Jordan isn’t just a backdrop to the Bible’s story—it’s right in the center of it. Many people assume the land is on the margins, but time and again the pages of Scripture bring us back to its hills, valleys, and river crossings.

Some scholars even suggest that the oldest book of the Bible, Job, may have its roots here. We can’t be completely sure—place names from the Bronze Age are tricky—but even the possibility reminds us that the Bible’s story may not have begun in Mesopotamia as often assumed, but in Jordan. Whether that theory holds or not, one thing is clear: the biblical record repeatedly draws our eyes to the landscapes of Gilead, Ammon, Moab, and Edom.

Think of the names. Abraham and Lot parted ways on this soil. Jacob and Esau carried out their family drama here. Moses led the people through these lands, and Joshua’s leadership was forged on their borders. Naomi’s grief and Ruth’s redemption unfolded in Moab. Jephthah made his tragic vow in Gilead, and King David’s failures were tied to this region as well. Elijah’s fiery ministry and Elisha’s succession both have roots in Jordan’s hills.

The New Testament also turns our attention here. The spices carried by the Magi may well have come from Petra. John the Baptist thundered his message “beyond the Jordan,” and his martyrdom was bound up in the politics of Herod Antipas and King Aretas IV of Nabatea—two rulers whose conflict rippled out from Petra to Gamala. Herod the Great himself sought healing at the springs of Callirrhoe near the Dead Sea.

Jesus, too, walked these paths. He was baptized in the Jordan and carried out much of His Perean ministry—teaching, healing, and telling parables—on the eastern side of the river. And the Apostle Paul, after his dramatic conversion, withdrew to “the land of the Arabs” before returning to Damascus, which at that time was under the rule of King Aretas.

The result is hard to miss: Jordan is not simply near the biblical world—it is woven into it. The stories of patriarchs, prophets, kings, and apostles all leave their footprints here. To trace their journeys in Scripture is to realize that Jordan is not peripheral at all, but one of the Bible’s main stages.