=21. Before the Captivity= of the Jews to Babylon the name Idumæa designated the land east of the great valley Arabah which runs south of the Dead Sea to the Red Sea. Petra was its capital. But during the Captivity the Idumæans gradually extended their settlements to that part of Judæa south of Jerusalem, including Hebron. After the return from Babylon, the Idumæans became the enemies of the Jews until the time of the Maccabees, when they were conquered and required either to leave the country or change their religion for that of the Jews. They chose the latter alternative under John Hyrcanus, about B. C. 130, and were governed by Jewish prefects.
When, therefore, Antipater the father of Herod the Great, and Herod himself, are said to be “Idumæans,” the allusion is to this district south of Judæa, which was at that time called Idumæa. This is the Greek term for Edom. The name is used, Isa. 34:5, 6, in the former sense, namely, of the country east of the Arabah, before the Captivity; but in Ezek. 36:5 in the sense used after the Captivity, and in the latter sense also in Mark 3:8.
=1. As soon as Jesus arrived at the age= of about thirty he left Nazareth, and probably passing down the valley of the Jordan, went on his way to Bethabara, John 1:28.
=2. John, the forerunner of Jesus=, was baptizing at this place, the site of which is not known, but from the meaning of the name, “the house of the ferry, or ford,” it must have been on the banks of the Jordan. Moreover as John was preaching in Judæa, Matt. 3:1, and apparently baptizing in the parts of Jordan near at hand, Bethabara must have been not far off from the locality now identified with it, namely, somewhere east of the present plain of Jericho, but from John 3:26 it is plain that the place was “beyond,” that is east of Jordan. The name Beth-barah of Judg. 7:24 may refer to another place farther up the Jordan, as the word “ford” may have been then, as it is now, applied to several places.
=3. After the baptism of Jesus= by John the Baptist at Bethabara he was immediately subjected to several very severe spiritual trials called temptations of the devil, Matt. 4:1. These temptations were preceded by a period of fasting which continued forty days, after which the attacks of the evil spirit took place as recorded in Matt. 4, Mark 1, and Luke 4, but omitted by John.