The discovery of "the cave of John
Baptist" not far away from Jerusalem was a great journalistic drama. Archaeological news easily lights imagination. Remember movie series of Indiana Jones. Is it true that John Baptist began to baptize his followers in this cave? Let us go over facts, and find out.There are not many historical sources of information concerning whereabouts of John Baptist. Of these, Gospels, especially St. Luke, give us most accurate information. Another source may be "the Antiquities of Jews" by Josephus Flavius.
St. Luke tells us that Zachary, father of John, was a priest, who lived with John's mother Elisabeth in "a city of Judah" in "the hill country". No source tells us exactly where it was. But we should assume that people live near their work place. If so, that city was situated in vicinity of Jerusalem, because priests worked in Temple. Traditionally, it is believed that Zachary and Elisabeth lived in Ein Kerem, a small town near Jerusalem, but there are no archaeological findings which can prove it.
Some churches have been built in Ein Kerem since Byzantine era, though we do not know if earlier churches were dedicated to John Baptist or related to him. The first ones who did associate Ein Kerem to John were Crusaders, but it must be emphasized that those Christian conquerors of Holy land used to adapt Holy sites to area they ruled.
When Crusaders controlled way to Jerusalem, they said that village of Emmaus was situated in village of Abu Ghosh, and built there a beautiful church. A hundred years later, after they were driven away by Moslems from there, they did not hesitate to identify Kubeiba as one and only Emmaus. Also there they built a church, a monastery and fortress.
Actually there has been always a town called Emmaus. It is located in Ayalon valley. The early Christians believed that this is real Emmaus, mentioned in Gospels, and magnificent churches were built there during Byzantine era, 1500 years ago. The problem with this identification was that place is located more than 30 kilometers from Jerusalem, while according to St. Luke distance was only 11 kilometers.
Back to John Baptist. We have already considered location of his birth place. And now let us ask ourselves: where did he preach and baptize? The Gospels tell us mainly two geographical facts. That he did his preaching and religious rituals in Judea desert, and that he baptized people who came to him from Judea and Jerusalem, in Jordan River.
St John mentions specifically a place called Aenon, near Salim. He says John Baptist operated there "because there was much water there". St John mentions another place called "Bethabara beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing". The only possible conclusion for those who are acquainted with area should be that John baptized his fellow Jews in vicinity of Jericho. It was only place combining water of Jordan River, a convenient road from Jerusalem and Judea and a geographical closeness to a desert, Judea desert.
