“Bethany beyond the Jordan” 327 * ** The foregoing discussion of the topographic notices concerning Bethabara/Bethany in the Gospel of John in the light of the gospel writer ’s redactional choices, combined with the recognition that the toponym Bethabara referred to the set of fords itself, and not necessarily to a particular location of settlement, alleviates the problem adduced by Rudolf Bultmann (77) — which became the foundational problem underlying Riesner’s search for the locale (78) — namely, that the large number of the Baptist’s followers who joined Jesus at “the place where John had been baptizing formerly” (John 10,40-42) should have left some sort of trace in the archaeological record, an assumption complicated by the absence of contemporaneous remains at the el- Magμtas and H˘aˇla fords (79). Through redactional means the writer of g the fourth gospel accomplished a transferal of the location of John’s ministry to the region surrounding the southern Bethabara ford in order to bring his source — which originally located the Baptist’s ministry at Aenon — into conformity with the Synoptic Gospels. The lack of archaeological evidence for a pre-Byzantine settlement at the lowermost fords of the Jordan should be neither surprising nor especially problematic, at least on the basis of any standpoint reached from critical engagement with the composition history of the Gospel of John, and with historical geography. (77) R. BULTMANN, Das Evangelium des Johannes (KEK; Göttingen 1941) 64-65 n. 5. The work of K. KUNDSIN (Topologische Überlieferungsstoffe im Johannes-Evangelium [FRLANT 22; Göttingen 1925] 20-21) is also often cited in this context, but I see no real evidence in these pages that he had problemati- zed this issue to the extent that BULTMANN did. (78) RIESNER, Bethanien, 10-12. (79) For recent summaries of the excavation projects of the Jordanian side of the river, see R. MKHIJIAN, “John the Baptist Church Area: New Evidence Re- garding the Basilica and Four Piers”, ADAJ 48 (2004) 239-241; R. MKHIJIAN – C. KANELLOPOULOS, “John the Baptist Church Area: Architectural Evidence”, ADAJ 47 (2003) 9-18; M. WAHEEB, “Mosaic Floors in the Baptism Site (Bethany Beyond the Jordan)”, ADAJ 49 (2005) 345-349; idem, “Recent Discoveries in Bethany Beyond the Jordan”, ADAJ 48 (2004) 243-248; idem, “Recent Discov- eries in Bethany Beyond the Jordan in Jordan Valley”, ADAJ 47 (2003) 243-246, and the sources listed in those articles; see also the bibliography in RIESNER, Bethanien, 29 n. 66. It appears that the earliest structures found at the site are likely to be identified with the Byzantine pilgrimage site centered on the church built by Anastasius and described by Theodosius in the early 6th century (see n. 51 above).