Bethany/Bethabara may
also have referred to a region, rather than only a
specific settlement. Western travellers to the
region at the turn of the century reported that
the Greek Orthodox clerics and monks who lived in
the south Jordan Valley, and the native valley
residents themselves, referred to the whole area
around the river and east along the Wadi
el-Kharrar as Bethabara. Thus the original
settlement was known as Bethany beyond the Jordan
during and immediately following the days of Jesus
and John the Baptist in the 1
st Century AD; after
the 3
rd Century AD it was more commonly known as
Bethabara, and by the 6
th Century AD it had become
known as Aenon and Safsafa. The general area from
the river eastwards associated with the ministry
of John the Baptist and the baptism of Jesus is
known as el-Maghtas today in Arabic. The natural
hill that forms the core of the site of Bethany
beyond the Jordan also has been known by several
names. It is called Elijah's Hill in English, and
Tell Mar Elias or Tell el-Kharrar in Arabic. In
the Byzantine period it was also known as Hermon.
The settlement of
Bethany beyond the Jordan mentioned in John 1:28
and 10:40 has also been known by other names since
antiquity. It was sometimes called Beth-Abara or
Bethabara (Beit el-'Obour in Arabic), meaning
'house of the crossing', referring to the Joshua,
Elijah, and Elisha crossings of the Jordan River.
Arabic Bible translations call it Beit"Anya. Some
Greek Bible texts call it Bethania. This may be
the same area called Beth-barah in the Old
Testament, where Gideon defeated the Midianites
and slayed two of their princes (Judges 7:24-25).
This ancient crossing point across the Jordan also
may be the place mentioned in Judges 12:4-6, where
Jephthah the Gileadite seized the river fords
during his battle against the Ephraimites (Gilead
is the area roughly between Amman and the Yarmouk
River, in north Jordan). 
The Bethany area was known as
Bethennabris in the Roman period. The 6th Century
AD Byzantine Madaba mosaic map of the Holy Land
labels it as 'Ainon where now is Safsafas'. The
name Safsafas ('the place of willows') (also,
Saphsas, Sapsafas, or Sapsas), comes from the
Arabic word for willow tree. The Madaba map
depicts two concentric circles at the site, which
have variously been interpreted as symbols for
Elijah's Hill and/or the caves and springs at the
site. The map also depicts a ferry crossing just
north of Bethany beyond the Jordan (one of two
such femes on the map), corresponding to the
location of the current King Hussein Bridge (also
known some as the Allen by Bridge).
