AEnon

AEnon (meaning springs or fountains) was a place near Salim where John the Baptist conducted his later baptismal ministry before his imprisonment (John 3:23). The text notes explicitly that John baptized there because there was much water — a detail indicating the site had sufficient water for the practice of immersive or extensive baptism. The location is distinct from the sites associated with John's earlier ministry near the Jordan River.

The identification of AEnon is debated. The most favored site among scholars is in the upper Jordan Valley near Scythopolis (Beth-shean), where a cluster of springs and a village named Salim are attested. The passage in John 3 is important for Johannine chronology, placing Jesus's Judean ministry alongside John's final ministry and providing the context for John's famous declaration that he must decrease while Jesus must increase.