual connection to Isa 40,3, which Mark cites in the verse following the one just cited (Mk 1,3; also Matt 3,3; Lk 3,4). There, all three of the Synoptic Gospels render the verbs of MT Isa 40,3 with eJtoimavzw (“prepare”; hnp piel “prepare”; see the use of hnp in Mal 3,1) and poievw (“make”; rvy piel “make straight”). Thus, the etymology provided by Origen would, at first glance, appear to be unsupported by the textual and linguistic evidence. Several scholars have recognized the difficulty of Origen’s etymology for bhqabara', and — with recourse to the twofold appearance of hrb tyb in MT Judg 7,24 — suggested that reading arb tyb instead could provide a reasonable derivation for the name “House of Preparation” (11). In this line of thought, Origen reanalyzed (whether intentionally or unintentionally is unimportant) a known toponym hrb tyb as hrb[ tyb (12). Indeed, as noted above, kataskeuavzw appears as the LXXB rendering of Heb. arb in Isa 40,28 and 43,7, and came in Christian patristic literature to have a similar semantic range(13). But this solution seems tenuous to me, since it only obliquely handles the use of kataskeuavzw to render Heb. arb (which, it must be pointed out, does not appear in any of the three OT passages noted above: Isa 40,3; Mal 3,1.23-24). Moreover, Mark’s notion of “preparation”, to which Origen obviously refers, can under no circumstances be immediately derived from the toponym hrb tyb. (11) E.g., BLANC, Origène, 286 n. 3; see also CLAPP, “Study”, 79 and nn. 61-62. (12) E.g., M.J. LAGRANGE, “Origène, la critique textuelle et la tradition topographique”, RB 4 (1895) 502-512, esp. 504-505; CLAPP, “Study”, 79-80 and n. 62; WIEFEL, “Bethabara”, 73-74; RIESNER, Bethanien, 35 and n. 77. (13) G.W.H. LAMPE, A Patristic Greek Lexicon (Oxford 1961) 718 s.v. “kataskeuazw” and “kataskeuhv”. v