“Bethany beyond the Jordan” 325 (3.a) Etiological misanalysis in the southern Levant, predicated on the proximity of a few major fords to the settlement bˇt ‘arab˝, occasioned the development of a new toponym bˇt ‘abar˝ (hrb[ tyb), which much later became Greek Bhqabara/'. Moreover, the full toponym bˇt ‘abar˝ (hrb[ tyb) may have been clipped, such that the name was preserved as bˇt bar˝ (hrb tyb) in a few instances (Judg 7,24). (3.b) The translators of the Old Greek (and possibly also the tradents who worked in Greek, such as Origen and Eusebius) seem to have made the same misanalysis independently, representing *gμarabv (written as hbr[, and therefore graphically indistinct from ‘arab˝ in Hebrew manuscripts) without the g characteristic of LXX’s representation of original Heb. */gμ/ (i.e., Bhqaraba' instead of an expected Bhqgaraba' or the like). Text-critically speaking, metathesis of the consonants b and r (e.g., LXXB at Josh 18,22) can only have been compounded by the existence of so many similar names. (4) It is unclear whether the graphic corruption of a Hebrew text, an intentional play on words, or possibly somehow a corruption of an oral tradition (?) may have yielded the tradition of John’s being one who would “prepare” (kataskeuavzw) for Jesus at a “House of Preparation” (oi\ko" kataskeuh'" < *hd:bo[} tyb < *hrb[ tyb) preserved in Mk 1,2, and picked up by Origen in his Commentary on John. Although appearing complicated, this schema seems to me to be the most economical way to read the textual variants that must also serve as our textual witnesses. But a nagging question remains: if the toponymic antecedent for these various geographical names lay on the western bank of the Jordan River, how is it that John 1,28 preserved a tradition of John’s ministry on the eastern bank? The answer, once again, lies in a critical study of the toponymic environment of the Levant. Due to what Elitzur calls the “territorial nature of geographical names” (74) it is not uncommon for toponyms to be displaced ca. 7.0- 8.5 km away from the historical location of the site (75). In short, even (73) R.C. STEINER, “On the Dating of Hebrew Sound Changes (*H > H˘ and ≠ *G˜ > ‘) and Greek Translations (2 Esdras and Judith)”, JBL 124 (2005) 229-267. ( ) ELITZUR, Ancient Place Names, 128; see also ibid., 13, 119, etc.; and 74 idem, “The Concept of Territory in the Arab Village and in Biblical Geography”, Israel Land and Nature 7 (1982) 146-150. (75) AHARONI, Land of the Bible, 123; A.F. RAINEY, “The Toponymics of Eretz-Israel”, BASOR 231 (1978) 10; J.M. MILLER, “Rehoboam’s Cities of De- fense and the Levitical City List”, Archaeology and Biblical Interpretation. Es- says in Memory of D. Glenn Rose (eds. L.G. PERDUE – L.E. TOOMBS – G.L. JOHNSON) (Atlanta, GA 1987) 275; idem, “Site Identification: A Problem Area in Contemporary Biblical Scholarship”, ZDPV 99 (1983) 123-124.