326 Jeremy M. Hutton assuming that no settlement named Beth Abarah ever actually existed, and that the name persisted only as a misanalyzed form of a nearby Beth ha-Arabah, the preservation of the name in this area, if proven, would serve as a check on allowing too free a reign to the placement of the Judahite-Benjaminite border. Furthermore, no matter the precise ≠¯ location of any of these locales, and regardless of whether H. ‘En el- G˜arabe authentically preserves the toponymic antecedent of Beth ha- Arabah and Bethabara, the very narrowly circumscribed geographical ˇ area between the land surrounding Dˇr H˘agla and the area just east of the exit of the W˝di el-Qilt from the Judean hill country corresponds precisely to the Madaba Map’s location of Bethabara, and to the testimony of the Bourdeaux Pilgrim. The identification of Byzantine Bhqabara'/ with Biblical hbr[h tyb and perhaps hrb tyb, along with that locale’s geographic placement in the Jordan Valley, leaves little doubt that the name indicates the area immediately to the west and west- ˇ north-west of the el-Magμtas/H˘agla fords. The “local tradition” of a “House of Crossing” (Bhqabara/'), regardless of whether it authentically preserves the name of an ancient settlement or is only the product of an etiological misanalysis occasioned by fords conveniently located to the east of a settlement named Beth ha-Arabah, can only refer to this southern set of fords over the Jordan River. The Gospel of John’s notice that the Baptist’s ministry occurred “beyond the Jordan” simply indicates the eastern regional counterpart to this territory west of the ford. It should come as no surprise that Wiefel found the names W˝di G˜arbe (or W. G˜ar¨be) and Hirbet G˜arbe on the eastern bank of ≠ the Jordan attached to a valley paralleling the W. Harr˝r only 3.5 km to ≠ the south of that feature (76). Whether or not this name authentically preserves the toponym under discussion, its appearance on both sides of the Jordan River in regions roughly contiguous to one another attests to the “territorial nature of geographical names” argued for by Elitzur, and therefore to the possibility that the gospel writer was relying on reasonably accurate information in placing John’s ministry “across the Jordan.” (76) WIEFEL, “Bethabara”, 81; see previously F.M. ABEL, “Exploration de Sud-est de la vallée du Jourdain”, RB 41 (1932) 78 fig. 1, and 88. One might point to the existence of a “w˝di of Poplars” (μybr[hAljn) in Isa 15,7 as further evidence that the ascent of Luhith (Isa 15,5; Jer 48,5) is to be located at this ma- jor ascent from the Jordan River to Livias; see HUTTON, “Mahanaim”, 177 n. 68.