John 3:23

John 3:23. And John also was baptizing in AEnon near to Salim, because there were many waters there: and they came and were baptised. Where Ænon and Salim were situated it is not easy to determine. The position assigned them by Eusebius and Jerome, near the northern boundary of Samaria, does not agree well with John 3:22. It is more probable that Salim is the Shilhim (translated Salem in the LXX.) of Joshua 15:32, a town not far from the southern limit of Judea. In this verse of Joshua (in the Hebrew) Shilhim is directly followed by Ain, from which AEnon differs only in being an intensive form Ain denoting a spring, and A Enon, springs. The objection to this identification is that, as John was clearly in the neighbourhood of Jesus, it takes the latter from the route leading to Samaria and Galilee. But the history of the events of the period is so brief and fragmentary that this objection has not much weight. John no doubt alludes to the meaning of AEnon when he adds that there were ‘many waters' there.