Bethabarah, i.e. place of the ford, where the Israelites passed over the Jordan, mentioned in John i. 23. The best manuscripts, however have Bethany: the other reading appears to have arisen from the conjecture of Origen, who found no such place on the Jordan as Bethany, but knew a town called Bethabara, where John was said to have baptized, and therefore took the unwarrantable liberty of changing the reading. (Orig. Opp. ii. p. 130, ed. Hucl.)