arose between John's disciples and a Jew about purifying (John ii. 25). The phrase "much water" might fairly be translated many waters or many springs, and in an open valley here the springs are found. The waters gush out over a stony bed and flow down rapidly in a fine stream. The supply is perennial, and a continual succession of little springs occurs along the bed of the valley, so that the current becomes the principal western affluent of Jordan south of the Vale of Jezreel. About 4 miles north of the head springs is a village called 'Ainun, and about 3 miles south another village called Salem. So here we have "Ænon near Salem," and in between the two villages the two great requisites for the baptism of a multitude, namely, an open space in which the crowd could stand, and abundance of water. There are indeed other places called Salem scattered up and down the country, but none of them has an Ænon near to it; and there is one other place called Ænon, but it has no Salem near to it, besides which, it is away near Hebron, in a district quite out of the question.
It would appear, then, that John began baptizing, in the first instance, near Jericho, and made his appeal to Jerusalem and all Judea; that next, remembering the other great section of the Jews in Galilee, he removed to Bethabara in the north; and further, because the reformed religion was not to be for the Jews alone, he entered Samaria itself and baptized at Ænon.
At the head-springs of Ænon we are only about 5 miles from Jacob's Well. Conder and others consider the identity of Jacob's Well beyond question, because Jewish and Samaritan tradition, Christian and Mohammedan tradition all agree about it. The identity is further supported by the proximity of Joseph's Tomb, about 600 yards north of it, a tomb venerated by the members of every religious community in Palestine. A Christian church was built round Jacob's Well before the year 383 A.D., and destroyed
