AENON

(Aeʹnon) [springs, (natural) fountains].

A place having “great quantity of water” available, where John the Baptist did baptizing following the Passover of 30 C.E. (John 3:23) It was near the apparently better known place named Salim. The exact locations of these places are uncertain; however Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea in the third and fourth centuries C.E., indicates a location in the Jordan valley about eight miles (13 kilometers) S of Bethshan (Scythopolis). In this area is Tell Ridgha, also called Tell Sheikh Selim, and nearby are several springs that might fit the description of the place called Aenon.

Commenting on John’s selection of this place, Harper’s Bible Dictionary (1952), on page eight, says: “The abundance of water suggests that the candidates for baptism may have been here immersed, as they were at the Jordan.”